Calls the company fantastic and as advertised: no damage deposit was charged at move-out, and it anchored their first settling in Japan. The downsides are locations that are not the most convenient and buildings that are not new. They would go back.
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Village House: costs, old buildings and what residents say
Low-rent apartments in all 47 prefectures with no key money, agent fee or renewal fee. Most buildings are decades old and every lease runs two years. This guide shows what that means for your budget, your sleep and your exit.
On this page
Village House at a glance
Terms from Village House’s FAQ, property pages and application guide, read on October 5, 2026. Each row says where it comes from.
| Topic | What Village House says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | Village House Management Co., Ltd., founded December 2016 in Tokyo (formerly Residential Service Japan Co., Ltd.). Over 1,000 properties and 100,000 homes in 47 prefectures. | Company page, home page |
| Rent | From about ¥20,000 a month. Across 186 priced rooms in the 223 buildings we checked on October 5, 2026, listed rents ran from ¥22,400 to ¥85,200. | Home page, property pages |
| Move-in costs | Prorated rent for the first month, the next month’s rent and fire insurance from ¥10,000 for two years. No key money, agent fee or renewal fee. | FAQ |
| Deposit and guarantor | None as a rule. A deposit or joint guarantor may be required after screening. Pet owners pay a one-month deposit for mammals. | FAQ, property pages |
| Lease | Two years, renewing every two years. No short-term contracts. | FAQ |
| Leaving early | Three months of rent within 12 months, two months within 24, plus cleaning at ¥1,210 per m² at every move-out. | FAQ |
| Languages | Website in seven languages. Help by phone on 0120-266-078, and an international support team of 26 staff in five languages as of July 2025. | Home page, July 2025 news release |
| Applying | Online only. Identity is checked online and employment by phone. Applications are first come, first served. | Viewing and application guide |
Village House updates campaigns and rents often. Confirm the numbers for your own room before you pay anything.
What it costs to move in
Village House’s own worked example is a ¥45,000 apartment with a move-in on the 15th. The bill is the prorated rent, the next month’s rent and fire insurance. The Moving Support campaign takes up to ¥30,000 off, on eligible properties.
Everything else is a separate, optional or conditional line. Parking is a separate contract, and the monthly fee ran from ¥2,200 to ¥28,600 depending on the building, with 20 buildings at ¥0. Air conditioners, a kitchen water heater, a gas stove, a vanity sink and a washlet toilet are add-ons at ¥1,300 a month each, and not every unit can take them. Utilities are yours to set up with each company.
The full breakdown, a two-year cost sketch and the campaign conditions are on the cost guide.
How much is Village House rent?
Rent differs by building, floor, size and whether the room was renovated. This table shows the lowest and highest listed rent we saw in each area on October 5, 2026. It comes from rooms that showed a price that day, so it is a snapshot, not an average.
| Area | Listed rents seen (lowest to highest) | Priced rooms | Buildings checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | ¥85,200 | 1 | 7 |
| Osaka | ¥37,800 – ¥63,900 | 22 | 29 |
| Fukuoka | ¥27,300 – ¥60,600 | 47 | 47 |
| Sapporo | ¥34,500 – ¥68,900 | 13 | 12 |
| Okayama | ¥22,400 – ¥57,700 | 47 | 53 |
| Aichi / Nagoya | ¥31,300 – ¥71,300 | 56 | 75 |
Source: official property pages, checked on October 5, 2026. Many rooms showed no price because no unit was vacant. Open the property page for today’s rent.
The cheapest rooms were 33 m² two-room (2K) layouts in Okayama at about ¥22,000 to ¥24,000. The highest was a 58 m² three-room (3DK) in Akishima, Tokyo, at ¥85,200. A rent shown on the site can differ from the one quoted at inquiry, because Village House says it reviews rents periodically.
Why the buildings are old
Many Village House blocks are former employment-promotion housing (雇用促進住宅, koyō sokushin jūtaku), public apartments built by a government agency for workers. In December 2016 a Fortress Investment Group company agreed to buy the agency’s western Japan stock alone, 59,904 homes in 626 properties, and began renting them under the Village House name in 2017.
