Lose weight and pay less rent?
One share house in Osaka has come up with a unique concept of combining weight loss with rent. The 'Beauty&Diet Ladies Sharehouse' in Suita City is offering tenants a discount of 1,000 Yen off their monthly rent for each kilogram they lose while living in the house.
The monthly rent charged to each tenant is calculated by how much they each weigh. For every 1 kg, you are charged 1,000 Yen/month in rent. Lose weight, and your rent goes down. The landlord, Broad Enterprise, believe this might be the first of its kind in the world.Read more
Rent a house in a UNESCO World Heritage area for just 10,000 Yen/month
A 88-year old house in Gokayama has been listed for rent at just 10,000 Yen/month (127 USD) in a bid by Nanto City to entice families to the area.Read more
Cheats and tricks in real estate advertising
Japan has rules that regulate real estate advertising to consumers, but they are self regulated by nine organizations across the country. One of those organizations is the Real Estate Fair Trade Council of greater Tokyo. According to the Council, the number of illegal advertising tricks by real estate companies is increasing online. The most common of these tricks is bait-and-switch and misleading advertisements.Read more
Can rental renewal fees be avoided?
In a year there are as many as 1 million rental contracts with renewal fees in existence across Japan. But, as a tenant, do you have to pay these renewal fees? And if you do, are the fees reasonable?Read more
Apartment rents reach 7 year low in Tokyo
The average apartment rent across Japan's major cities has fallen even further. In July, the average rent for a condominium in Tokyo's 23-ku fell below 3,000 Yen/sqm a month for the first time in over seven years. The rent in rental-only buildings has also fallen.
According to Tokyo Kantei, the average rent for a condominium apartment in July was 2,995 Yen/sqm a month, down 1.8% from July 2011.Read more
Tas Corp's rental market data for August
TAS Corp, the company behind the "Tas-Map" real estate valuation site, released their latest data on the rental market for both the greater Tokyo and Kansai area for August 2012.
The data includes a vacancy rate index, average time an apartment is advertised before a tenant is found, average rate of lease renewals, rate of mid-way cancellations and a rent index.
This month's report on the greater Tokyo area focused on the aging population in Saitama and the consequences this will have for landlords in the future.Read more
New court case over legality of lease cancellation penalty
In a court case brought to the Saitama Kawagoe District Court, a non-profit organization is claiming that the cancellation penalty in their client's rental contract is illegal and are demanding that the rental agency remove the clause from their contracts.Read more