# Rental Property Search



## pasturesnew (Sep 7, 2007)

Looking thru the zillion websites out there in an attempt to shortlist property types/area to live later in the year. 
My company will pay 1st months serviced apartment, thereafter they will be pay deposit,key & agent fees for first move and deposit for any move thereafter. 
Still waiting to see what the ceiling is in terms of numbers. Given that I would like to ideally make the first move the only move given the benefit on offer, 
I have noticed a number of apartments on offer with very high deposit & key money requirements - Y2m + Y1m respectively and yet the rent is quite reasonable, would I be right in saying that given the high deposit,key figures would this suggest the property is an a more desirable location or are these numbers, ie deposit & key simply at the request of the owner as "security". 

Thanks
Andy


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## larabell (Sep 10, 2007)

pasturesnew said:


> I have noticed a number of apartments on offer with very high deposit & key money requirements - Y2m + Y1m respectively and yet the rent is quite reasonable, would I be right in saying that given the high deposit,key figures would this suggest the property is an a more desirable location or are these numbers, ie deposit & key simply at the request of the owner as "security".


That doesn't make a lot of sense. Up-front costs are usually quoted as being proportional to the rent. The key money is generally one month's rent. Deposits are generally either one month or two months rent, the higher figure is usually indicative of the quality of the place (ie: how much real damage you could do). And the realtor almost always gets one month's rent. I've seen deposits quoted in yen but never the key money. Are you sure you're reading it right? Perhaps you could post a URL (or PM it to me) so I can take a look.

Property in a more desirable location should command higher rent. The key money is pocket change compared to what the landlord ends up getting if you stay in the place for a few years. And the deposit is *supposed* to come back (though with some landlords, you see very little back at the end). So jacking these costs up without a similarly jacked-up rent seems kinda odd to me.

BTW, recently there have been reasonable places on the market with no key money. Not many... but they're out there, if that matters to you.

To answer your direct question, the deposit is security. In theory, it covers any damage you do. In practice, there's usually enough nickel-and-dime stuff they'll find that sometimes little comes back. The key money is not security. The landlord keeps that no matter what. It's just a fee you pay to thank the owner for renting you the place. I suppose the landlord could ask for whatever they think is fair as long as there's someone willing to pay it. But, like I said, in almost all cases I can recall, it's generally set at the equivalent to one month's rent. (BTW, most places are leased -- two years is very common -- and the "key money" is paid again upon renewal of the lease.)


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## pasturesnew (Sep 7, 2007)

larabell said:


> That doesn't make a lot of sense. Up-front costs are usually quoted as being proportional to the rent. The key money is generally one month's rent. Deposits are generally either one month or two months rent, the higher figure is usually indicative of the quality of the place (ie: how much real damage you could do). And the realtor almost always gets one month's rent. I've seen deposits quoted in yen but never the key money. Are you sure you're reading it right? Perhaps you could post a URL (or PM it to me) so I can take a look.
> 
> Property in a more desirable location should command higher rent. The key money is pocket change compared to what the landlord ends up getting if you stay in the place for a few years. And the deposit is *supposed* to come back (though with some landlords, you see very little back at the end). So jacking these costs up without a similarly jacked-up rent seems kinda odd to me.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your prompt reply <again>. See link below to 1 of properties Ive been looking at - note high deposit & key & yet rent is Y300K, desirable area or nervous owners ?....

Hikari Homes ? Rentals Listing ? Hikari home Inc. ? 3LDK Mansion in Ashiya-shi, Tokyo


Rgds
Andy


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## larabell (Sep 10, 2007)

pasturesnew said:


> See link below to 1 of properties Ive been looking at - note high deposit & key & yet rent is Y300K, desirable area or nervous owners ?....


Well... you're certainly not reading it wrong. That's quite a huge ratio -- like over four month's rent for key money?? Either it's a mistake or the owner/agent has an over-inflated sense of self-worth (since key money is basically a "thank-you" to the owner for renting you the place). And $25K US deposit on a place that rents for around $3K?? Assuming that's even accurate, it's certainly an exception, not the rule.

When I tried to find out where this was, I ran across another listing in the same area that shows the more traditional way of quoting deposit and key money:

Hikari Homes ? Rentals Listing ? Hikari home Inc. ? 5LDK+ Mansion in Ashiya-shi, Tokyo

That place rents for 1.3 million yen per month. So I was even more curious as to where this could possibly be. But... the only Ashiya/Ashiya-shi/Ashiyagawa that I was able to find is in Hyogo-ken (near Kobe), not Tokyo. I've never heard of a place by that name in Tokyo. So I'm not sure I'd rely on the information there unless you can confirm it with a real human.

BTW, if you follow the links to that company's home page, they have plenty of 1R and 1K places in the Y80K/month range, some with no key money, and with that one exception, they mostly list deposit and key money as a multiple of the rent. I have no clue what's up with the place whose URL you quoted.


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