Moving to the city

After a bit more than 1.5 years since moving to my current place in 志木, it’s time to move again. I’ve set my mind on a tower mansion 2 minutes from Ikebukuro station in Tokyo and should get the keys by the end of June.

floorplan of the new apartment

The view from the living room should be like the picture below on clear days (albeit from a lower vantage point but I should still be able to glimpse the Fujisan). Can’t wait to be doing cool Tokyo timelapses from my own window.

west-view
fujisan view - the weird white triangular building is Nakano

This time, my company does not wish to rent it for me and take it out of my salary as I am a local contract employee. So this is my first foray into actually signing a rental contract and paying all the fees myself upfront. So lets break it down:

  • 1st month of rent (you pay your rent in advance in Japan) = ¥220.000
  • Moving in on 26th of June so 5 days worth of rent until 30th = ¥36.700
  • 敷金 – deposit, 2 months of rent = ¥440.000
  • 火災保険 – fire insurance = ¥25.000
  • 鍵交換代 – lock change fee = ¥35.000 (that’s a hell of a lot for a lock!)
  • 町内会費 – neighborhood association membership fee for 2 months = ¥500

For a grand total of ¥757.200 or three quarters of a million yen… upfront… it hurts…

And actually, I should count myself lucky, this is rather cheap and most of it is the deposit which I’ll mostly get back. Apartments here, especially new ones, often have a 礼金 which is also called key money and is a nice gift of 2 months of rent to the owner.

Thinking of all that money makes me a bit more partial to the idea of buying a place for myself…

5 thoughts on “Moving to the city”

  1. Congratulation.

    Upfront money is huge but you’ll get most of your deposit back and you save yourself from the Key Money.

    間取りis nice, welcome to the city!

  2. I’m losing one room and 10m² for a much higher rent compared to my current place
    but you gotta make sacrifices to live in the city

  3. You probably know, though, that the “refundable” in “refundable deposit” has a very variable meaning in Japan. Usually, it means you get whatever’s left after “cleaning”/remodelling the place on your deposit when you leave. All depends on how voracious your fudosan/landlord is (from the price of that “lock change”, I’d be slightly worried for you ;-)

    On the other hand, and despite popular belief, “key money” is very rarely a gift to the owner, but an extra on the fudosan’s commission. It was already on a decreasing slope over the past few years, I guess the economy and lack of business has sped up this trend. I am surprised you didn’t have to pay a (separate) fudosan’s commission, though…

    Anyway, enjoy your new home!

  4. in my current place, there was 2 months deposit, 2 months key money and 1 month commission to the fudousan… (most of it was paid by my company, I would never have agreed to it otherwise)

    as for the deposit not coming back, I am very much aware of it
    we’ll see what happens with my current place, but I’m counting on getting at least 1.5 months back

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