Tokyo's 23 Wards: Where to Buy Property in 2026

Tokyo's 23 wards ranked by land price in 2026

The only figure that is truly comparable across wards is the official residential land price published every year by the Japanese state. The table below shows the chika koji (chika kōji, official published land price) as of 1 January 2026, the year-on-year rise, the resident-register population on the same date and its annual change. None of these numbers is an estimate: they come from the Tokyo Metropolitan Finance Bureau and the Metropolitan Statistics Division.

Ward	Residential land (yen/sqm)	Equivalent (EUR/sqm)	2026 rise	Population	Population change
Chiyoda (Chiyoda-ku)	3,631,400	22,416	+10.7%	69,139	+0.44%
Minato (Minato-ku)	3,013,700	18,603	+16.6%	269,877	+0.78%
Chuo (Chūō-ku)	1,930,000	11,914	+13.8%	191,015	+1.93%
Shibuya (Shibuya-ku)	1,874,100	11,569	+11.0%	230,880	-0.23%
Bunkyo (Bunkyō-ku)	1,448,100	8,939	+13.8%	236,981	+0.70%
Meguro (Meguro-ku)	1,404,500	8,670	+13.7%	282,607	+0.43%
Taito (Taitō-ku)	1,320,800	8,153	+14.2%	217,512	+0.66%
Shinagawa (Shinagawa-ku)	1,244,100	7,680	+13.9%	415,644	+0.69%
Shinjuku (Shinjuku-ku)	1,131,600	6,985	+11.2%	355,125	+0.68%
Toshima (Toshima-ku)	912,100	5,630	+12.9%	296,129	+0.50%
Nakano (Nakano-ku)	782,700	4,831	+9.0%	343,794	+0.72%
Setagaya (Setagaya-ku)	779,900	4,814	+7.0%	928,666	+0.59%
Kita (Kita-ku)	742,000	4,580	+11.6%	367,432	+1.48%
Arakawa (Arakawa-ku)	718,700	4,436	+11.8%	224,784	+1.13%
Suginami (Suginami-ku)	703,200	4,341	+8.2%	582,636	+0.95%
Koto (Kōtō-ku)	661,500	4,083	+11.9%	543,193	+0.28%
Ota (Ōta-ku)	647,600	3,998	+7.9%	745,048	+0.61%
Sumida (Sumida-ku)	613,300	3,786	+13.2%	288,833	+0.53%
Itabashi (Itabashi-ku)	553,600	3,417	+8.5%	583,528	+0.80%
Nerima (Nerima-ku)	480,500	2,966	+6.2%	750,559	+0.62%
Edogawa (Edogawa-ku)	441,100	2,723	+5.7%	697,414	+0.55%
Adachi (Adachi-ku)	410,800	2,536	+6.3%	703,369	+0.73%
Katsushika (Katsushika-ku)	387,500	2,392	+5.6%	472,558	+0.56%
23-ward average	856,400	5,286	+9.0%	9,796,723	+0.68%

Three findings jump out, and they drive everything that follows.

• The spread is 9.4 to 1 between the priciest ward (Chiyoda) and the cheapest (Katsushika). Talking about "the price of property in Tokyo" is therefore meaningless in practice: on the same budget you buy a studio downtown or a townhouse plot out east.
• All 23 wards rose, without exception, for the fifth year running, and the pace is accelerating: +9.0% on average for residential land against +7.9% the year before. Of the 1,530 comparable survey points inside the 23 wards, 1,530 went up. Not one fell.
• The most expensive wards are not always the fastest movers: Minato leads at +16.6%, but Taito (+14.2%) and Shinagawa (+13.9%) beat Chiyoda (+10.7%) and Shibuya (+11.0%). Eastern wards trail: Katsushika +5.6%, Edogawa +5.7%.

If Japan is new to you, start with our complete guide to buying property in Japan: it lays out the steps, documents and timeline of a purchase made from abroad. For the national picture, our review of Japanese property prices in 2026 puts Tokyo back into a country where most prefectures are flat.

