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The story
Images posted on X (formerly Twitter) showing a couple planning to buy a 100-million-yen (roughly $650,000) 3LDK condo in Tokyo went viral on 5ch. The floor plan drew attention for its low ceilings and cramped rooms, sparking shocked reactions like “100 million yen is way too much for this” and “This looks smaller than my 110,000-yen-a-month rental.” Others, though, praised the location’s access to Haneda Airport and central Tokyo, as well as its security. The thread’s focus shifted away from the merits of the property itself and toward a broader clash over renting vs. owning, and central Tokyo vs. the regions.
Image is the source
Source: x.com / Original post here
What people said
Doesn't matter how good public services are if housing costs are crushing your budget
Having a room twice the size matters more than public services
Definitely worth spending a whole lifetime paying it off
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2098457483329273856/vid/avc1/1920×1080/YN5eHiQpCfyhH2tM.mp4
This is what 100 million yen gets you
Re: #19
A 100-million-yen condo in Nishi-Ogikubo, that's living the dream, amazing
Ceiling's way too low, is that like 2 meters?
This feels way more cramped than my 110,000-yen-a-month rental
If you're worried about noise, the top floor is basically the only choice
Healthcare's free there
I mean, is there even a municipality left these days where kids' medical care isn't free?
I meant education, though?
I don't get it, the only people who want to go to concerts and events constantly are single otaku anyway
If it's just a few times a year, take the shinkansen to Tokyo
Same goes for renting though
With renting you can just move if you don't like it
This exactly
I think you really feel the benefit of being close to Tokyo Station and Haneda once you have kids
If being near Haneda is all you want, a dump like this wouldn't even cost 100 million in Ota Ward
Once you have kids there's no way you could keep living in a room this small
Earthquakes, interest rates
If an earthquake strong enough to take down a condo hits, a detached house would be completely wrecked anyway
It's not that renting's the strongest, buying's just normally too expensive to afford
Maybe that's true out in the countryside, but renting in central Tokyo makes you a slave to your landlord
happiest just doing exactly what the media told them to do…
You guys are doing the exact same thing, just because the internet told you to
Nah, condos normally have better fittings than houses
Though the kitchen in this one looks unusually cheap
If you have kids, owning is better
Rentals that'll actually take elderly tenants tend to be in bad locations with crappy interiors, overpriced, and that's all there is
So in the end even renters end up stuck staying put
I heard rent hikes in Tokyo are brutal too
A coworker living in Setagaya said theirs is going from 150,000 to 180,000 yen starting next month…
Cheap condos out in the regions are all paper-thin walls, a 24/7 high-stress environment
In the regions your only real option is a soundproofed house on a 200-plus square meter lot
"Paper-thin condo" says it all lol
Between a 40-year-old building and a 15-year-old one, the older one is way quieter
If the soundproofing's actually better, paying a premium might be worth it
You've clearly never actually condo-shopped
This living room's tiny, they just crammed it into a 3LDK label anyway
From a global perspective, prices are cheap, housing's cheap, and it's safe
This is a triple-A property
Expensive properties also come with high management fees and reserve funds after you buy, but in exchange they handle all the security for you
Background and Key Points of This Debate
Behind the surge in Tokyo condo prices lie rising construction material and labor costs, along with growing dual-income household earnings and purchasing demand from overseas investors. This property is a textbook example of how location and infrastructure investment get baked into the price — contrary to the gut assumption that “100 million yen equals a mansion,” price here doesn’t scale with floor space. The thread split along the lines of “rent vs. own” and “central Tokyo vs. the regions,” focusing mainly on comparing lifestyle infrastructure like access to Haneda and central Tokyo against benefits such as subsidized child medical costs, while the actual merits of this unit’s design — the low ceilings, the cramped rooms — went largely undiscussed. Commenters also claimed that “rent hikes in Tokyo are brutal,” but what the thread didn’t mention is that housing costs across central Tokyo, both new-build and resale, have in fact been trending upward across the board in recent years due to rising material costs and labor shortages, making it hard to avoid paying more whether you rent or buy.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Images] Tokyo couple tries to buy a ridiculously cramped apartment for 100 million yen… something’s wrong with this country.”
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