That history explains the pattern you see on the property pages: concrete blocks of four or five floors, a handful of rooms per stairwell, and rents in the ¥20,000s to ¥40,000s. Of the 223 buildings in our six areas, 213 list no elevator. The 10 that do are towers, such as Shibaura Tower in Tokyo, Kasadera Tower in Nagoya and Kashiihama Tower in Fukuoka.
Some rooms are renovated: Village House’s listings tag them “Renovated”, and residents’ accounts describe renovated and untouched rooms in the same building. Ask for the exact room, because the photos of one unit say nothing about the next.
Sources: Village House company page; the ATPress release on the JEED sale.
What the rooms look like
Layout codes tell you the room count: the number is rooms, K is a kitchen, DK is a dining kitchen, LDK adds a living room. Three layouts cover most of the buildings we read.
2K 29–34 m² Two rooms and a kitchen. The most common layout in our sample.
3DK 49–61 m² Three rooms and a dining kitchen. A family size in the older blocks.
2LDK 49–61 m² Two rooms and a combined living-dining-kitchen, usually in renovated units.
How far are the buildings from a station?
31% of the 223 buildings list a station within a 15-minute walk. 10 list one more than an hour away, which usually means a bus or a car.
What residents say
We read residents’ accounts on Reddit, plus Japanese sources, and kept every point we could trace to a link. The same few themes repeat. The full set, with Japanese sources, is on the reviews page.
Nothing was charged at move-in beyond two years of insurance, and there was a campaign. No guarantor, only an emergency contact. Real English and other-language support, everything online including signing, with documents sent in English. Their renovated unit had air conditioning, new walls, a wall-mounted kerosene heater and a system kitchen, plus cheap rent, cheap parking, city gas and a storage unit.
A 1980s-era danchi: “forget about soundproofing”. Neighbors were mostly elderly and a downstairs neighbor complained about showers after 8 pm. Hallways were dirty though the outside is cleaned. Leaving before two years brings a fine they put at two to four months of rent, fiber was not permitted, and in some buildings the bath is in a separate building.
In their area every Village House rental is in an extremely old danchi (public-housing block) at around ¥30,000, cheap for a reason. They say it is more likely to rent to people refused elsewhere, so neighbors can be questionable, and that it depends on the building.
Very good: no fees as advertised and cheap gas. Of two rooms seen in the same building, one had old tatami and patchy walls and the one they took was freshly renovated with three air conditioners and a bidet. They hear little from neighbors in a top corner room, the management office answers in their language, and a bus stop 3 minutes away reaches a major station in 15.
Satisfied with the home and calls Village House a legitimate large company with properties across the country. Was charged no key money or deposit at move-in, as advertised, and recalls being asked to prove a source of income.
Residents’ accounts are personal and unverified. They are not a survey, and most do not say which building they describe. Use them as questions to ask at a viewing.
Pros and cons
Good for
- Low rent, from about ¥20,000, in places where other operators charge more.
- No key money, agent fee or renewal fee, and a small move-in bill.
- No guarantor needed as a rule; one resident reports giving an emergency contact instead.
- Help in several languages and an online application with documents available in English.
- Solid concrete construction, according to a resident who compared it with Leopalace.
Watch out for
- Two-year minimum. Leaving in the first year costs three months of rent.
- Buildings from the 1960s to 1980s, mostly without an elevator.
- Residents report thin walls, dirty shared hallways and mixed neighbors in some blocks.
- Many sites are far from a station: 116 of 223 buildings list a walk of more than 20 minutes.
- Unfurnished, and some options such as air conditioning cost extra every month.
How to apply
Village House describes five stages. The details that trip people up are in the guides linked below.
- Find a roomSearch by area, train line, layout or rent on the Village House site, or call 0120-266-078.
- Book a viewing, or ask to apply without oneBooking a viewing does not hold the room. Applications are first come, first served.
- Apply onlineApplications are online only. Documents can go in at the viewing. Identity is checked online and your employer by phone.
- Pass screeningPrepare a photo ID, proof of income and a copy of the bankbook for the account your income goes into.
- Sign, pay and collect the keysSign the lease, register your bank for direct debit, pay the initial costs and fire insurance, then collect the keys from the apartment manager.
Village House guides by topic
Costs
The move-in bill step by step, campaigns, parking, add-ons and a two-year cost sketch.
Screening
The document list by applicant type, how the checks work and how to avoid delays.
For foreigners
Documents, seven website languages, phone support and the online bank setup.
