Finding Furnished Apartments in Tokyo
By Skye | November 18th 2020
This article on furnished apartments is part of the official BFFTokyo series on apartments in Tokyo.
Hire a real estate agency when you look for accommodations in Tokyo. The real estate agencies of Tokyo have access to a database on the Japanese housing market that will help them locate the correct apartment for you. The real estate agencies of Tokyo also have the ability to contact the landlord of accommodations in the Japanese housing market to learn if the landlord is or is not willing to accept a foreign as a resident; the real estate agencies of Tokyo can benefit you a lot. The BFFTokyo article series about apartments in Tokyo can benefit you a lot, too, starting with the BFFTokyo article about furnished apartments in Tokyo.
Here is a short introduction.
A foreigner may move to Japan for a number of reasons. The move to a foreign country may be prompted by business, family, or personal interest. No matter the reason that will lead to the foreigner looking for accommodations in Tokyo. You will have to pack all your belongings into boxes and move into an apartment in a foreign city, where you may be living for a year or more without any proficiency in the Japanese language when you began living as a Japanese resident. A lot of steps are waiting for you to climb for locating the accommodations in Tokyo just right for you. You do not need to be apprehensive because the BFFTokyo is here to help you.
Info you and other foreigners may find helpful to locate the correct apartment for you is information on the three types of accommodations in Tokyo. By reading the info, you may learn which accommodation is the most suitable for your lifestyle. The cheap apartments in Tokyo, the furnished apartments in Tokyo, and sharehouses are potentially options for you. Cheap apartments in Tokyo are places with a monthly payment for rent that is below average in the Japanese housing market. All cheap apartments in Tokyo are also small. If you are like me and would enjoy not having a place that needs a lot of cleaning, this a good option.
Don't worry! We also have a guide that will help you get off to a good start in moving to Japan!
Furnished Apartments in Tokyo - Rent
What do I need to know?
If you choose to rent one of the furnished apartments in Tokyo, you cannot enjoy lower than average payments on the monthly rent for the Japanese housing market. The rent for a cheap apartment is about an estimate of ¥50,000 to ¥70,000 a month. When that amount is converted into the currency of the United States, it amounts to a $500 and $700 price point. If you want some perspective on whether $500 and $700 are both an inexpensive rent payment, here are some figures to help. The average rent for places in New York city is about an estimate of $3,228 dollars; for the inner city of Tokyo rent is an estimate of about ¥123,578 every month.
A place in the outer city of Tokyo costs an average of about ¥72,805 a month for rent. It amounts to a figure of $700 a month while the average rent for an inner city apartment located in Tokyo amounts to about $1,171 a month. You can decide for yourself how cheap the cheap apartments in Tokyo are for residents of Tokyo. Furnished places available in the Japanese housing market do not provide the benefit of savings in monthly rent. The fact is furnished apartments do, in fact, provide a chance for a foreigner to save money because of furnishing costs. The rent itself is not one possible way of saving money at all.
So, the monthly rent for furnished apartments in Tokyo is on average about an estimate of ¥250,000 to ¥350,000 when you rent one with amenities. When those figures are converted into United States currency, they amount to a $2,500 or $3,500 price in dollars. You do not need to be scared off by the monthly rent for furnished apartments found in Tokyo because furnished apartments in Tokyo may cost as little as ¥70,000 for rent every month. The amount of ¥70,000 converted into United States currency may be a price point of $700. Just always remember that quality is inversely proportional to price and so quality goes down with the prices.
Amenities that may be found at furnished apartments in Tokyo with a monthly rent that is about $2,500 to $3,500 dollars are very nice. Just imagine that you have arrived at a Japanese airport and are taking a taxi to your new accommodations in Tokyo. Waiting near the apartment is your new landlord, handing off your keys. You excitedly use it immediately to open the front door to your new place. What is waiting for you? The apartment is clean, super clean, and completely furnished. There are shelves for visitors, along with yourself, to leave shoes before going further inside. There is, surprise, surpise, a couch for you to rest now.
If you did truly pay for the $2,500 to $3,500 furnished apartment, then there are also extra amenities waiting for you further inside the apartment. Cooking utensils are in a kitchen drawer and bakeware is waiting for you inside of a kitchen cabinet, so you're able to start cooking dinner from night one in your new home. You can go into the bathroom and find a towel you can use for your shower to get off all the ickiness germophobes like me feel after traveling by air. If you are also like me and have extremely long hair, then you will be happy to find that there is a hair dryer that previously was placed into the bathroom for your benefit.
If the scenario you just imagined is one that is appealing, the furnished apartments in Tokyo may just be the correct home type for you. Real estate agencies in Tokyo can provide you with a long list of furnished apartments in Tokyo for you to look through, allowing you to find the one that meets your needs as a resident of Tokyo. The place may fall under your budget somewhere between the $700 and ¥3,500 dollar price, the furnishings may include a couch in your favorite color, the real estate agency will make sure the landlord accepts foreigners as residents of the apartment, and more, all so you can live most comfortably during your time on Japanese soil.
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Furnished Apartment Move-in Fees
What do I need to know?
