Renting a house in Japan | Guidable - Your Guide to a Sustainable, Wellbeing-centred Life in Japan

Renting a house in Japan

By Guidable Writers Aug 12, 2016

 

 

 

Do you live in Japan? Do you live in dormitory, or host family’s house, or live by yourself? Many people probably want to live by themselves someday.

It is kind of difficult to rent a house for people who are not Japanese in Japan. I will teach two things to know to rent a house in Japan. There are many rules when you rent a house in Japan. Especially, there are many kind of money you have to pay for the house owner and the real-estate office when you make an agreement with them. I will explain the foregift “敷金” , the key money “礼金”, and the guaranty money.

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1. Foregift (敷金 Shikikin)

First, you have to pay foregift and key money when you make an agreement with real-estate office. Also you need to pay a realtor’s commission.

Foregift means that the deposit money. We call it “敷金(shikikin). It is common that paying one month worth of foregift. It is refundable security deposit. Therefore if you keep clean your room, you can get back your money. On the other hand, if you make your room dirty, you cannot get back it because you have to pay it as a cleaning.

 

2. Key money (礼金 reikin)

Key money means that the money you cannot get it back anyway. We call it “礼金(reikin). People pay it to houseowner as an appreciation. Therefore you cannot get it back it. There is a differences between Kanto region(north of Japan) and Kansai region(west of Japan). Statistically, the key money is more expensive in Kansai region than Kanto region.

Both of them foregift and the key money are not required. But usually, the houseowner want it.

 

3. Guaranty money (保証金 Hosyokin)

You need a people who guaranty you when you rent a house. It needed for confidence of you to the house owner and the real-estate office. It means that if you don’t pay the rent money, the people have to pay it instead of you. It usually have to be a people who lives in Japan. And also he or she has to be a full-fledged employee. If you have no people who can be a guaranty people, you can pay money for guaranty.

It doesn’t work for every real-estate office.

 

 

sui.

Japan