Housing

Finding a good place to live once you leave the dorm is a challenging experience.

General Information

• Yahoo Real Estate and Excite are a good places to start your search. Japanese only though.
• If you live on campus you can check here for a good description of the options.
• The Nagoya International Center has good information on housing.

Tips

• Word of mouth is a good way to find a place. Ask your friends.
• Real estate agents tend to show you the worst places first. Be patient and keep telling them what you want.
• Shop around. Different offices (even from the same company) will show you different places in the same area.
• Plan to spend a lot of time looking around if you want a good place
• Be flexible. Moving further away from a station, picking an older place, etc. can save you money.
• Do not be afraid to negotiate. If they tell you the price is 50,000 yen per month you can give a counter offer.

There are many fees associated with renting:

• Rent (家賃) - monthly fee
• Common area fees (共益費 or 管理費) - monthly fees for common area maintenance (much higher in buildings with elevators)
• Key or gift money (礼金) - non refundable gift to the landlord at the start of a contract (typically 1-4 months rent)
• Refundable deposit (保証金) - A deposit that can be returned when you move out if there is no damage. Typically landlords keep some of this for general repairs since they replace much of the inside of a unit.
• Agent fee - typically one month's rent fee to the real estate agent for concluding the contract.
• At the time you conclude your contract it is not unusual to pay 6 times your monthly rent. Be prepared.
• For more information on housing terms

Like most contracts these are all terms that you can try to negotiate. Moreover, since the fees are based on the monthly rental price, reducing the monthly rent will have a large impact on the total you will pay when you move into a place.

Moving

Tips for moving within Japan.

Moving in

Tips for getting in good with your neighbors.

Keeping warm

Nagoya can get pretty chilly in the winter. What is the best way to keep warm?

• Oil fan heaters are a fairly inexpensive way to heat your place. They use heating oil (touyu 灯油). Touyu is sold at most gasoline stands and there are usually tanker trucks that drive through neighborhoods. You can tell if one is coming by listening for its melody.

• Be careful since Matsushita recently recalled 10,000 defective oil heaters

• Natural gas heaters are handy in that they do not require refills like oil fan heaters. Your place must be equipped with gas valves though. Some say natural gas is also fairly expensive for heating.

Caution oil fan and gas heaters generate nasty fumes that you have to vent every 15-30 minutes (see the heater manual for details).

• hot carpets Carpets with electric heating make for good friends in the winter. Just plug and play!
• Kotatsu-is a Japanese low table with a heating element under the top. With a cover it keeps your legs pretty toasty warm.

Cleaning

Japan presents certain special challenges for cleaning. What do you do about tatami mats? How do you clean a Japanese washing machine? Look no further.

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