What happens to apartments where murders occur?

Ever wondered what happens to a residence where people are killed? Real estate agents affirm that there are not too many people who are willing to move into a place where a murder has taken place. However, there are some people who don’t mind and even seek out such places, expecting to get them for low rent.

Earlier this year, a grisly murder took place in a Tokyo apartment. But a new resident soon moved in. A neighbor says, “The owner quickly found a tenant, a young woman. I often hear her playing music. I guess she got it very cheaply even though the owner made extensive renovations after the murder. Neighbors often talk about it.”

A real estate agent says, “The location and facility are great. The original rent was about 200,000 yen a month. Although we thought we’d have to halve the rent to find a new tenant, we only had to go down by 50,000 yen. It didn’t take long to find a tenant, just a month.”

The new resident refused to talk to Shukan Post about her reasons for choosing the apartment.

“Women tend to choose such apartments. Men, rather than women, tend to be superstitious and think the place will be haunted by the victim or something,” says a real estate company owner. “Since there are more high-rise apartments recently, we have more death-leap cases. But some people don’t care about that. Rather, they try to negotiate the rent, referring to these cases. They exchange information on the availability of such places and what the rent is likely to be with each other online. The range of discounts varies, but typically it’s 20% off.”

Real estate agents are legally obliged to disclose information on whether there was a murder or suicide in any residence they are trying to rent. “Even if we didn’t, neighbors would certainly tell new residents any gruesome details,” said one real estate agent. (Translated by Taro Fujimoto)

Latest 15 of 32 Total Comments Show All

Kijimuna at 01:37 PM JST - 2nd July

I don't think fear of ghosts is the only explanation for a person's avoiding such a place. Whether it's a sacred place or the suicide woods in Yamanashi, a place derives meaning from its history and that meaning changes only with time or fundamental reforms that change its character. A long time ago, I spent a few months in a guest house with foreign and Japanese tenants. One of the other buildings operated by the company had a tenant who hung himself on the doorknob to his room. Shortly after, one of the tenants approached the office asking to move to that room in exchange for a cut in rent. I can't imagine trusting a guy like that because I think it says something about his character. How would he exploit my tragedy?
Sarge at 01:46 PM JST - 2nd July

"Men, rather than women, tend to be superstitious"

That must be why the majority of fortune teller clients are women.
badge123 at 03:24 PM JST - 2nd July

Well if some guy leaped out of the room, he didn't die in the room so that'll be ok. But if some guy hanged himself in the room, I don't know. If the rent was really cheap and the place was convenient. Guess I could always use the money saved to call in the Ghostbusters.
magpie at 03:24 PM JST - 2nd July

I once recall a story about a man who was travelling in Hakone or aplace like that. It was the season of the local festivals and he couldn't get a room in any of the ryokans. he kept walking down the shotengai till he reached the end and found an empty cleanly kept ryokan. It seemed very quiet, which he attributed to the fact that it was at the end of the street. Nevertheless he walked in and got a room. As the night passed on, he had dinner served in his room. He was reading when he noticed that it was soon getting livelier and livelier and he can hear the sound of people talking and drinking and enjoying a merry time. It seemed to be coming out of the oohiroma at the end of the corridor. As evening progressed to night, the noise got louder and louder, till he started getting annoyed. He opened his door and was about to walk over to tell everyone to calm down, what shocked him was that the moment he opened the door, the sound subsided to silence. Scare and shaken he closed the door straight away only to hear the noise again. Now fearing for his sanity he opened the shoji covering teh windows and opened his winddow. To his shock he realised that his window was facing a grave yard. The story I was tld ended with this gentlemen immediately rushing out fo the ryokan and heading for the nearest crowd in fear and shock.
badge123 at 03:45 PM JST - 2nd July

ha, the things missing from that story was he was Traveling to Hakone to write a book for the winter with his family, and his son has the Shining.

Moderator: Back on topic please.
wilbur at 05:16 PM JST - 2nd July

kijimuna: it wasn't his tragedy so why would he care ? strangers die all the time...as a matter of fact, probably 2000 people worldwide died as i was typing this
KyouNoNippon at 05:37 PM JST - 2nd July

magpie, my story is better.
Kijimuna at 07:05 PM JST - 2nd July

wilbur, the penny pincher lived in the building with the deceased and knew him. Perhaps that's no issue for you, but it is for me.
Queenofmuffins at 10:42 PM JST - 2nd July

Suicide, I could probably deal with. A grisly Murder? Hmm, maybe not so much...
Triple888 at 07:16 PM JST - 3rd July

To be honest, I believe every apartment has had some kind of history of death. We just don't know it.
spiderman at 07:27 PM JST - 3rd July

interesting article..
akasakarealesta at 11:37 PM JST - 3rd July

As a local Tokyo real estate agent I definitely agree that there is a suicide discount. Late last year we bought an apartment for a client where the previous owner had committed suicide. In this case the discount over normal market prices was about 25% even though the apartment had been completely remodeled and a purification ceremony had been held by the local shrine. And for your information Japanese brokerage rules make it very clear that you have to disclose if the previous owner committed suicide on the property. But you do not have to the disclose if it was the owner before the current owner.
rranta at 04:44 AM JST - 4th July

I think it might be good to have the apartment gone over with a spirit sensing critter to see if the apartment does have an unwelcome tentent. I have seen both cat's and dog's look up at the wall above my bed posts. I'm not kidding. Just because we can't see anything doesn't mean it's not there.
palmersun at 10:42 AM JST - 4th July

akasakarealesta has got it right. My last place was where some guy in his 20's had somehow died while inside the apt, but they wouldn't tell us why. Sure enough, a 20% discount on the rent... but only for the first two years. When we'd renew the contract -- or move out and they rent to someone else -- it went back up to the normal cost and there's no longer any need to mention dead people. No doubt that is precisely how they keep it so that every apartment in the country isn't classified as having someone died in it before.
romulus3 at 12:58 PM JST - 4th July

romulus wouldn't like it. romulus has a 6th sense. for example, I know when the mod will delete my post before it happens, and have seen 2 ghosts, been punched by one, felt and seen a couple of other things that are unexplainable....if some one was murdered or committed suicide in a house, I don't need that black energy in my life.