I previously wrote in this BFFTokyo guide that the furnishings costs are the number one way to save money by renting furnished apartments in Tokyo. The move-in costs are a way NOT to save money by renting furnished apartments in Tokyo. As all the move-in costs for apartments in the Japanese housing market are often based on the monthly rent for the accommodations, move-in costs for a furnished type can be pretty costly when adding up all the price-tags. The real estate agency fee is the first amount of money you will be expected to pay before moving into your new home in Japan, as payment for the services of the real estate agency hired.
You can reasonably expect to pay anything from $700 to $3,500 to the realty agency hired to help you locate the perfect apartment in Tokyo for you. In my opinion, a real estate agency may be worth the money if furnished apartments in Tokyo are truly a perfect home for you. The services of a real estate agency are quite expensive to ultimately pay as a move-in cost even at the lowest possible price of $700, but it ultimately is worth the payment. You will be given a prepared list of the possible apartments in the Japanese housing market from the private database for the companies in the real estate business, for one.
A second benefit is a benefit I also mentioned already, which is that your real estate agency will contact all of the landlords beforehand and make sure the landlord is a landlord willing to accept a foreigner as a resident. It is a benefit that will make the search for the right apartment for you become a LOT easier. The next payment customers of the Japanese housing market will make as a move-in cost is not necessarily the key money fee. You see, the key money fee is one that you are potentially able to negotiate off the final bill for move-in costs. In case you are not fortunate enough to escape, here's info.
Key money may not exist in your country. It definitely does not exist in mine. None of the numerous houses I have lived in during my lifetime required key money as a moving-in fee before renting the acccommodations. You do not need to worry; I did research on key money just for you: it all started in post-World War II Japan. The housing market found in Japan was experiencing a shortage and there was not enough housing for everyone to have a roof over their heads. Landlords were the sole decider of who actually would be allowed to rent an accommodation. Residents chosen were all extremely grateful.
So, the residents paid the landlord money as a gift to express their gratitude for being chosen as the residents of the apartment over their competitors. Key money is what those payments were called and are still around today. The move-in fee is a relic remaining from post-World War II Japan. Like the real estate agency fee, the price actually is based on the monthly rent for the accommodations. If you rent one of the furnished apartments in Tokyo, therefore, you can reasonably expect to pay what is an estimate of $700 to $3,500 to the landlord. You can sigh in relief knowing that furnished apartments in Tokyo are often all exempt.
Guarantee fee is also a payment you may find yourself exempt from renting a furnished apartment in Tokyo because landlords of furnished apartments in Tokyo do not always require you to have a guarantor when signing the housing contract. Just in case the landlord asks for a guarantor, here is information to prepare you anyway. If you are similar to me, then you live in a country where guarantors are not something that anyone requires when renting out an apartment. Do not worry; I also researched guarantors just for your benefit in this BFFTokyo guide. I will start by first giving explanations as to what exactly guarantor means.
A landlord may ask you to have a relative or friend of yours living in the same country to sign the housing contract as a guarantor. If you default on payments for your rent every month or leave the accommodations before the time stipulated on the contract and are unable to be contacted by the landlord, then the landlord will call that relative or friend who signed as a guarantor. The money you did not pay the landlord for your rent or payment you did not make for breaking the contract will come out of the wallet of whomever signed as a guarantor. If you do not have a relative or friend living on Japanese soil, you may need a guarantor company's help.
Guarantor companies sign your housing contract as a guarantor for you in the place of whomever would have otherwise signed it, had they lived in Japan as a resident. The service is not for free. The service does not require a one-time payment, either, but actually has an annual fee you must continue to pay until you finally leave your accommodations in Tokyo. The initial cost for the service is ¥25,000. When it is converted into the currency of the United States, the amount of ¥25,000 is not an expensive cost compared to the other move-in fees mentioned thus far because it actually is not based on the monthly rent for your Tokyo home.
$250 dollars is the amount you will pay. The annual fee for the guarantor fee will change depending on which guarantor company you hire for their services. The lock exchange fee is another move-in payment that is not based on the monthly rent for the place in Japan you chose as your new home. The lock exchange fee is a payment to your landlord to cover the cost of replacing the locks in the apartment before you are to officially get the keys to your new home. I assure you that the money is worth what protection you are afforded by getting new locks to your front door. Just like the real estate agency fee, you will be protecting your own comfort.
Do not worry about the cost as it is lower than the other move-in fees for the furnished apartments in Tokyo that I have mentioned thus far. The lock exchange fee is about ¥9,800 to ¥12,000 yen. When the figures of ¥9,800 to ¥12,000 are converted to the currency used by the United States, the figures amount to what is about $98 to $120 dollars. So, what is next? A move-in fee that no one is able to negotiate off a contract, the fire insurance, is the next one I will write about in this BFFTokyo guide. You cannot negotiate the payment off the final bill because fire insurance is required for every single apartment in Tokyo. No one in Tokyo is exempt.
