Sharehouse or furnished apartment first in Tokyo?

If you need somewhere to live in Tokyo for one to three months while you look for a regular apartment, compare a sharehouse room and a furnished private apartment on three things: whether you can register your address there, what kind of contract you sign, and how much notice and money it takes to leave.

Can you register your address there?

Within 14 days of settling at an address, a mid- to long-term resident reports it at the municipal office for that address, not at an immigration office. The Immigration Services Agency's page on the first address report sets the deadline from the day you decide where you live, and says that filing at the ward counter with your residence card counts as the report. The phone company and the bank will ask for that registered address when you sign up. So will the guarantee company, the business a landlord uses to cover unpaid rent, when you apply for the regular apartment.

Either a sharehouse room or a furnished apartment can be that address, but don't assume it. Some sharehouses don't let residents register, and some furnished homes are run as lodging rather than as rentals, which can change what the ward is willing to record. Before paying for either, ask in writing whether you can register your address there. Our student housing guide explains how one ward handles a hotel-type address.

What kind of contract you are signing

Most sharehouses use a fixed-term lease. In the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's 2015 survey of sharehouse businesses, just under 80% said a 定期借家契約 (teiki shakka keiyaku — fixed-term lease) was their most typical contract. A fixed-term lease ends on its end date instead of renewing. The landlord must give you a separate written explanation of that before you sign, and a new contract is possible if both sides agree. Our fixed-term lease guide covers the details.

The part that matters for a short first stay is leaving early. The ministry's fixed-term lease explainer says a tenant in a home under 200 square metres can end the lease on one month's notice when an unavoidable reason, such as a job transfer, medical treatment or caring for a relative, makes it hard to keep living there. Finding the regular apartment you were looking for isn't one of those reasons. So what you owe for leaving early comes from the contract's own early-exit clause, and you should read that clause before you sign.

A furnished private apartment may be offered as a lease or as a lodging arrangement, and the paperwork tells you which. Our lodging or lease guide explains the difference. Either way, ask for the end date, the notice you must give and the cost of each extra week before you pay. A month-by-month booking only reserves the month you paid for.

Notice and money when you leave

In the same ministry survey, over 90% of sharehouse businesses said leaving involves returning the keys and giving notice a set period before the move-out date. Over 80% said they return overpaid rent and any deposit, and check the room together with the resident. Get the notice period first. If you want to move straight from one home to the other, confirm the move-in date for the new apartment before you give notice, and give notice early enough to meet that date. Suppose, as an invented example, the sharehouse wants 30 days' notice and you can move into the new apartment on 1 March 2027. If you want to leave the sharehouse on that same day, your notice has to reach the house by 30 January 2027.

"No deposit, no guarantor" describes the start, not the whole cost. In the survey, most businesses renting private rooms said no payment to a guarantee company was required. Compare instead the contract or administration fee when you move in, the cleaning charge when you leave, and any penalty for leaving before the minimum term ends. The National Consumer Affairs Center's 2022 checklist for young renters puts the move-out notice deadline, the penalty clause and who pays to repair wear and damage on the list of things to read before signing any rental. It also advises photographing scratches and stains that were already there before you move in, which matters more in a sharehouse because several people use the shared rooms.

Here is an invented two-month comparison, not a market price. A sharehouse room at ¥75,000 a month with a ¥30,000 contract fee and a ¥20,000 cleaning charge at the end costs ¥200,000 for the two months, with no deposit. A furnished apartment at ¥160,000 a month with a ¥30,000 cleaning fee costs ¥350,000, plus a ¥50,000 deposit you pay at the start and get back if nothing is damaged. The stay itself costs ¥150,000 more in the apartment, and the deposit means you need more money at the start even though it isn't a cost. If the sharehouse's minimum term were three months and you left after two, add its penalty to the sharehouse column before you compare.

A short stay can be the reason a sharehouse says no

Just over 80% of sharehouse businesses in the ministry survey had turned an applicant down. The two reasons given most often were that the person seemed unlikely to get on with the current residents (just under 70%) and that the stay they wanted was too short (just over 50%). If you want six weeks, say so in your first message and ask for the house's minimum term before you go to a viewing. Furnished apartment companies usually publish a minimum stay in months; our guide to why rentals start at a month explains where that line comes from.

Check the building, not just the room

A building where a business houses several unrelated tenants counts as a 寄宿舎 (kishukusha — dormitory) under the Building Standards Act, with its own fire-safety rules, according to the ministry's 2013 notice on rental rooms. The ministry still asks the public to report buildings where many people sleep but the rooms are divided with flammable material or have no window. At a viewing, check that your room has a window, that there is a smoke alarm, and that you know two ways out of the building.

Which one suits you

A sharehouse room suits someone arriving alone on a tight budget who is happy sharing a kitchen and can stay at least the house's minimum term. A furnished apartment suits a couple or anyone who takes work calls from home. Whichever you choose, get the address-registration answer in writing before you pay, and confirm the departure date, the notice deadline and any early-departure charge the same way. Photograph the room on the day you arrive.

HalfKey rents furnished private apartments in Tokyo by the month. You can browse the current homes or send us your dates and what you need.