Tokyo monthly apartment inventory by ward: where it lives

Twelve Tokyo wards ranked by furnished mid-term inventory and operator diversity. Criteria: count of active 30-day-and-longer units across seven major mid-term operators. The operators are Hmlet, Fontana, Metro Residences, Blueground, Weave, Cove, and Dash. I also count how many of them actually publish in the ward.

I weighted concentration alongside diversity. A ward with 500 units from two operators is a different shop from a ward with 170 units across seven. One gives you stock; the other gives you alternatives.

The marketing for "midterm-friendly Tokyo" tends to repeat a short list: Setagaya, Meguro, Shibuya, Bunkyō, Suginami. The data agrees with parts of that list and demotes others. It also points at one ward almost no English-language list mentions first.

What the index actually shows

Across 2,967 active mid-term listings with a named ward, five wards hold 54% of the inventory: Nakano (505), Shinjuku (351), Setagaya (275), Minato (239), Shibuya (232). Add Suginami (180), Meguro (170), and Toshima (158) and you are at 71%.

The remaining 12 wards split the last 29%. Five carry under 30 units each. Those are the ten-listing tails: Itabashi (26), Chiyoda (25), Kita (21), Arakawa (4), Nerima (1).

Bunkyō, Suginami, and Meguro are not tails. The marketing pitches them as quieter alternatives to the central wards, and the inventory backs that. They each carry over 100 active mid-term units. The actual tails are wards no marketing copy puts in the same paragraph as Roppongi.

The takeaway: if you are running a comparison search, start with the seven wards above 150 units. Your shortlist will be longer and your operator diversity higher. If you are committed to a thin-tail ward for personal reasons, plan to wait or compromise.

1. Nakano: pick this for value, with the operator caveat

Nakano carries 505 active mid-term units, 17% of the visible inventory. That is 154 more than Shinjuku and almost double Setagaya. Average asking rent runs ¥180,000/month, the lowest of the top seven wards.

The catch: only four operators publish here. Fontana (301 units) and Hmlet (192) account for 98% of the inventory. If those two operator shapes do not fit you, Nakano is a four-result search.

What that means in practice: Fontana and Hmlet are sharehouse-derived operators with tight floor plans (most units 18–28m²) and bundled-utility pricing. If you want a 1LDK with a separated bedroom and a study corner, the Nakano supply thins to under 50 units quickly.

Pick Nakano if you want the cheapest verified mid-term rent in central Tokyo and the operator profile (Fontana / Hmlet) matches your stay shape. Skip if you need brand diversity or a 1LDK with a defined bedroom.

2. Shinjuku: pick this for diversity

Shinjuku-ku has 351 units across six operators. Hmlet (161), Fontana (75), Metro Residences (53), Blueground (48), Dash (10), Weave (4). Average asking rent runs ¥290,000/month, ¥110,000 above Nakano.

The diversity matters at booking time. If your dates do not match Hmlet's calendar, Blueground's 48 units in Shinjuku are an actual fallback. In Nakano, the equivalent fallback is Fontana — a different unit shape with a different fee table.

The ward also splits cleanly into substyles. Yotsuya and Akebonobashi are residential. Kabukichō and Shinjuku-Sanchōme are not, and most operators avoid them for mid-term. Read the address before booking; the ward label hides the variation.

Pick Shinjuku for the largest mid-priced supply with real operator competition. Pay attention to which substation neighborhood the unit sits in.

3. Setagaya: pick this for residential character at the per-square-meter cost

Setagaya holds 275 units across only four operators. Hmlet alone carries 224 of them, with Fontana, Metro Residences, and Weave splitting the remaining 51. Average asking rent runs ¥270,000/month at slightly larger square meterage (30m² average).

The supply concentration is a real consideration. Some Setagaya guides recommend three different operators in the same paragraph. The listings index says only one of them is meaningfully active here.

The geography is also wider than the rent average suggests. The east end (Sangenjaya, Ikejiri-Ōhashi) prices like Shibuya. The west end (Kyodo, Soshigaya-Ōkura) sits ¥30–50,000 below the ward average. The Hmlet supply skews west-of-center, which is the residential half. That is the half foreigners usually mean when they say "Setagaya."

Pick Setagaya if you want a residential block with a Tokyo street rhythm and you are comfortable with Hmlet as your default. Skip if Hmlet's lease shape doesn't fit and you wanted to compare three operators.

4. Minato: skip unless your employer pays

Minato carries 239 units across six operators. Average asking rent runs ¥370,000/month, the highest of the top twelve and ¥80,000 above Shinjuku for comparable square meterage. The price ceiling sits around ¥1.45 million/month for the highest Minato listing in the index.

The concentration here is at the top. Metro Residences (82 units) and Blueground (21) skew premium-corporate. Hmlet (56) is more accessible but still rents in the ¥250–300k range.

The ward problem for sleepers and walkers is documented elsewhere. Roppongi crawl noise. Helicopter overflights during diplomatic events. The Toei Ōedo line vibration carrying up through Azabu-Jūban and Roppongi residential blocks. None of that goes away because the apartment is furnished.

Pick Minato only if your employer covers the rent and you work in a Roppongi or Akasaka tower. The math fails at full-self-pay for any midterm guest who is not in that exact bracket.

5. Shibuya: conditional, depending on which side

Shibuya-ku has 232 units across six operators. Average asking rent runs ¥280,000/month. Hmlet carries 145 of the units, Fontana 34, Metro Residences 20, Blueground 19, Cove 12, Dash 2.

