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The story
A story about Tokyo rental housing is making waves on 5ch: tenants say landlords and realtors are pushing rent increases even outside the normal renewal period, and when tenants refuse, some are bluntly told, “If you don’t like it, don’t live in Tokyo.” Thread posters point to the weak yen, soaring repair costs, and a supply-demand imbalance as drivers of the hikes, while others countered with legal arguments — under Japan’s Land and House Lease Law, landlords can’t just raise rent unilaterally; an increase is only allowed if it brings the rent in line with the going rate in the area. Opinion was split on whether low-income residents can still afford to stay in the city.
In recent years, it’s become the norm for tenants to face hard-nosed rent-hike negotiations from realtors when their apartment lease comes up for renewal. Now it seems cases are increasing where realtors push for a rent increase even when it isn’t renewal time at all.
Apparently it’s no longer rare these days for tenants who refuse the increase to get hit with a harsh line like, “If you don’t like the rent hike, don’t live in Tokyo!” The story goes that realtors tend to take an especially hard line with younger tenants.
So why are more and more realtors acting like this? The answer is remarkably simple.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Rent just keeps ballooning bigger and bigger.
With intervention it's at 153 yen [to the dollar], so rent will come down too
Tokyo has the worst cost-of-living inflation in the country
Landlords can't keep going without raising rent either
They don't have to "keep going" — nobody asked them to be landlords in the first place
right on the street, in the 1st-floor entrance or elevator hall —
a shared space where any passerby can see straight in —
companies just have their own delivery boxes piled up out in the open like that?
It's starting to look more and more like some run-down tenement row. It's getting really bad.
Back in the bubble era, I recall the media was singing praises for [BOJ governor] Mieno's monetary tightening, the total-volume lending regulation, and the land value tax
If it's brought in line with the going rate in the area, a rent hike is allowed
Well, even getting the repairs done at all would be an improvement — no matter how much money you offer, more and more cases are falling through because you just can't find tradespeople to do the work
Raising it partway through the lease is nearly impossible.
It ultimately ends up in court, but a rent hike big enough to be worth the legal costs is pretty much unwinnable.
And on top of that, the landlord's side keeps losing every one of those rulings.
Same goes for leasehold rights — but that's basically like employment protection law, a last line of defense for the tenant
Once we're in a rate-hike environment, that won't hold up so easily though
Sellers and buyers
Right now sellers have the upper hand
Eventually the tables will turn
Tokyo's over-concentration is what's wrecking that balance — in Tokyo, even a place with terrible public safety, or somewhere the hazard maps say you really shouldn't live, still sells just fine
People whose family has owned a house in Tokyo since their grandparents' generation can just keep living there
Just become a "kidult" (an adult who never moved out of their childhood bedroom) then
This is [Governor] Koike's moment to prove herself
And you can be the one funding that subsidy
In the mid-Heisei era (roughly the 1990s) there was a college student living in a run-down wooden apartment: a single 3-tatami-mat room, no bath, shared toilet and kitchen. In Tokyo, of course
Way back in the day, apparently some guys actually lived in their club room. Unthinkable now — though some auditing students living in a certain university's dorm today aren't that different
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Behind this story is a structural problem: Tokyo’s housing supply isn’t keeping up with demand, compounded by the weak yen driving up construction and repair costs. What split opinion in the thread wasn’t so much whether rent hikes are justified, but how much protection a tenant who refuses actually has — commenters noted that under Japan’s Land and House Lease Law, a landlord cannot unilaterally raise rent; an increase is only recognized after comparison with local market rates or, ultimately, a court ruling. One point readers often misunderstand is that a rent-hike demand at lease renewal and one pushed outside the renewal window are legally different situations — the latter tends to hinge much more on the realtor’s negotiating leverage. The thread also touched on finer points like whether low-income households can keep living in the city, and the difference between UR housing and public housing.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “Why more realtors are lately saying, “If you don’t like the rent hike, don’t live in Tokyo!”“
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