Moving out
The early termination charge, cleaning by size, worked examples and a handover checklist.
Reviews
Residents’ accounts from Reddit and Japanese sites, grouped by topic, with what is verified.
Where Village House has apartments
We read every building in the official directory for six areas on October 5, 2026: 223 buildings with 29,188 homes between them. Counts are properties, not vacant rooms.
Tokyo
Towers in Minato and Nishitokyo, older blocks in Akishima and Hachioji.
7 properties in the official directoryOsaka
Southern Osaka towns on the Hanwa and Nankai lines.
29 properties in the official directoryFukuoka
Kitakyushu, Fukuoka City and smaller towns across the prefecture.
47 properties in the official directorySapporo
Compact blocks in Nishi, Toyohira, Kita and Teine wards.
12 properties in the official directoryOkayama
Okayama City, Kurashiki, Tamano and rural towns.
53 properties in the official directoryAichi / Nagoya
Kasadera Tower in Nagoya and a long list of other cities.
75 properties in the official directoryVillage House or Leopalace?
They solve different problems. The two examples use different rents and dates, so this is a comparison of terms, not of price.
| Topic | Village House | Leopalace |
|---|---|---|
| Furniture | Not included. Air conditioner and other items are paid add-ons. | Furnished with appliances. |
| Shortest stay | Two years. No short-term lease. | 30 days on a monthly contract. |
| Move-in bill | About ¥49,000 to ¥79,000 in the operator’s ¥45,000 example. | ¥234,705 in the operator’s ¥50,000 example, plus a guarantor fee. |
| Key money, deposit | No key money; a deposit may follow screening. | No deposit in the example; key money varies by property. |
| Buildings | 1960s to 1980s concrete blocks, mostly walk-ups. | Wooden and steel-frame apartment buildings, newer ones rated for sound. |
| Guide | This page | Leopalace review |
Sources: Village House FAQ; Leopalace lease guide (the Leopalace review has the details).
Village House’s apartment search
Opens Village House's site (English site)
Village House FAQ
Is Village House legit?
Yes. Village House Management Co., Ltd. has operated since December 2016 and rents over 100,000 homes in all 47 prefectures. The scam worry comes from the low bill: the operator charges no key money, agent fee or renewal fee, so the move-in cost is rent and insurance.
Is Village House bad? Is it “yabai”?
It depends on the building. The company is sound, but the apartments are old and cheap, and residents describe noise, uneven neighbors and dirty hallways in some blocks next to well-kept, renovated rooms in others. View the exact room before you apply.
Can foreigners rent Village House apartments?
Yes. Village House says all its apartments are open to foreign residents, and its site, application guide and bank-registration guide come in seven languages. You still pass screening, with a residence card as photo ID.
Does Village House need a guarantor or deposit?
Not as a rule, but both can be required after screening, and mammal pets need a one-month deposit. Guarantor companies are a separate question: ask what your application needs.
How much does it cost to move into Village House?
In Village House’s own example for a ¥45,000 apartment, the bill is ¥79,000 without a campaign and ¥49,000 with the ¥30,000 Moving Support. Parking, options and utilities are extra.
Can I leave Village House early?
You can, at a price. Leaving within 12 months costs three months of rent and related charges, and within 24 months two months. Cleaning at ¥1,210 per m² is charged at every move-out.
Does Village House come furnished?
No. Rooms vary: some are renovated with air conditioning and a system kitchen, others are plain. Air conditioners, a gas stove and similar items are add-ons at ¥1,300 a month each.
Why are Village House apartments so cheap?
Many are decades-old public-housing-style blocks in car-oriented suburbs and regional cities, often far from stations, without elevators and with simple fittings. Rent reflects that.
Set Up in Japan is an independent guide. It is not the property operator’s website.
Village House’s apartment search
Opens Village House's site (English site)
How we checked
Terms come from Village House’s English FAQ, home page, campaign page, company page and property pages, plus its application guide and bank-registration guide, all read on October 5, 2026. Building details come from all 223 property pages in the six area directories, saved and compared. Residents’ accounts are paraphrased from the Reddit comments linked on each card; we have not lived in a Village House and give no star rating.
The Village House buttons on this page are A8.net affiliate links: we may earn a commission if you send an inquiry through them. It does not change what we write. Read our editorial policy.