Monthly Costs of Owning a Japanese Condo: Fees, Reserves, Insurance

This article is part of the Zagdim Japan property series on transaction costs. It answers one question: once you own a condo in Japan, which fees do you pay every month and every year? The series overview is in the main article, “Buying Property in Japan Costs More Than the Price: Agent Fees, Registration, Taxes, Insurance and Holding Costs”.

After buying a condo in Japan, you pay a management fee and a repair reserve fund (修繕積立金, shuuzen tsumitatekin, a long-term repair fund) every month, and fixed asset tax every year. Fire insurance and earthquake insurance are also yours to arrange. If you buy to rent out, there is a rental management company’s fee on top. If you live overseas, you also need to decide who in Japan will receive notices and pay fees on your behalf. This article goes through each cost: who sets it, which document to check, and which claims deserve a follow-up question.

Why Is It Hard to Work Out the Monthly Cost from the Price?

The management fee and repair reserve shown next to the asking price are the current amounts for that unit. The reserve may rise in steps, insurance is bought separately, and fixed asset tax is paid in several installments a year. These costs are not listed in one place.

Owners (業主, also called 屋主) living overseas have one more issue to handle. Meeting notices for the condo, monthly direct debits and tax bills all need someone in Japan to deal with them. When you buy property in Japan, the purchase costs are paid once, but holding costs recur every month and every year, so it is best to work them out when you view the property.

What Do You Pay Each Month and Each Year?

The regular monthly costs are the management fee and the repair reserve. The amounts are set by the condo’s management association (管理組合, kanri kumiai, the body made up of all owners) under the building’s bylaws, and are split according to your unit’s share. The share is, in principle, based on the proportion of exclusive floor area.

Fixed asset tax is payable every year. If the property is in an urbanization promotion area (市街化区域), city planning tax generally applies as well. Under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) standard management bylaws template, insurance premiums for the common areas are paid from the management fee, though each condo’s own bylaws govern. Cover for the inside of your own unit and your belongings generally has to be arranged yourself. As of September 2026, there is no legal cap on management fees when you rent the unit out; you and the management company agree on them.

How Much Should You Budget for Management Fees and the Repair Reserve?

The MLIT 2023 condominium survey (令和5年度マンション総合調査, published June 21, 2024) shows these national averages per unit per month:

• Management fee: JPY 11,503 excluding transfers such as parking fees, or JPY 17,103 including them. Larger condos tend to have lower total management fees.
• Repair reserve fund: JPY 13,054 excluding transfers, or JPY 13,378 including them.

“Transfers” (挹注) are amounts the condo moves in from income such as parking fees. These figures are national survey averages. Individual condos vary widely with the number of units, floor area, location and age. The survey was conducted from October 2023 to January 2024, so for anything more recent you need to check the latest figures for the specific condo.

There is a second reference point for the repair reserve. The MLIT guideline on condominium repair reserve funds (マンションの修繕積立金に関するガイドライン, revised June 2024) gives reference amounts per square meter of exclusive area per month. They are averages over the whole repair plan period and exclude mechanical parking:

• Under 20 floors, total floor area under 5,000 sq m: JPY 235 to 430 (average JPY 335)
• Under 20 floors, 5,000 sq m to under 10,000 sq m: JPY 170 to 320 (average JPY 252)
• Under 20 floors, 10,000 sq m to under 20,000 sq m: JPY 200 to 330 (average JPY 271)
• Under 20 floors, 20,000 sq m or more: JPY 190 to 325 (average JPY 255)
• 20 floors or more: JPY 240 to 410 (average JPY 338)

These ranges cover the middle two-thirds of the guideline’s reference cases. They are not a legal standard. A condo with mechanical parking needs an additional amount on top.

**Example:** A unit with 60 sq m of exclusive area in a building of under 20 floors and under 5,000 sq m of total floor area. Using the guideline figures, the average is about JPY 20,100 per month (335 x 60), with a range of about JPY 14,100 to 25,800. If the reserve in the property details is clearly below this range, ask whether the condo uses stepped increases and what the next level will be.

Will the Repair Reserve Go Up Later?

It depends on which method the condo uses. The guideline describes two: the “level reserve method” (均等積立方式), with the same monthly amount throughout the plan period, and the “stepped increase method” (段階増額積立方式), which starts low and rises. The guideline considers the level method preferable.