How to read these prices, and what they do not tell you

The chika koji is an official appraisal: the land appraisal committee of the Kokudo kotsusho (Kokudo Kōtsū-shō, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) selects benchmark points, has them valued as of 1 January and publishes the result in March. For Tokyo Metropolis alone, the 2026 edition covers 2,602 points, 1,663 of them residential. It is the most solid free data a foreign buyer has.

In Japan, land carries the value

Western buyers think in price per square metre of floor area. In Japan the building is a wasting asset: a timber house is depreciated over 22 years for tax purposes, and the market writes it down to zero long before it becomes unusable. That mechanism is explained in why Japanese houses lose their value while land keeps it. Practical consequence: in a ward at 780,000 yen per sqm of land, two identical houses standing on 80 sqm and on 45 sqm of land are not worth the same, whatever their condition.

A ward average is not a purchase price

• It does not give you an apartment price. In a condominium you buy only a share of the land, diluted by the number of units. A 400-unit tower on 2,000 sqm turns unaffordable land into an accessible entry ticket: that is the whole point of our article on Tokyo tower mansions.
• The average hides the within-ward spread. Between an address 4 minutes from an express station and the same street 18 minutes away, the gap often exceeds the gap between two wards. Our study of buying near a Yamanote line station shows how much the station outweighs the ward name.
• It ignores the building. Management fees and the repair reserve can eat a third of the rent on a small older unit. We quantify that in our article on Japanese condominium fees.

The four Tokyos: reading the map in one minute

The 23 wards fall into four coherent families. The five central wards form an official statistical category (Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku, Shibuya) averaging 2,138,700 yen per sqm (13,202 euros) and rising 13.0% in 2026. The other eighteen, grouped under the official label "other wards", stand at 692,000 yen per sqm (4,272 euros) and +8.5%.

Family	Wards	Residential land (yen/sqm)	What you actually buy	Best suited to
The core	Chiyoda, Minato, Chuo, Shibuya, Shinjuku	1,131,600 to 3,631,400	Condominiums and towers, rarely land	Capital preservation and liquidity, not yield
The residential west	Meguro, Shinagawa, Nakano, Setagaya, Suginami, Ota	647,600 to 1,404,500	Townhouses, family condominiums	Stable long-term letting, future home
The north	Bunkyo, Taito, Toshima, Kita, Arakawa, Itabashi, Nerima	480,500 to 1,448,100	Studios and 1K units near the lines	Rental yield on a contained budget
The eastern lowlands	Koto, Sumida, Edogawa, Adachi, Katsushika	387,500 to 661,500	The lowest entry ticket of the 23	First purchase, if you accept flood exposure

The only part of Japan that is not emptying out

On 1 January 2026 the 23 wards counted 9,796,723 residents, up 0.68% year on year, while the country as a whole keeps shrinking. That structural fact is what justifies paying more for Tokyo than for the rest of Japan, and we cover it in our article on Japanese demographics and property. In detail, Chuo grew 1.93%, Kita 1.48%, Arakawa 1.13%. Only one ward lost residents: Shibuya, at -0.23%, which is no sign of weakness (its land rose 11.0%) but a reminder that price follows commercial use as much as headcount.

Density completes the picture: Toshima houses 22,762 residents per square kilometre, Chiyoda only 5,930. A dense ward is a deep rental market with fast tenant turnover, and that usually matters more to a non-resident landlord than prestige.

This page compares the wards with each other. If your question is rather "should I invest in Tokyo at all versus elsewhere in Japan", the answer sits in our dedicated analysis: investing in Tokyo, real yields and budget.

What your budget actually buys, ward by ward

The most honest way to make these prices concrete is to price the land alone for a 60 sqm plot, the standard footprint of a Tokyo townhouse. The figures below are a plain multiplication of the official prices: they include neither the building nor the transaction costs.

