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The Ultimate Guide To Finding An Apartment In Japan
When you are looking for an apartment in Japan, you typically go to a Fudosan (Real Estate Company) in the area that you would like to live in. Their office looks like the photo above and you will get assigned someone who will ask you for the conditions that you are looking for in an apartment. I will let you know what to look for in an apartment, the average price, how you should apply for an apartment, what you should do as a foreigner in Japan renting an apartment, and when you should search for an apartment to get the cheapest price.
Before going to the real estate company, you should look for apartments using Suumo which is a very famous online real estate company. (https://suumo.jp/) You can search for various conditions such as what stations you would like the apartment to be close to, how far away the station is, how old the apartment is, etc. After you have a good list of what you are looking for, you can show it to the real estate agent and they will let you know which apartments that they can show you. It will show on the website which companies own that apartment but other companies are still able to sell it so don’t worry. There are many different real estate companies, the two that I’ve used are House Partner and Mini Mini. You can go directly to Suumo or use a different company. I heard that since Suumo is a fairly big company, their fees are also expensive. The real estate company will give you a detailed sheet of the apartment that fits your needs like the below.
- What to look for in an apartment
You should already know how much you are willing to pay for an apartment. If you are looking for a place in a very popular city like shibuya or shinjuku then expect to pay at least 1000 dollars per month. They might have cheaper places that is 800 dollars or slightly less but there will be a catch. The place is probably 15–20 minutes walk from the station or it might be extremely small. I honestly do not recommend an apartment at one of these places unless you are making a ton…
