Japan Housing Websites (part One)

Japan Housing Websites (part one)

Want to move to Japan? Me too! Lately I’ve seen a lot of Instagram pages dedicated to showing off cheap homes in Japan. These pages usually just link back to a Japanese real estate website, so I’d like to list some handy vocabulary to help you navigate the sites and find some houses on your own!

Note: This post was made with intermediate level Japanese learners in mind. It's meant to be a vocabulary list with visual examples, not an all-inclusive house buying guide. For general website navigation, I’d recommend the RikaiChan / RikaiKun extensions which will display a translation of each word you mouse over.

What Websites?

I really like SUUMO, so that will be the site I use for the example pictures. But any website will have more or less the same words!

Navigating the Website

[ 1 ]　Creating an Account 会員（かいいん）登録（とうろく）：Member Registration

[ 2 ]　Search 探す（さがす）：Search / Find This word will come up a lot! The search function may also appear as... 検索（けんさく）：Search 物件（ぶっけん）検索：Property Search

Suumo has a nifty map on the front page. If you know the region you'd like to search in, you can choose it here.

[ 3 ]　Renting 借りる（かりる）：Rent (Borrow) 賃貸（ちんたい）：Lease / Rent

[ 4 ]　Purchasing 買う（かう）：Buy

[ 5 ]　House Terminology If you've taken a Japanese class, you may have learned that the Japanese word for house is 家 or いえ. Unfortunately, this short and simple word isn't used much on real estate websites. The following terms are typically used instead.

一戸建て（いっこだて）：Detached Building A standalone house, as opposed to an apartment or condo.

新築（しんちく）一戸建て：New Buildings

中古（ちゅうこ）一戸建て：Old Buildings 中古 can mean "old", "used", or “secondhand”, none of which sound ideal, but all it means is that the house that has been lived in previously. This is where you find the cheap ones!

Finding Houses

Once you have the region and building type selected, you’ll see a new map you can use to select the prefecture. I'll highlight a few key search methods on this screen.

[ 1 ]　Search by Area（エリア）

Click on a prefecture to bring up a checklist of cities and districts. At the bottom of the list, you'll see two options: refining the search further or proceeding with the checked options.

「チェックした市区郡の町名を絞り込む」 "Narrow by town names of checked cities/wards/districts"

市区郡（しくぐん）："City Ward District" 町名（ちょうめい）：Town Name 絞り込む（しぼりこむ）：Narrow / Refine

「この条件で検索する」 "Search with these conditions"

条件（じょうけん）：Condition / Term

The orange number shows how many total properties were found with the checked selections. Click the blue search button if you want to jump straight to the houses without refining the search.

[ 2 ]　Search by Railway（沿線）or Station（駅）

Click on a prefecture to bring up a checklist of railways. At the bottom of the list, you'll see two options: refining the search further or proceeding with the checked options.

「チェックした沿線の駅を絞り込む」 "Narrow by stations of checked railways"

沿線（えんせん）：Railway / Track 駅（えき）：Station 絞り込む（しぼりこむ）：Narrow / Refine

「この条件で検索する」 "Search with these conditions"

条件（じょうけん）：Condition / Term

Once again, the orange number shows how many total properties were found with the checked selections. Click the blue search button if you want to jump straight to the houses without refining the search.

[ 3 ]　Search by Map（地図、ちず） Clicking here will open up a much more detailed map that you can scroll through! Definitely the easiest option, which is why I put it last. :)

The End.

Hopefully you found some of these words useful.

I might do one more post related to houses, where I highlight vocabulary describing the houses themselves (instead of just how to search for them).

For now, here's the complete vocab list for ease of viewing:

会員（かいいん）登録（とうろく）：Member Registration 探す（さがす）：Search / Find 検索（けんさく）：Search 物件（ぶっけん）検索：Property Search 借りる（かりる）：Rent (Borrow) 賃貸（ちんたい）：Lease / Rent 買う（かう）：Buy 一戸建て（いっこだて）：Detached Building 新築（しんちく）一戸建て：New Buildings 中古（ちゅうこ）一戸建て：Old Buildings 市区郡（しくぐん）："City Ward District" 町名（ちょうめい）：Town Name 沿線（えんせん）：Railway / Track 駅（えき）：Station 絞り込む（しぼりこむ）：Narrow / Refine 条件（じょうけん）：Condition / Term