Ward	Land only, 60 sqm	In euros
Chiyoda	217,884,000 yen	1,344,963
Minato	180,822,000 yen	1,116,185
23-ward average	51,384,000 yen	317,185
Setagaya	46,794,000 yen	288,852
Koto	39,690,000 yen	245,000
Nerima	28,830,000 yen	177,963
Katsushika	23,250,000 yen	143,519

Under a 200,000 euro budget, a detached house inside the 23 wards is out of reach almost everywhere, and that is before building anything. This is why the Tokyo entry product is an apartment, and most often a studio.

Field count: what the affordable segment really contains

On 13 August 2026 we counted the apartments listed for sale across the 23 wards on the portal of the national federation of real estate professionals: 1,723 listings, of which 592 under 35 million yen and within a 10-minute walk of a station. Reading 200 of them one by one, 22.5% were built in 1990 or later, so roughly 100 to 170 units in all of Tokyo tick price, distance and age at once. The median profile of that sample is unambiguous: 24.2 sqm, built in 1984, 19,800,000 yen (122,222 euros), concrete structure in 96% of cases.

This segment is not "your Tokyo apartment": it is the investment studio, the same product Japanese investors target. Know that before building a holiday-home plan on this budget. To compare with a genuine family home, our article on buying a mansion apartment in Japan covers unit types, fees and due diligence.

Two dates filter everything: 1981 and 1990

In the same sample, 61% of units postdate 1982 against 22.5% built after 1990. Neither threshold is cosmetic. The shin taishin (shin-taishin, new earthquake resistance standard) applies to permits issued from June 1981 and drives insurance, resale and peace of mind: see our article on the 1981 seismic standard. The 1990 threshold is the one used by the few lenders open to foreigners.

Financing will not follow, and buying grants no visa

Two rules no ward can change. Japanese mortgages are reserved for people who are resident and employed in Japan; the handful of banks open to non-residents cap out around 50 to 70% of value and demand a strong profile, as our article on mortgages in Japan for foreigners explains. In practice a non-resident buyer pays cash. And buying property grants no residence status: the point is developed in buying a house in Japan without a visa.

Short-term rentals: the ward decides, not you

This is the most misunderstood part of Tokyo, and the most expensive to get wrong. The national jutaku shukuhaku jigyo-ho (jūtaku shukuhaku jigyō法, Private Lodging Business Act) allows up to 180 nights a year after notification. But two locks sit on top of it, and you need both open to operate legally.

1. The condominium bylaws. More than nine Tokyo buildings out of ten prohibit the activity, and the national model bylaws were amended so that every building must state its position explicitly. A listing that says nothing should be read as a refusal until the bylaws are produced.
2. The ward ordinance. Each ward may restrict where and when you operate. In practice most of them ban weekday nights in residential zones, which cuts the theoretical 180 nights down to an effective ceiling closer to 100 nights, weekends and school holidays only.

The table below summarises the latest official compilation of those ordinances, published by the Japan Tourism Agency (Kankocho, Kankō-chō). Caution: that compilation is dated 1 April 2021 and several wards have revised their text since. It gives the structure of the restrictions, not today's state: always check the ward's own page before signing.

Type of restriction	Wards concerned (2021 official compilation)	Practical effect
Weekdays banned across the whole ward	Chuo, Koto, Shinagawa, Meguro, Taito, Arakawa	Weekend-only operation, central address or not
Weekdays banned in residential zones	Shinjuku, Bunkyo, Setagaya, Nakano, Suginami, Nerima, Adachi, Itabashi	Everything hinges on the plot's zoning, check before offering
Seasonal or school-calendar windows	Minato, Shibuya	Operating windows tied to the school year
Restriction tied to the operating model	Chiyoda, Ota	Absent-host operation is the most restricted
No zone or period restriction on record	Toshima, Sumida, Kita, Katsushika, Edogawa	The condominium bylaws become the only lock

Two caveats the table cannot carry: in Taito the weekday ban targets only listings with no manager on site, and in Shinagawa commercial and neighbourhood-commercial zones fall outside the restriction. That level of nuance is what decides, on a specific address, between a 100-night projection and a 180-night one.