Fire insurance is not always just for fire. Like the real estate agency fee and the lock exchange fee, it is not a payment that is based on the monthly rent for your place; it actually is based on the company whose services you hire. The cost is about the following amount of ¥20,000 to ¥40,000. When you convert ¥20,000 to ¥40,000 expressely to know how much the fire insurance would cost in the United States currency, you will find the price point to be $200 to $400 dollars. Fire insurance is definitely worth the cost to your wallet. I apologize to your wallet, but what I wrote is definitely true. Fire is one of many worries.
Earthquakes are a concern for those living on Japanese soil because Japan is located on an intersection of four tectonic plates. A lot of earthquakes have occured in Tokyo because of the tectonic plates shifting beneath Japan. Japanese corporations and Japan's government have invested a lot of money into protecting Japan and the residents from the natural disaster.You can make a move to protect yourself from earthquake damage monetarily by purchasing fire insurance that covers damage an apartment may experience from a natural disaster. With insurance, you do not need to worry about earthquakes.
You will not have to worry about household accidents, either, if you purchase a fire insurance that covers household accidents. Just imagine that your child forgot to completely turn off the sink when they washed their hands, causing the sink to absolutely begin overflowing onto the floor. You are in the middle of showering in another bathroom in the house, so you cannot hear the water splashing onto your linoleum floor. You will see yen or dollar signs in your head as you calculate how to replace the carpeting, if you are anything like me, and calculate the cost per square inches to replace your apartment's carpet.
Fire insurance that covers earthquake damages and household accidents will help you live comfortably inside of your home in Tokyo, without worrying about those concerns during your time as a Japanese resident. The price for fire insurance is not based on monthly rent and it dependent on the company from whom you purchase your fire insurance, along with the insurance package you chose to buy. Security deposits absolutely are based on the monthly rent for the accommodations. Furnished apartments in Tokyo cost about an estimate of between $700 and $3,500 USD depending on what furnished place you rent.
If you did truly pay for the $2,500 to $3,500 furnished apartment, then along with the extra amenities waiting for you inside of the apartment, a $2,500 to $3,500 security deposit is waiting for you to pay as a move-in fee. The customer of the Japanese housing market who rents one of the furnished apartments in Tokyo with a lower monthly rent than average will need to pay $700 to the landlord. All of the money actually will be returned to you if the accommodations are in good condition when ultimately you move out of the place. If you buy insurance, then all damages will be covered by your insurance company and not by you, yourself.
Cleaning fee is a moving-out payment customers of the Japanese housing apartment ultimately will be expected to pay when moving out of their accommodations, even if their apartment is not one of the furnished apartments in Tokyo, to the landlord. The landlord uses the money to clean the apartment. It is not extra money that you will provide the landlord, but rather is taken from your security deposit. The amount of money you pay depends on how dirty or damaged your apartment is when you are ultimately moving out of it. The cost may be anywhere between $0 to, at the most, an estimate of $3,500. If you are anything like me you'll forget.
After all, you do not have to even think about the cleaning fee until you move out. The move-in fees that you do need to think about now are the other aforementioned fee payments. So, in the end, how much are you paying? $700 to $3,500 will go to an apartment security deposit, $700 to $3,500 will go to the real estate agency, an estimated amount of $250 will go to the guarantor fee, $200 to $400 will go to accommodation fire insurance, and the lock exchange fee is between $98 to an estimated amount of $120 dollars. Adding all of those amounts together leads to a monetary sum of $1,948 to $7,770 dollars for you.
If you have to pay key money to the landlord of the apartment as a formality because of the post-World War II tradition in the Japanese housing market, then you will pay what amounts to an additional $700 to $3,500 for a total between the two price points of $2,648 and $11,270. A customer in the Japanese housing market will pay about the following amount in move-in costs before officially moving into their new Tokyo home, $2,398 to $2,770 dollars. You are spending an estimate of about $250 to $8,500 more simply by renting one of the furnished apartments in Tokyo as opposed to a cheap type of accommodation in the capital of Japan.
Furnished Apartment - Furnishings
What do I need to know?
I previously wrote in this BFFTokyo guide that the furnishings costs are the number one way to save money by renting furnished apartments in Tokyo. While a customer of the Japanese housing market may find themselves paying an estimated amount of about $11,270 in addition to the first month of rent to move into their furnished apartment in Tokyo, the customer can still save money because of the furniture. A foreign may go overseas to Japan for a number of reasons. The move to a foreign country may be prompted by business, family, or personal interest.
The reason is not necessarily an important detail for the move itself.
You will have to pack all your belongings into boxes and move into an apartment in a foreign city regardless of the reason why you are moving to Japan. If you do not go forward with renting one of the furnished apartments in Tokyo, then just imagine a scenario where you arrive at a Japanese airport and take a taxi to your own new accommodations in Tokyo. Waiting near the apartment is your landlord, with the apartment keys to hand off. You use the keys immediately to open the front door opening into your new place. What is awaiting you? Emptiness, as the apartment actually is not furnished yet for your new life.
No shelves are there for you to leave your shoes before going further inside the place, just as no couch is waiting for you to put up your feet after traveling so long. There is absolutely no cooking utensils in the kitchen drawer or bakeware inside of a kitchen cabinet, as you did not unpack or purchase any yet. You could go into the bath and proceed to take a shower to get off all the ickiness germophobes like me feel when traveling by air if you brought a towel and toiletries; there will also be no hair dryer awaiting you when exit the shower. If you happen to have short hair, unlike me, deprivation of a hair dryer is not a big deal.
