Ikea is renting a tiny apartment in Tokyo for less than $1 a month

Swedish furniture retailer Ikea has dipped its toes into the Japanese property market after purchasing a tiny apartment in Toyko to rent out to a tenant for the bargain price of 99 yen ($0.82) per month.

While the 10-square-meter (107-square-foot) apartment located in the Shinjuku district of Japan’s capital is pretty small, Ikea has added its signature furnishings to show how they have made the most out of the space.

Over 14 million people live in Tokyo according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, making it one of the most densely populated cities in the world (6,158 persons per square kilometer) - so it’s no surprise that micro-apartments like this are becoming a property trend.

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With only one unit available along with the incredibly low rent cost, the apartment is definitely hot property and Ikea has now opened up tenant applications, those applying have until December 3 to do and also must be over 20 years old.

Inside the tiny apartment decked out with Ikea furnishings YouTube/IKEA JAPAN

Until January 15th 2023, the place will be leased out by the retail giant but the tenant must pay their own utility bills (which we think is a fair deal considering the bargain price of the rent).

The campaign surrounding this apartment is called “Tiny Homes,” and includes a three-part series on their YouTube channel which shows BLÅHAJ, the estate agent shark who specialises in small spaces seeing his vision for the apartment come to life (with a little help from the Ikea design team of course).

“One of the keys is to make good use of the vertical space,” Ikea’s website reads. “By capturing the room three-dimensionally, new possibilities open up in a limited space.”

Though, this apartment isn’t the first property the company has been involved with.

Ikea helped to build affordable modular homes in Sweden, Finland and Norway in the joint venture BoKlok with Swedish construction company Skanska, CNN reported.

BoKlok has also launched specially designed homes for those with dementia in 2019 so that they could remain living at home.