Sometimes I just repost stuff I found interesting on the web. This one from Feb-06 was about a new apartment building in Tokyo that was renting for ~$10,000 (USD) per month. The link on the post is no longer active but it redirected me to the main leasing company website. I looked up the same apartment and there is only one unit for rent: a 667 ft^2 one-bedroom apartment for ~$6,000 per month. That's about ~$72,000 per year just for rent... do Japanese people eat? Or do they all make >$100k per year and don't pay taxes?
It looks like prices have dropped in the last 4 years but it's still crazy expensive for a little apartment. With the expansion of Google Maps and Street View, I can actually check out the surroundings online.
PDF map from building website
Floorplan for the only available 1BR apartment
Google Maps satellite view of the neighborhood ("A" marks the building complex)
Google Street View
The apartment's balcony is near the middle of the Street View image and appears to be the lower unit. From the floorplans, there is only one row of apartments. If you pan around the view, it looks like a pretty busy area. At the back of the apartment building, there is an elementary school. I guess it's convenient since it's between two subway stations that are also transfer points to other lines. However, unless the building is well insulated, it's probably very noisy at all hours of the day. $6,000/month will get you a ~$1.2M mortgage here... I need to check out whether 700 ft^2 lofts in downtown LA costs that much.
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