One of two options are common for a foreigner to follow at this point. If you picked the first option, then a moving company is coming to your apartment later in the day for moving your belongings into the place. Movers will pile boxes into your apartment, decorating the place with cardboard, and you may find yourself sitting on a box to proceed with ordering take-out food. I can say from personal experience that the likelihood of you finding the box with the cooking utensils and bakeware is not a significant likelihood. I spent months in my current house without finding which cardboard box it was when I first moved into it.
I moved into my current home over a year ago and I am not done unpacking all of my belongings into the place. Depending on the amount of belongings you personally, it might take you a long time to become fully comfortable in your new apartment with boxes everywhere in the accommodations, BUT you would be comfortable after a certain point because it was your furniture. Using scissors to fight the couch packed using bubble wrap and ducktape may just be worth it to you. You should be warned it may cost a figure between ¥8,157 and ¥21,960 to hire moving companies in Tokyo and there are also extra fees that customers are charged.
¥8,157 to ¥21,960 are a price point that customers of the Japanese housing may go reasonably expecting to pay a moving company. When the two figures of ¥8,157 to ¥21,960 are converted into the currency of the United States, the amount is about actually $77 to $208 dollars. If the customer of the Japanese housing market is a member of a family moving to Japan, then the cost for the services of the moving company will be doubled when compared to singles and couples. The $77 price ultimately is for singles and couples. Moving companies are not inexpensive for foreigners like you who may decide to transport furniture abroad.
So, what are the extra fees? A customer who is hiring a moving company to transport their furniture into their new Japanese accommodations will not necessarily only be paying an estimate of about $77 to $208 dollars. Moving companies in Tokyo have extraneous fees that a customer of the Japanese housing market may add to the payment total. You will not, to clarify, have to pay for the extra fees if you do not purchase those services from the moving company. Back to the scenario of the apartment full of boxes, the day may be a holiday like Valentine's day. It could be December 20th and you are in for a week of holiday spirit.
For every day that it is a holiday and you require the services of a Japanese moving company, you will be charged an extra ¥2,091. The figure of ¥2,091 amounts to be roughly $20 when converted into the currency of the United States. Just imagine the airplane did not land you on Japanese soil until late afternoon and daylight is fading as the moving company arrives at your apartment. Workers are moving boxes inside of the accommodation while street lights are turning on. An amount of about ¥1,569 will be put on your final bill as a late-night fee for hiring the moving company for hiring all of their services late at night, if the move is too long.
A figure of ¥1,569 is about an estimate of $15 after being converted into United States currency. While $15 is not necessarily a large amount of money, it is enough to buy about fifteen items from the 100 Yen Store. Plan your moving date outside of the following months of March and April because those are the two months that are recognized as the busy season for moving companies in Tokyo, too, because the moving companies charge a busy season fee. Students are moving because of the school season and employees in Tokyo are starting a contract with a new company in March and April. Thus, there a LOT of people who will want to hire a moving company when moving to or in the Japanese city.
You can reasonably expect the moving companies in Tokyo to charge an amount of about ¥5,229 yen per box. You read those words correctly: per box. The amount of ¥5,229 is about an estimate of $50 dollars when converted into the United States currency. The busy season is the number one way that customers of the Japanese housing will find themselves reaching the limit of their budget even if they do not go forward with renting one of the furnished apartments in Tokyo. Just imagine that your belongings fit into about 50 boxes and you are moving by yourself. You will have to go pay the company at least $2,577.
$2,577 is an estimate of about the minimum you can reasonably expect to pay for your move during the march and April busy season for Tokyo moving companies. If you do not choose to rent one of the furnished apartments in Tokyo, then do not hire Tokyo moving companies during the months of March and April if you can manage it. The season is not an inexpensive time period to move. June is the least expensive month customers of the Japanese housing market can hire a Tokyo moving company as their busy season is now over. For more tips on moving companies in Tokyo, here is a link to the BFFTokyo article.
Here is also a few quick steps to prepare for the move abroad.
1. Determine the amount of boxes you'll need to provide the moving company or purchase from the moving company for your move. How many boxes do you need for packing all your belongings?
2. The second step is to sort your belongings into what you're handling yourself & what requires special care from employees. What are you more comfortable moving yourself? What needs special care?
3. The third step is to sort your belongings into how the items are going to be transported to Japan: cargo ship or airplane. What belongings do you want transported to Japan by airplane? Cargo ship?*
4. The fourth step is to identify items in your belongings you'd like to be insured. What items would you be more comfortable moving if the potential loss of the items was covered by insurance?
5. The fifth step is make a plan for which boxes are going where in your new Tokyo apartment; what boxes & items do you want moved to your new kitchen or to your new bedroom, for example?
6. The sixth step is to look over the policies for the moving company you hired to package & transport your belongings to your new apartment. Are there policies you need to know beforehand?