The ward splits hard. Ebisu, Daikanyama, and Shoto are residential. The Shibuya scramble blocks and Center Gai are not. Operators publish in both halves, and the listing photos won't always tell you which side a building sits on.

The substation rule for a 30+ day stay: aim for Daikanyama, Ebisu, or the Shoto pocket north of NHK. Avoid the blocks within four minutes of Hachikō. Saturday foot traffic compounds at one-eighty days the way it never does at thirty.

Pick the residential pockets. Skip the central. The rent does not differentiate the two halves enough at the listing-page level — that is your job before booking.

6. Suginami: pick this for shop count and quiet

Suginami has 180 units, but only three operators publish here: Hmlet (94), Fontana (74), Metro Residences (12). Average asking rent runs ¥210,000/month, the second-lowest of the top twelve.

The ward is the single best shop-count answer in the central pool. The Eifukuchō, Hamadayama, and Asagaya stations sit in a residential-density sweet spot. Multiple Maruetsu and Inageya supermarkets within an eight-minute walk, four-to-six konbini on the same radius, drugstores at every other intersection. The evening shape of Suginami covers the sleep-hours rhythm.

The operator depth is shallower than Shinjuku. If Hmlet doesn't have the dates or the floor plan, you are picking between Fontana and Metro Residences. That is a smaller field than the central wards.

Pick Suginami for residential rhythm and walkable density. Watch operator availability before assuming a flexible date range.

7. Meguro: pick this for operator diversity at mid-priced rent

Meguro has 170 units across seven operators. That is the most diverse field in the top twelve. Hmlet (61), Blueground (42), Fontana (31), Metro Residences (24), Dash (5), Weave (4), Cove (3). Average asking rent runs ¥290,000/month.

The diversity matters more here than in any other ward. Seven publishing operators means seven fee tables, seven cancellation grids, seven different bedroom counts available in the same week. If you are running a tier-by-tier transparency comparison, Meguro is where the comparison is most apples-to-apples.

The geography is the asset Meguro is famous for. Nakameguro for the river ward (with the seasonal hanami caveat), Yutenji and Gakugei-Daigaku for the residential blocks, Jiyūgaoka technically Setagaya-side but reachable from west Meguro.

Pick Meguro for the comparison-shopper's ward. Best operator diversity in central Tokyo at a rent that is not Minato.

8. Bunkyō: pick this for academic-adjacent or sleeper

Bunkyō holds 118 units across five operators. Hmlet (49), Blueground (41), Metro Residences (22), Dash (3), Fontana (3). Average asking rent runs ¥310,000/month at the highest average square meterage of the top twelve (39m²).

The Blueground concentration is unusual. Of the top twelve wards, only Bunkyō has Blueground as effectively the second-largest operator. That tilts the inventory premium-corporate, which is consistent with the ward's hospital and university anchor: Tōdai, Juntendō, the Suidobashi cluster.

The sleeper case is real. Bunkyō's residential blocks (Sendagi, Hakusan, Mukōgaoka) are some of the quietest in the 23 wards. The Marunouchi line runs underground here, not elevated. No track-side rumble.

Pick Bunkyō if you are working at one of the universities or hospitals, or if sleep and quiet outrank dinner radius and price. Skip if you wanted seven izakaya within a five-minute walk.

The ten-listing tails, demoted

The five smallest-tail wards in the visible inventory are Itabashi (26), Chiyoda (25), Kita (21), Arakawa (4), Nerima (1).

These are not bad wards. Itabashi has functional residential character along the Mita line. Kita has Akabane and Ōji. Nerima has Ekoda and the Toshima-Mejiro corridor. None of them are unlivable. They are simply not where furnished mid-term operators have built supply.

If you set your search radius to one of these wards, expect long waits and fewer floor plans. The operator concentration looks like Nakano with a tenth of the units. Plan to compromise on dates or expand your search.

Chiyoda is the exception in shape, not in supply. Twenty-five units is still a small pool, but the operator mix (Hmlet 18, Weave 4, Blueground 2, Dash 1) is unusually corporate-skewed. Chiyoda mid-term tends to be Marunouchi-corporate-relocation supply at ¥350,000+. If your stay shape matches that, the ward is not really a tail. It is a niche.

The picks, condensed

For comparison-shoppers running a parallel search across operators, Meguro at ¥290k. Seven operators, real apples-to-apples.

For mid-priced central density and operator depth, Shinjuku at ¥290k. The largest competitive supply in the index, with the substation caveat.

For residential-rhythm at the lowest verified rent, Nakano at ¥180k or Suginami at ¥210k. Both shallow on operator diversity. Nakano is Fontana / Hmlet; Suginami is Hmlet / Fontana / Metro Residences. If you don't fit those shapes, look at Meguro instead.

For sleep, academic adjacency, or Blueground-corporate, Bunkyō at ¥310k. Smaller pool, premium tilt, the quietest of the top twelve.

Setagaya is a one-operator ward with seven Hmlet branches doing the work. That is fine if Hmlet fits; less fine as a comparison search.

Skip Minato unless someone else pays.

For the wards that aren't on this list at all, the answer is wait or compromise. The marketing copy that describes Itabashi or Kita as midterm-friendly is talking about something the listings index does not yet reflect.

The supply catches up over time. Search again in three months if a tail ward is the only one your job allows.

— halfkey runs furnished Tokyo apartments for stays of 30 days to 12 months. Browse listings for your dates.