hi! i moved to japan 3 days ago, im starting the process to search for an apartment and i got recomended by all my friends that the best thing is to go in person to the rental company, the issue is that most of them seem to be limited by zone, for example if i go to a taito rental company, pretty much everything i will be shown is in taito, as i dont have preference in where to live seems a bit tiring to go to one in every prefecture just to have a general idea, is there any in person companie where i can just check appartments from everywhere? i have alredy checked web pages like suumo and able, and have a decent idea of the size ,requirements, price and distance i want for my appartment, but i would indeed like to see it in person and properly speak with the rental companie abaut it
8 comments
You don’t actually need to go there to speak with them. You can write them emails asking for photos or info or call them.
Highly recommend Fontana
https://www.tokyocityapartments.net/
I went with them myself before arriving in Tokyo and it’s been a great experience. English speaking staff and you can check the available apartments on their website.
Hope it helps!
Find something you like on Suumo or another rental website, then contact the agency and ask to see it. If you don’t like it they will show you other options in the area.
I don’t think there’s such thing as an agency that will search EVERY prefecture for apartments that fit your requirements. That would be an insane task and there would be thousands of apartments to sift through. Its your responsibility to figure out where you want to live first
It’s going to be reaaaaally hard to find a place if you don’t choose a location. You say you already checked suumo and similar sites – this gives you a general idea. You say you already know your conditions. Next step is to go to the agency in the area you want and start asking what’s available with your conditions, budget and nationality.
If you still don’t want to pick a location you can do all of that online and set up appointments for whatever apartment you want to see, wherever it may be.
I found the actual rental companies to be very even handed in their treatment of foreigners but be prepared for many landlords to turn you down when they find out you’re a gaijin.
Most agencies are very localized. Not just by prefecture but by neighborhood. Honestly I would narrow down your search to at *least* a prefecture but in reality you should kind of know what ward/neighborhood/city you want as well. At LEAST city. It may be tiring for you but it’s also tiring for the agent to work with someone who doesn’t know what they want and in an a completely different prefecture. That’s the legwork you are going to have to do yourself unfortunately.
Places like suumo are a great place to start but keep in mind most of those places are unavailable usually. They’re good for figuring out what kind of places are available in what area and for what price but that’s about it.
If you know where you want to be, go to that station and walk around. Realtor agencies flock the stations. Can’t miss them. They have like 20 different property listings plastered up in the windows in a line. They’ll be able to help you find listings for that area and maybe even nearby areas that are both under their company and not under their company. You can use suumo too to find agencies but I prefer the station method.
You might not want to pick the location and be fine wasting 1.5h visiting a random far-away place to see a single place, but the real estate guys are working so they are not. You need to understand WHY they are regional, and that’s because they specialize per area and have the keys of the houses of the area to show around. If they can show 2 houses in 1 hour, that’s much better for business than taking 2 hours to show 1 house.
Generic tips: narrow down the area you want to live, the budget and then checking for their availability through suumo then finally call the agents to see their acceptability to foreigners. 1 hour radius to tokyo center is a vast area of 30mil people population. From comments above i’m assuming you are low on budget to live in any tokyo address so why not try out Chiba: funabashi, kamagaya