*There isn't much difference between transporting your belongings to Japan by airplane and transporting your belongings by cargo ship; by choosing airplane your items will arrive at your apartment sooner. Cargo ships, though, can transport automobiles & motorcycles.
I wrote before that there are one of two options are common for a foreigner to follow after unlocking the door to their new apartment for the first time. If you picked first, a moving company is coming to your apartment later in the day for moving all of your belongings into the place. Movers will pile boxes into your apartment, decorating it entirely with cardboard, and you may find yourself sitting on a box to proceed with ordering take-out food. I can say from personal experience that the likelihood of you finding the box with the cooking utensils and bakeware is not a significant likelihood for your first night inside the new place.
So, what if you picked the second option common for foreigners? You will have to find places in Tokyo to purchase furniture and amenities for your apartment. Just imagine your first night in the apartment ordering takeout and eating on the kitchen floor, with your phone playing videos on the internet. You may also decide to go out and eat a dinner outside of your apartment at a nearby restuarant. When you have free time in your schedule, you will need to go to a furniture store of market in Tokyo that sells the furnishings for an apartment. We can rewind this scenario a bit for the amentities in the apartment: you get off the plane and in a taxi.
Your new landlord is waiting by your new home in Tokyo to hand off the keys to your new accommodations. You immediately unlock the front door to your Tokyo home, before unloading your luggage from the airport into one of the empty rooms. You actually do not have time go inside of the apartment and look around inside the accommodations and leave in the taxi again, heading for a 100 Yen Store or an alternative store to purchase amenities. Cooking utensils, bakeware, a towel, the toiletries for your bathroom, and a hair dryer are items on your purchase list to buy before you can get comfortable in your new place.
So, when you arrive at your new accommodations you can make and enjoy your first homecooked meal inside of your new Tokyo apartment. You can go into the bath and proceed to take a shower to get off all the ickiness germophobes like me feel when traveling by air if you brought a towel and toiletries; there will also be a hair dryer awaiting you when exit the shower. If you happen to have short hair, unlike me, existence of a hair dryer is not important and may not have made it onto your purchasing list at the store. The apartment is still empty. To furnish your new accommodations, ¥65,000 to ¥200,000 is the price estimate.
You will pay an estimate amount between ¥65,000 and ¥200,000. When you convert those figures into the United States currency, the amount is about $650 to $2,000 in dollars depending on the quality and amount. The number one benefit of choosing option two is you can decorate your apartment and buy the cute amenities found throughout the stores in Tokyo. A towel with a Sanrio character is just a relatively insignificant distance away from you. The accommodation you are now living in ultimately may not suit your old furniture, too. You can take your time and buy furnishings that suit the style of the new apartment.
A customer in the Japanese housing market who is looking for one of the furnished apartments in Tokyo will not have to take out $650 or $2,000 out of their wallet for furnishing their accommodation. The customer will also not have to pay about an estimate of $70 to $2,577 to hire a Japanese moving company to transport their belongings to their new apartment in Tokyo. So, hence why I have previously wrote inside this BFFTokyo guide that the furnishings costs are the number one way to save money by renting furnished apartments in Tokyo. Furniture is not a cheap item on your purchase list whether it is a couch or table.
Furnished Apartments in Tokyo - Tips
What do I need to know?
I have a tip for customers in the Japanese housing market: the furnished apartments in Tokyo do not have to be your permanent residence inside the capital of Japan. You do not necessarily have the ability to arrive at a Japanese airport and take a taxi to your new apartment. A customer in the Japanese housing market can find a real estate agency online to coordinate with and find the apartment that is most idea for their lifestyle. I can say from personal experience that the likelihood of you finding a good apartment or accommodations in a short period of time is not that significant; it took my parents more a year.
If you can locate the accommodations in Tokyo just right for you and sign the housing contract as soon as or before you actually arrive on Japanese soil, then you do not necessarily need this tip and can skip this section of the BFFTokyo guide. Hotels ultimately are a good place to stay while looking for the right apartment for you; exemptions apply if you would like to take your time. You could browse all the accommodation types and find the one that will make you comfortable. A cheap apartment may right for you if a monthly payment for rent that is below average in Japanese housing market sounds appealing.
Cheap apartments in Tokyo are also small. If you are like me and would enjoy not having a place that needs a lot of cleaning, this a good option. It may be that the sharehouses in Tokyo are right for you. You can reasonably expect to share the bathroom and other common rooms of the building with other residents; one may absolutely become your future best friend. Not having access to your private bath ultimately may be a deal-breaker unless you find a sharehouse with the option for a private bathroom. I know that I could not live in a sharehouse if I had to share a bath, but the choice is ultimately your own on the matter.
Last, but not least, the topic of this BFFTokyo article, furnished apartments in Tokyo, may be right for you. You may also find from the info here furnished apartments are actually not right your lifestyle. A customer in the Japanese housing market doesn't necessarily have enough time to find out what accommodation in Tokyo would be perfect for themselves. Using one of the furnished apartments in Tokyo give you opportunity to look through the Japanese housing market for more than a month, spending significantly less than if you rented a hotel. You would have to rent an accommodation at a hotel if you did not follow this moving tip.
