How Much Rent you pay

[Gareth]

We pay 125,000 (two of us so 62500 each) for a 4LDK 80m2 house in the suburbs of Tokyo.

[JimNasium]

I think you may have made that range too high. lol I’m kind of curious what percentage of everyones salary they pay in rent. I’m at about 17%.

[JapaneseMike]

We're over 20% of salary, closer to 30% when we include parking & bills. This is a lot for Japan in my mind. We're renting though and our apartment is big, While I thought at the time of contract that the place was too expensive for our price range, given covid happened and we've spent a LOT more time there, it has been worth it.

Next place will be lower in the % scale, which will be a combination of switching to a mortgage and going a bit smaller.

[TJKansai]

House 200sqm (50 min walk to station, was ¥80,000 but now paid off). Property tax I think around ¥120,000/yr.

If you don’t mind my asking, what is your homeowners insurance and approximate electric/gas costs on this?

I think we have only have fire 火災保険.
Electic averages ¥12,000, gas ¥5,000.
We use gas, kerosene and electric heat in winter. In summer we don't turn on the ac unless it is over 28C indoors.

[mighty58]

4万. 3LDK in South-Eastern Tokyo. 20min train ride/10km bike ride from Shinagawa Station.

4万? There's got to be some back story on how you managed to something of that size in Tokyo for that cheap.

[Kanto]

4万. 3LDK in South-Eastern Tokyo. 20min train ride/10km bike ride from Shinagawa Station.

4万? There's got to be some back story on how you managed to something of that size in Tokyo for that cheap.

I am afraid of Doxing myself. So let me just be a bit vague...

(a) Heavily subsidized family house is a major perk for certain "fields" in Japan. In this case, it is my wife's job.
(b) I am sure there are very very few foreigners in these types of accommodations
(c) It is clean and convenient but it is an older place and very Showa
(d) You need to pay 3000円 monthly into a common fund, and meet up for a monthly "yardwork" session at 7 am on a Sunday about six times a year.

[TokyoWart]

We live in the middle of Tokyo. When we rented our rent was anything from 80,000 yen/month to over 300,000/month as we moved around but in all of those cases my employer was subsidizing the rent so our out-of-pocket expenses were minimal. We now live in a single family home and the mortgage is paid off so our housing expenses are around 300,000/year in real estate taxes, 13,000/month in insurance and something similar to that in utilities. In absolute terms housing is one of the smallest parts of our budget but we have the opportunity cost of funds locked up in home ownership which isn't increasing in value in this country.

[seb]

(a) Heavily subsidized family house is a major perk for certain "fields" in Japan. In this case, it is my wife's job

my brother in law was living in company sponsored housing when he was dispatched to Nagano. He was paying probably 25% of the real price. When he came to Tokyo and built his house his company had more money incentives. So it doesn't have to be "certain fields". Big companies have huge perks for seishain.

[TJKansai]

4万. 3LDK in South-Eastern Tokyo. 20min train ride/10km bike ride from Shinagawa Station.

4万? There's got to be some back story on how you managed to something of that size in Tokyo for that cheap.

I am afraid of Doxing myself. So let me just be a bit vague...

(a) Heavily subsidized family house is a major perk for certain "fields" in Japan. In this case, it is my wife's job.
(b) I am sure there are very very few foreigners in these types of accommodations
(c) It is clean and convenient but it is an older place and very Showa
(d) You need to pay 3000円 monthly into a common fund, and meet up for a monthly "yardwork" session at 7 am on a Sunday about six times a year.

A highly-paid Japanese public servant friend of mine gets transferred around the country every couple years. The government supplies his housing when he is away from the Tokyo area, usually an old but spacious 4-5 story walk-up that might rent for ¥20,000 to ¥40,000 on the normal market. He did have a really nice house once, a 4LDK with 2 car parking, which was silly since he was living alone and hadn't a car.

[Kanto]

(a) Heavily subsidized family house is a major perk for certain "fields" in Japan. In this case, it is my wife's job

my brother in law was living in company sponsored housing when he was dispatched to Nagano. He was paying probably 25% of the real price. When he came to Tokyo and built his house his company had more money incentives. So it doesn't have to be "certain fields". Big companies have huge perks for seishain.

This is not the same thing as a housing subsidy or sponsored housing, it is employee family housing. There are no additional perks. If you are relocated there is a moving allowance howeer.

I have a feeling most seishain would not be satisfied. My front entrance still has a spot for the milkman to leave milk!