Share House

What is a Share House? A share house is a house or sometimes apartment with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities. You rent a private room with your own bed, but you must share kitchen facilities and bathroom facilities with the others living in the house. Share houses can range from as little as 20,000 yen for a room without furniture to 80,000 yen for a fully furnished room. Most share houses include the costs of bills like electricity in the price of the rent, and of course a share house in a well connected area near a train station is going to cost more than a share house that isn’t.

Apartment/Mansion

Here’s where things get a lot more complicated depending on location, age of the building, what’s included in the apartment, etc. For example if you want an apartment that is around 10-30m², less than 10 minutes walk from the station and has its own toilet/bathroom and is in a nice area of Tokyo, you’re going to be paying 70,000 yen cheapest. Areas like Shinjuku, Shibuya, Roppongi and their surrounding areas are known for being extremely expensive to live in and are in high demand and you’d be extremely lucky to find a tiny apartment in that area for less than 100,000 yen. Then of course on top of the rent you need to pay electricity, gas, wifi and water bills separately.

If you’re willing to go a lot further out then you’re more likely to get more for your money. In Saitama you could rent a 3-4 room 55m²  apartment for what would get you a tiny 1 room apartment in the heart of Tokyo.

Cost for 10-20m² apartment in cheaper area 50,000-80,000 yen

Cost for 10-20m² apartment in expensive area 80,000-120,000 yen

For those who come from cheaper countries it can be difficult to accept the cost of living in Tokyo, but unfortunately we have to compromise when it comes to finding somewhere to live with a specific budget. That 1LDK with separate bath and toilet 5 mins from the station for 40,000 yen you’re looking for just doesn’t exist in Tokyo.

Another thing to note is that it’s almost impossible to negotiate on the cost of rent with the owner, owners often own multiple apartments and multiple buildings and it’s not difficult to find a willing tenant. If you’re lucky they may be willing to waiver some of the move in costs like key money, but generally considering how many owners don’t even want to rent to foreigners, trying to barter won’t do much in your favour.

You can find out about the move in costs you can expect to pay when you first move in to an apartment in Japan here.