Just imagine leaving the hotel after spending a month to find the most comfortable apartment to use as your permanent residence in the capital of Japan. A receipt showing how much your time at the hotel cost is handed to you when you are processing the payment. It is a figure of about ¥2,216,529 yen. The cost you will ultimately pay for staying at the average hotel in Japan is a ¥2,216,529 figure that
amounts an estimate of about $21,000 dollars. Your wallet will be asking for mercy alongside your budget. It is not at all small amount and so spending a month inside Tokyo to find a place may not be quite economical.
$3,348 is an estimate of how much you will need to pay in order to stay at a furnished apartment in Tokyo for a month. You will be saving at least an estimate of $17,652 simply by signing a housing contract for a furnished apartment as a temporary accommodation. Just imagine that you have arrived at a Japanese airport and a distance away is your new temporary apartment. The landlord is waiting by to give yourself the keys. You immediately use it to open the front door to your new place; it actually is completely furnished and clean, super clean. Shelves are set by the door to leave your shoes before going further inside.
A couch is waiting for you to rest your feet. An empty dresser in the closet is waiting for you to unpack your luggage from the airport, after you go to the backroom and shower off all the ickiness germophobes like me feel after traveling by air. I towel will be there should you decide to rent a $2,500 to $3,500 type of furnished apartment, with a hair dryer even on the counter. The kitchen will also have cooking utensils in the kitchen drawer and bakeware inside of the kitchen if you rent a $2,500 to $3,500 type of furnished apartment. You may lucky and even find a furnished apartment in Tokyo providing those amentities for cheap.
You can have an entire home in Tokyo for a month with a $3,348 price tag instead of a hotel room with a $21,000 price tag for the month. Now, you can also choose to have your furnished apartment in Tokyo as a temporary residence to save money for the moving-in costs of a more ideal apartment. A customer looking for a place in the Japanese housing market may not be able to afford move-in costs for the place ultimately suitable for their lifestyle. If you have to be in Japan before you can go preparing enough money for the move-in costs of your accommodations, then this BFFTokyo tip is for you.
$2,770 is one of the higher than average move-in costs for an apartment in Tokyo. An apartment in the Japanese capital may cost more than average for a few reasons, a reason may include amenities inside of the place. $2,500 to $3,500 type furnished apartment will provide a host of aforementioned amenities to the customer of the Japanese housing market. A regular apartment with quality sound proofing may ultimately be what a businesswomen is looking for to work remotely for her new company in Japan. Without taking a loan out from the bank, you may not be able necessarily to afford the move-in fees.
A reason may also include location. A customer in the Japanese housing market may, conversely, require the apartment to be close to their workplace. A place in the Tokyo outer city costs an average of about ¥72,805 a month for rent. It amounts to a figure roughly of $700 a month while the average rent for an inner city apartment in Tokyo amounts to about $1,171 a month. Depending on the location of the apartment, it actually may have high move-in fees. What floor level the apartment is inside the building, the direction the accommodation is facing, how close it is to the famous blossoms in Tokyo, are also all deciding factors.
I would personally want an apartment in Tokyo close to the famous cherry blossoms; thus, I would also benefit from renting one of the furnished apartments in Tokyo to provide myself time to save money. $70 to $2,577 for hiring a moving company to transport my belongings to Japanese soil is also an amount that a customer of the Japanese housing market may want to save money to afford. In summation, the two housing tips in this BFFTokyo guide for furnished apartments in Tokyo are just a quick tips from us to you. I, personally, would follow the first tip to find the right apartment for myself in the Japanese housing market to live as a resident.
Furnished Apartment Companies
What do I need to know?
OYO Life is one of the companies in Japan that offer furnished apartments in Tokyo for customers of the Japanese housing market. There are three move-in payments you ultimately may avoid by renting a furnished apartment from the OYO Life company, such as the security deposit. I wrote earlier in this BFFTokyo guide that if you pay approximately $700 or $3,500 for the apartment, then it will be the same amount required for the security deposit because it is based on the monthly rent. So, by becoming exempt from a security deposit, you are saving about $700 or about approximately $3,500 as a customer of OYO Life.
You can save even more money because there is NO guarantor fee. You have no need to hire a guarantor company to sign your housing contract as a guarantor for you in the place of whomever would have otherwise signed it, as OYO Life does not require any guarantor. Guarantor companies do not offer their services for free. The service isn't only a one-time payment, either, but has an annual payment. The initial cost for the service is ¥25,000. When it is converted into the currency of the United States, the amount of $2,500 is the upfront payment. Guess what? If you rent a furnished accommodation from OYO life, you're exempt.
Customers of the Japanese housing market who rent one of the furnished apartments offered by the OYO Life company are exempt from guarantor signatures, thus are exempt from hiring a guarantor company and its services for $2,500 dollars. The company is still in the process of entering the Japanese housing market to be permanently an option for customers of the Japanese housing market. Here is a published article on OYO Life and its business plans for Japan. By the time you're reading this BFFTokyo guide OYO Life may have officially opened their business on Japanese soil, depending on the when.
