foreign family housing in Kyoto
 

We are a couple with a young child (age 5). Do you have any suggestions on searching for Kyoto housing from afar? We need housing for one year.

My spouse will be doing research in Kyoto and Osaka. We prefer to live in Kyoto, and need reasonable indoor (and outdoor) space--or at least a location close to parks or other open space (and transit).

My spouse speaks and reads Japanese.

Thanks! jeff b

You might try here:

GaijinPot: Jobs, Apartments, and Information for living in Japan

Thanks. The site looks good, but not for Kyoto housing.

Do rental homes even exist in Japan? I have only heard of rental apartments, but have never heard of someone renting a house. Are you not considering apartments as a possibility?

We actually did rent a house in Kyoto in the past--a tiny traditional style place--and I know a few others who have. I would imagine that things are very different in Tokyo or Osaka, though. I didn't see any apartment listings on the site for Kyoto, but I'll take a closer look.

thanks, jb

Looking more closely, there don't appear to be any listings in Kyoto. I thought Gaijinpot covered the whole country, but apparently not.

You can rent a house pretty much anywhere - it`s more common than you might think. I know a handful of people who own older houses that they started renting out when they built a new house. The buildings tend to be old and run down and renting is usually very long term so they don`t appear as much on the market as apartments - but they`re out there.
In my personal opinion, you`re usually better off renting an apartment in the long run because they tend to be better kept and aren`t nearly as expensive, as houses tend to be 1.5 times the normal price of the area for the exact same amount of space.

Unfortunately I can`t offer any specific help for Kyoto, but have you tried the regular Japanese rental sites? Those catering to foreigners tend to be over priced with tons of mark ups (over the already present normal fees).

Apaman Shop comes up with 36 houses in Kyoto city.
Able comes up with 62 (including terrace houses).
Home's has over 1000 listings, though some are closer to shed than house...

That's interesting info...never knew.

Even though Kyoto is a smaller city than Osaka, is it safe to guess that a rental home is not going to have a "yard" or "garden space" for a kid to run around?

I am sometimes amazed at how much space you can get once you get even only a few miles outside of the city. Often that means you need to have a car, as they aren't near any train stations, but depending on priorities that may be the way to go.

I`d say that is probably a safe assumption. I`m sure there are some with small yards, but they`re going to be pretty rare. Normally any land not taken by the house becomes parking space.

In my experience, just outside the subway system is a great place to live. I have observed this in a number of cities - if you can`t walk to the subway, chances are you`ll have a lot more space and possibly even a garden. This is true even if you`re fairly close to a non-subway station.

I`ll toss up my place as an example - it`s a condo, not a house, but the same still applies. I live about 10 minutes by car from Nagoya station, but on the other side of a large river blocking subway expansion. It`s a 15 minute walk / 5 minute bicycle ride to a station (not subway). We have about 1.3 times the household space of a place in the city within subway service, with a large private yard - with almost as much space as the house... And a parking spot in addition to that.

You always make it sound like you are outside of Nagoya, but this sounds very much within Nagoya...