One example verified against the official source: in Shinjuku, operation is banned from Monday noon to Friday noon in exclusively residential zones, while elsewhere in the ward the 180 legal nights remain usable. The ward also requires written notice to neighbours seven days before the notification is filed. That is exactly the level of detail you need, ward by ward, before building any projection.

If short-term rental income is the point of your purchase, the real question is the licence rather than the ward: our comparison of the 180-day minpaku licence and the 365-day ryokan licence explains why serious operators aim for the latter. Demand is certainly there: Japan welcomed 42.7 million visitors in 2025, an all-time record. Our city-by-city numbers are gathered in Airbnb yields in Japan by city.

Worked example: a 24 sqm studio at 19.8 million yen

Take the median unit from our field count: a 24.2 sqm studio built in 1984, ten minutes from a station, listed at 19,800,000 yen (122,222 euros) in a northern or eastern ward. Here is the full budget, then the return depending on the rent actually achieved.

The entry budget

• Asking price: 19,800,000 yen (122,222 euros)
• Transaction costs, capped at 6% of the price (registration tax, acquisition tax, agency fee, shiho shoshi judicial scrivener): 1,188,000 yen (7,333 euros). The line-by-line breakdown is in our article on closing costs when buying property in Japan.
• Total cash needed: 20,988,000 yen, that is 129,556 euros.

The return, depending on rent

Rent for a studio of this size varies twofold between east and centre. Rather than quoting a single figure, here is the sensitivity, net of running costs.

Monthly rent	Annual income	Annual costs	Net before tax	Gross yield	Net yield on total budget
80,000 yen (494 euros)	960,000 yen	488,800 yen	471,200 yen	4.85%	2.25%
95,000 yen (586 euros)	1,140,000 yen	503,200 yen	636,800 yen	5.76%	3.03%
110,000 yen (679 euros)	1,320,000 yen	517,600 yen	802,400 yen	6.67%	3.82%

Costs assumed, to be checked building by building against the condominium documents: management fee and repair reserve 150,000 yen a year on a small older unit, fixed asset and city planning taxes about 202,000 yen (assessed base near 60% of price, combined rate 1.7%), letting management 5% of rent, insurance and minor repairs 60,000 yen, vacancy provision 3%. Our yield simulator reruns this with your own assumptions.

Remember the order of magnitude: around 3% net before tax. That is the price of Tokyo safety, and three to four times less than a renovated kominka (kominka, old country house) run as a short-term rental. If yield is your first criterion, compare with our catalogue on akiya and Japanese house listings.

Tax, which is not in the yield above

A non-resident owner is taxed in Japan on Japanese rental income. When the tenant is a company, a 20.42% withholding applies, later reconciled through the annual kakutei shinkoku (kakutei shinkoku, tax return). The mechanism, deductible expenses and depreciation are detailed in rental income tax for non-residents. Budget for a tax representative too, required in most cases.

Common mistakes when choosing a ward

• Treating the ward average as the property price. Averages hide threefold spreads inside a single ward. They rank, they do not value.
• Choosing the ward before the station. A unit 4 minutes from a two-line station in Adachi re-lets faster than one 20 minutes on foot in Setagaya. In Japan the market unit is the station, not the neighbourhood.
• Assuming the 180 nights are yours. They are not, without the bylaws and without the ward ordinance. A projection built on 180 nights in a weekday-ban ward is wrong by half.
• Underestimating fees on a small older unit. On a 19.8 million yen studio, 150,000 yen of annual charges cut more than a point off the net yield. Underfunded buildings eventually vote a catch-up levy.
• Buying pre-1981 stock with no works budget. The low price of an old building rarely includes the upgrade, and resale to a Japanese buyer will be hard.
• Confusing gross and net yield. The gap measured above is 2.7 points. Every Japanese listing quotes gross.
• Ignoring water in the east. Parts of Koto, Sumida, Edogawa, Adachi and Katsushika sit in modelled flood zones. The low price is not a gift, it is a risk premium: see our article on natural hazards and Japanese property.
• Expecting a purchase to deliver residency. No ward issues a visa with a deed.