Sakura House is a company where you can rent one of the furnished apartments in Tokyo without waiting for the company, as Sakura House was founded in Japan for Japanese housing market. Savings customers of Japanese housing market may experience are from the key money and real estate agency fee. You will be NOT be paying either move-in fee when signing a housing contract with Sakura House, as the company does not add either payment to your final bill. Here is a quick reminder about the history: it all started in post-World War II Japan. The housing market found in Japan was experiencing a shortage.
There was not enough housing for everyone to have a roof over their heads. Landlords were the sole decider of who actually would be allowed to rent an accommodation; the residents chosen were all extremely grateful. The amount as based on the rent every month for the place, so you would have to pay anywhere from $700 to $3,500 for a furnished apartment in Tokyo key money payment. Sakura House saves you the monetary sum by not asking for a key money fee. You are also exempt from the payment for the real estate agency fee. You are saving an additional amount of the following figures $700 to $3,500 with that.
Furnished Apartments in Tokyo - Contract
What do I need to know?
A housing contract will change based on the type of apartment you ultimately choose as your new home abroad in Tokyo. In the case of furnished apartments in Tokyo or even serviced apartments in Tokyo, the apartment landlord will allow you to leave the your accommodations after only one month. You will not have to pay a penalty fee for breaking the contract unless you leave the monthly apartment Tokyo within the time frame of a month. Customers in the Japanese housing market will find that the cheap apartments in Tokyo have a strict housing contract. You cannot leave a cheap place in Tokyo before two years on average passed.
A customer in the Japanese housing market who chose to rent a cheap accommodation in Tokyo instead of one of the serviced apartments in Tokyo will have to pay a penalty fee for breaking the housing contract, should they leave the place before about two years have passed. You will not have this problem by renting one of the furnished apartments in Tokyo. No penalty fee is charged after about only month has gone following the start of the housing contract. That is why the tips I wrote inside this BFFTokyo guide are able to work; customers in the Japanese housing market are capable of treating those Tokyo apartments as hotels.
A cost you will ultimately pay for staying at the average hotel in Japan is about an approximate amount of $21,000 dollars for a month stay. It is not at all small, so spending a month inside Tokyo to find a place may not be quite economical. An accommodation in Tokyo with furniture will cost you about $3,348 to rent the accommodation for a month as a temporary home. You will be saving at least an estimate of $17,652 simply by signing a housing contract for a serviced apartment, allowing you to use it as a temporary accommodation. This would not be possible in Japan without serviced apartments in Tokyo allowing one-month.
A same-day time frame may be the soonest you may expect to receive the keys to your new accommodations in Japan. Just imagine the same scenario I went over before in this BFFTokyo guide of arriving at a Japanese airport, taking the taxi to see your new apartment. A monthly apartment Tokyo may allow you to this opportunity because serviced apartments in Tokyo can allow you to move into your apartment the same period after signing the housing contract. You do not have to stay at a hotel until the start date for your housing contract begins. If a customer chooses the right place, like Sakura House, they can move-in effective immediately.
Furnished Apartments in Tokyo - Size
What do I need to know?
So, a customer of the Japanese housing market should be aware that the sizing of the apartment on the real estate listings may be measured in terms of tatami mats. If the customer is looking for a cheap apartment in Tokyo then the likelihood improves for apartments they are looking through to be measured by tatami. The unit for tatami measurement is Jo and it is used by Japan when measuring the size of a place; definitely do not worry, I did research on this topic too when writing this guide. A measurement for one Jo is a one tatami mat at abot 1.65 square meters. if it is an apartment of 13 Jo it is the size of about 13 tatami.
Your new apartment or one of the serviced apartments in Tokyo you were looking through to find the right accommodations would then be 21.49 square meters, approximately based on the Jo measurement. Is that all you should know on accommodations found in the Japanese housing market? No, it most certainly, absolutely is not. The size of the apartment isn't just measured using the Jo size measurement system of tatami mats. Acryonyms are used to describe how many bedrooms and rooms are inside of apartments in Japan. Here is a quick summary explaining them in this BFFTokyo guide.
Firstly, the number in front of the acronym represents the number of bedrooms that are located inside of the accommodations. The letter K represents the kitchen that is in an apartment because not every apartment in tokyo actually has a full outfitted kitchen; serviced apartments in Tokyo are the biggest exception. The addition of a D to the acronym represents a dining room inside of the accommodations. An L is for a living room and the acronym 1R just stands for one room. 1R just stands for one room about 13-20 sqm in size or 8-12 tatami. The average size of an apartment based on both their tatami size and the acronym is:
1K (13-25 sqm) (8-15 tatami)
1DK (25-30 sqm) (15-18 tatami)
1LDK (23-35 sqm) (14-21 tatami)
Sharehouses in Tokyo
What do I need to know?
You may wonder, what exactly is a sharehouse and how would renting a room in a sharehouse prove beneficial to me while I am a resident of Tokyo? Here is information that will help you become better equipped to decide if the best apartment for you is actually a room in a sharehouse while you are living in Japan. A sharehouse is a building where multiple tenants are renting a room. If you pay the extra money, the sharehouse room you rent may have amenities like a kitchen or a bathroom; roommates will also be avoided if you pay extra money for a private place.
