Any Tokyoite knows the trials and tribulations of trying to find a reasonably priced, conveniently located apartment — the feat even harder as a cheapo. We’d like to upgrade your apartment-hunting experience with the New Interactive Tokyo Rent Map.
The interactive map shows the average monthly rental price of all the districts in central Tokyo. Just hover your mouse over a neighbourhood and adjust the room size slider to find the estimated average rent in that particular area.
Why was it created?
It is always a challenge to find good apartments in Tokyo. You keep hearing from people or agencies things like “Minato-ku is the most expensive”, or “Within 2 stops of Shibuya station is the most expensive”, but in the end it’s difficult to get the hard facts. The purpose of this visualization is to help people find areas where they are likely to find apartments matching their need in size and budget.
What can the map tell us?
The map is full of interesting and, even better, useful bits of information when finding a place to live. Of notable importance:
- Yanaka (just west of Ueno) is the cheapest place to live along the Yamanote Line loop in all size ranges;
- The triangle between Shinjuku, Meguro, and Hamamatsucho (extending to Nakameguro area) does concentrate the higher rents;
- In the 20-30 m2 range, you can get some deals for rather central locations if you opt for Sendagaya;
- Oyamacho near Yoyogi-uehara is also rather accessible across the price ranges.
Where’s the data from?
The data is sourced from Lifull Homes–a leading rental site in Japan.
What’s the methodology behind the map?
Rent prices of more than 275,000 apartments in Tokyo’s 23 wards have been collected in January 2015. Median prices (excluding kanri fees) have then been computed for each subdivision in Tokyo in different size categories.
Different address formats (一丁目, １丁目, 1丁目, １−１４−６…) have been stitched together to give a truly comprehensive overview of Tokyo rent prices by area.
Who’s the mastermind behind the map?
The interactive Tokyo rent map was created by Tokyo Cheapo friend and coder extraordinaire Fabian Dubois. He is a French engineer and entrepreneur having lived in Tokyo for 5 years with a passion for data visualization. He is also an accomplished runner, city explorer, and member of the winning team of Yamathon in 2013.