A five-step method to decide

1. Fix the purpose before the place. Capital preservation with a ten-year resale, immediate rental yield, or a future home: these three projects point to three different thirds of the table. The core for the first, the north and east for the second, the residential west for the third.
2. Budget the total, not the asking price. Price, plus up to 6% in costs, plus the works. That total must fit your cash, since Japanese credit will not be open to you.
3. Shortlist two or three wards from the same family, never a single one: real availability will decide, and a buyer watching one ward waits months for nothing.
4. Go down to the station. Read the juyo jiko setsumei (jūyō jikō setsumei, statement of important matters), the condominium bylaws and the last three general meeting minutes. Our articles on the juyo jiko setsumei disclosure and on viewing a property remotely spell out what to ask for.
5. Check the ward ordinance before the written offer, not after. That ten-minute call to the ward public health office is worth several thousand euros.

If you would rather delegate those checks, our buying support service covers exactly that chain, from the property search to the handover of keys, with interpreting and remote signing. Our case studies of real transactions show the full sequence with numbers. The simplest place to start is the free 30-minute discovery call: one conversation tells you whether your budget and your plan fit the ward you have in mind.

Conclusion: one table, three decisions

Tokyo is not one market, it is twenty-three markets sharing a rail network. The 2026 official price table tells you where you can enter, the four-family map tells you what you will buy there, and the short-term rental ordinance map tells you what you may do with it. In that order, never the reverse.

Three numbers to take away: a 9.4-fold gap between the first and last ward, five consecutive years of increases across all twenty-three, and about 3% net on a properly bought entry-level studio. Tokyo is expensive and pays little, but it is the one Japanese market whose population still grows. The rest is a matter of station, bylaws and doing your checks in the right order.

Frequently asked questions

Which Tokyo ward is the cheapest to buy in?

Katsushika, with residential land at 387,500 yen per sqm (2,392 euros) as of 1 January 2026, ahead of Adachi (410,800 yen) and Edogawa (441,100 yen). Those three eastern wards are also the slowest risers, between +5.6% and +6.3% year on year.

Which Tokyo ward offers the best rental yield?

Mechanically, the cheapest wards post the highest gross yields: Katsushika, Adachi, Edogawa, Itabashi and Nerima. Net yield, however, depends mostly on condominium fees and vacancy, so on the building and the station rather than the ward name alone.

Can a foreigner buy in any ward of Tokyo?

Yes. Japan places no nationality or residence restriction on property purchases, and ownership is full and perpetual, in the 23 wards as anywhere else. The real constraint is financing: with no Japanese residence and salary, the purchase is a cash purchase.

How much does a studio cost in Tokyo in 2026?

In our August 2026 count of listings under 35 million yen and within a 10-minute walk of a station across the 23 wards, the median unit is 24.2 sqm, built in 1984, priced at 19,800,000 yen, about 122,000 euros. Add up to 6% in transaction costs.

Can you run a short-term rental in every Tokyo ward?

No. National law caps operation at 180 nights a year, and most wards additionally ban weekday nights, at least in residential zones. On top of that the condominium bylaws must expressly allow it, which more than nine buildings out of ten refuse.

Should you buy in the central wards or further out?

The core for liquidity and capital protection, the outer wards for yield. The five central wards stand at 2,138,700 yen per sqm and rose 13.0% in 2026, against 692,000 yen and +8.5% for the other eighteen. Net yield runs the other way.

Can Tokyo prices fall?

Nothing rules it out, but none of the 1,530 survey points in the 23 wards fell in 2026, and this is the fifth consecutive year of general increases. The support is demographic: the 23-ward population grows 0.68% a year while the country shrinks.

Does buying an apartment in Tokyo grant a visa?

No, under no circumstances. No Japanese visa category is obtained through a property purchase, whatever the amount or the ward. Residence is handled separately, through work, study, family or an investor status backed by a real company.