For condos using stepped increases, the guideline recommends taking the monthly amount under the level method as the benchmark, starting at no less than 0.6 times that benchmark and ending at no more than 1.1 times it. When you look at a newly built unit, the reserve next to the price may be only a starting amount. Ask the agent or seller for the increase schedule and include the later amounts in your budget.

What Do These Two Fees Pay For?

The MLIT standard management bylaws for condominiums (マンション標準管理規約, amended October 17, 2025) are a template that condos use to draw up their own bylaws. In outline, and always subject to the bylaws of your own condo:

• Management fee: day-to-day management, including the building manager’s personnel costs, public charges (taxes and similar levies), maintenance and operation of shared equipment, damage insurance such as fire and earthquake cover for the common areas, cleaning, and the fee for the management company.
• Repair reserve fund: scheduled repair work, repairs after sudden accidents, and improvements or changes to the common areas. It must be accounted for separately from the management fee. Parking and similar usage fees go toward managing the parking facility itself, and the rest is also accumulated as repair reserve.

The condo management company is engaged by the management association, not by you individually; under the template, its fee is paid from the management fee. A business that manages condominiums for a living must be registered with MLIT (registration is valid for 5 years) and must keep the repair reserve funds it receives separate from its own assets and from the assets of other management associations.

Do the Previous Owner’s Unpaid Fees Become Yours?

They can. Under the Building Unit Ownership Act (建物の区分所有等に関する法律), claims against an owner arising from the bylaws or an owners’ meeting resolution can also be enforced against the new owner who buys the unit. The MLIT standard bylaws template likewise says the association’s claims for management fees and similar charges can be made against the new owner. What applies in practice depends on the bylaws of that condo. In the same 2023 survey, 30.1% of condos had residents more than 3 months behind on payments.

When buying a resale condo, ask the agent before signing whether the unit has any arrears. If it does, who bears them should be settled in the sales contract.

Which Insurance Do You Need to Buy Yourself?

Fire Insurance: Not Required by Law, but a Mortgage May Require It

As of September 2026, none of the Japanese laws reviewed requires an owner to take out fire insurance. If you borrow from the Japan Housing Finance Agency (住宅金融支援機構), you must keep the building insured until the loan is repaid. Requirements from other banks and from individual condo bylaws need to be checked case by case.

Fire insurance covers damage from fire, lightning, bursting or explosion, wind, snow, theft and similar causes. It does not cover damage from earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or tsunami. Each insurer sets its own premium. According to the Japan Housing Finance Agency, the term is up to 5 years, and the policy has to be renewed at expiry.

The General Insurance Rating Organization of Japan (損害保険料率算出機構) raised the reference pure premium rate (参考純率) for fire insurance in both 2021 and 2023, by a national average of 10.9% and 13.0% respectively. The reference rate is a benchmark that insurers are not obliged to adopt, and those percentages are average changes to the reference rate, not the increase in your own premium. The 2023 revision also split the flood-damage portion of the rate into 5 tiers according to the risk in each municipality.

Earthquake Insurance: Added to Fire Insurance, Pays Up to Half

Earthquake insurance (地震保険) cannot be bought alone. It is attached to a fire insurance policy, and if you already have fire insurance you can add it partway through the contract term. The insured amount can only be set at 30% to 50% of the fire insurance amount, up to JPY 50 million for the building and JPY 10 million for contents.

For policies starting on or after January 1, 2017, payouts follow four levels of damage:

• Total loss: 100% of the insured amount (capped at the actual market value)
• Major partial loss: 60% (capped at 60% of market value)
• Minor partial loss: 30% (capped at 30% of market value)
• Partial loss: 5% (capped at 5% of market value)

For a building, a total loss means, for example, damage to the main structure of 50% or more of its value, or burned or washed-away portions of 70% or more of the floor area. Damage below the partial-loss level is not paid.

Premiums depend on building structure and location. The term can be 1 year, or a long-term policy of 2 to 5 years; long-term premiums are multiplied by a long-term coefficient, which is 4.70 for 5 years. There are also four discounts (building age, earthquake resistance grade, seismic isolation, and seismic diagnosis), worth 10% to 50% depending on construction year or seismic performance, and they cannot be combined. A building completed on or after June 1, 1981 can qualify for the building-age discount (10%).