So, a room in a sharehouse does not generally come with amenities like a kitchen or a bathroom and you may reasonably expect to have a roommate in the room. You see, sharehouse buildings have common areas where all of the tenants may access the amenities. There is a shared bathroom, a shared living room, a shared kitchen, an assorted number of other possible amenities, like a shared game room, and those amenities are not typically added to individual rooms. You would have to make a separate payment for extra amenities and facilities in it.
A second question you may ask is how do you rent a room in a sharehouse without a roommate? You will also find yourself making an extra payment monthly if you want to have a private room in the sharehouse building. The deposit for a room in a sharehouse amounts to an estimate between ¥15,000 yen and three months of rent. The security deposit will ultimately amount to an estimate based on the monthly rent for the sharehouse where you are renting a room inside of Japan's capital Tokyo.
You, if you were to convert the least amount of money you are reasonably able to expect to pay for the security deposit for your sharehouse into US dollars, will find that the ¥15,000 yen would amount to an estimated $150 dollars. What is the most amount of money you're able to save on the security deposit by choosing a sharehouse room over an apartment? Well, the least amount of money you are able to go reasonably expecting as a charge for the security deposit of one of the cheap apartments is ¥45,000 in Tokyo, if you want a reasonable comparison.
So, since the ¥45,000 yen converted into the currency of the United States is $450, then you are saving an estimated amount of about $300 on the security deposit when renting a sharehouse room. One other fee you will have to pay when renting a room inside a sharehouse building is a guarantor fee. You may want to know that you will ultimately not be saving anything on the guarantor fee because the prices for hiring services of a guarantor companies is standard. No matter the type of apartment, customers will pay the same price to hire the guarantor company services
Ah yes, what are those prices again? Well, you can expect to pay about ¥10,000 to ¥20,000 when hiring a guarantor company. The rent for one of the cheaper sharehouse options actually is an estimate of about ¥50,000 to ¥70,000 yen a month. The rent for a more expensive room in a sharehouse with extra utilities, like a bathroom or a kitchen, is actually somewhere between about ¥70,000 to ¥95,000 yen a month. If all those monetary figures were converted to USD, then you'd be paying about $500 to $950 when renting a room. $500 is with no amenities
You will find that ¥50,000 yen is $500 when converted to the currency of the United States and ¥95,000 actually amounts to an estimate of $950 in dollars. BFFTokyo specifically created a guide that provides information on sharehouses in Tokyo, if renting a room in a sharehouse in Tokyo sounds like the most suitable lifestyle for you while living in Japan's capital of Tokyo. You actually are able to access the article Sharehouses in Tokyo and learn more about the lifestyle accompanying sharehouses; from this info you may decide if dormitory life is for you.
Cheap Apartments in Tokyo
A Summary
So, a cheap apartment in Tokyo may be the most suitable apartment for you while spending your time in Japan. Cheap apartment types in the capital city of Japan are apartments with a below than average rent for the Tokyo housing market. The rent is able to fall as low as ¥50,000 a month. If that amount of money were to be converted into the currency used by the United States, then it would amount to $500 a month. It doesn't sound cheap? Well, the average rent in New York city is about $3,228 in US dollars a month for a comparison.
This guide will be a one-stop resource to put you in the right direction for learning all about renting a cheap apartment in the capital city of Tokyo.
A lower than average rent for the Tokyo housing market is about $2,728 less than the average rent paid for an apartment in New York a month. If you want to know more of benefits you can experience when renting one of the cheap apartments in Tokyo, then, as you may have guessed, the benefits are in the savings. Upfront costs for signing a housing contract are lower when you are signing a housing contract for a cheap type apartment. Enjoy the extra jingle of change in your pocket, because is a lot of money you can save with cheap places in Tokyo.
You are able to save money from the upfront costs of signing a housing contract because not all of the costs are a fixed amount. Many of the upfront cost amounts are decided based on your monthly rent for the Japanese apartment. The real estate agent fee is one of the costs you pay when signing a housing contract that is not a fixed sum, but is worth one month's rent on average. If you rent one of the cheap apartments in Tokyo instead of the average apartment, that means ¥50,000 or $500 is what you are spending on the fee for the agency.
So, it may be true that there is a lot of savings to be had from renting a cheap type of apartment, but there is one more benefit. The average apartment size for one of the cheap apartments in Tokyo is about thirteen to twenty-five square meters. Average apartments in Japan for people who live alone are about twenty-five to thirty-eight square meters in size. You have twelve to thirteen square meters less to clean by renting a cheap type of apartment! That is why I would, personally, choose an apartment that was a cheap type in Tokyo.
A cheap apartment in Tokyo may be the right choice for you because it meets your budget for paying rent and paying the upfront costs to signing a housing contract. It may also be the right choice for you because it gives you an opportunity to save money, allowing you to re-allocate the money into a different budget. Now, why would it not be the right apartment you? It, quite simply, may be too small. The thirteen to twenty-five square meter size is a possible curse just as much as it is a possible blessing for an apartment tenant in Japan's capital.
You can also check our full guide on finding sharehouses and your perfect accommodations in Tokyo that will meet all your needs.