**Example:** Suppose the fire insurance building amount for the unit is JPY 20 million. Earthquake insurance can only be set between JPY 6 million and JPY 10 million. If you set JPY 10 million and an earthquake is assessed as a minor partial loss, the payout is JPY 3 million, and it is capped at 30% of market value. So an earthquake insurance payout is not the amount needed to rebuild in full.

If you live in Japan and use the unit as your home, earthquake insurance premiums are deductible: up to JPY 50,000 a year against income tax and up to JPY 25,000 against resident tax. As of September 2026, this deduction is not available to non-residents living overseas, or for a unit bought to rent out and not lived in.

How Do You Fit Fixed Asset Tax into a Monthly Budget?

Whoever is registered as the owner on January 1 each year pays that year’s fixed asset tax. Splitting it by day at handover is a trade custom, not a legal rule. The standard rate is 1.4%, which a municipality can set differently; the tax is calculated on a value assessed by the municipality and reassessed every 3 years.

If the property is in an urbanization promotion area, city planning tax is generally charged as well, at up to 0.3%. For the land portion of a condo, the residential land special measure applies to up to 200 sq m per unit, and the tax base is 1/6 of the assessed value.

Payment is, in principle, in 4 installments, or in one lump sum. In Tokyo’s 23 wards, for example, the installments fall in June, September, December and February. For a monthly budget you can divide the annual amount by 12, but the actual payments are made in installments or in one go.

For homes newly built before March 31, 2031, fixed asset tax is halved for 3 tax years from the start of taxation, or 5 years for fireproof or quasi-fireproof buildings of 3 floors or more, up to 120 sq m of living area per unit. After that it returns to the normal level, so the budget has to allow for this step up. Studio units with under 40 sq m of exclusive area do not qualify for the reduction.

An owner living overseas with no address in Japan must appoint a tax administrator (納税管理人) to receive tax bills and pay the tax, or have the municipality approve an exemption from appointing one. The tax details are covered in the main article.

If You Buy to Rent Out, How Do You Read the Management Company’s Fees?

There is no legal cap on rental management fees; as of September 2026, you and the management company agree on them. The documents provided before signing give you something to compare:

• Registration: a rental management business handling 200 or more units must be registered with the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, renewed every 5 years.
• Explanation before signing: a registered business must explain the fee amount, timing and payment method in writing before the management contract is signed.
• Separate handling and reporting: rent and deposits received must be kept separate from the business’s own funds, and reported to you regularly.

Agent fees for finding a tenant are separate: the landlord and tenant combined pay at most 1.1 times one month’s rent (tax included). If the agent who handled your purchase also offers other services alongside the brokerage, they must explain this in advance and sign a separate written agreement stating the content and fee.

For tax filing, the National Tax Agency’s list of main necessary expenses includes fixed asset tax and damage insurance premiums on the rental property. The repair reserve is, in principle, deducted for the portion used in the year the repairs are actually completed. It can be deducted in the year paid when the bylaws match the MLIT template and meet the four conditions listed by the National Tax Agency. The agency does not list management fees item by item, so check with a tax accountant (税理士) before filing whether they can be treated as an expense.

If You Live Overseas, Who Receives Notices and Pays the Management Fee?

From April 1, 2026, a condo owner with no address or residence in Japan can appoint a domestic administrator (国内管理人) from among people living in Japan to handle condo matters on their behalf: receiving meeting notices, exercising voting rights at meetings, and paying management fees. The appointment must be notified to the manager or the management association.

The law says an owner “may” appoint one, but a condo’s bylaws can say an owner who does not live in Japan “must” appoint one, so read the bylaws before you buy. A domestic administrator only makes payments on your behalf and is not liable for the debt; the costs remain yours. The domestic administrator also handles only condo matters, so paying tax needs a separate tax administrator. Ask about the fees in advance.

Whether to appoint one, and who, depends on the condo’s bylaws, whether you plan to live in the unit or rent it out, and how often you visit Japan.

Claims Worth a Follow-Up Question

• “The repair reserve is low, so the monthly burden is light.” It may only be the starting amount of a stepped increase, so check the increase schedule.
• “The management fee already includes insurance.” Under the template, the management fee pays for insurance on the common areas; cover for the inside of your unit and your belongings has to be confirmed separately.
• “With earthquake insurance, you can rebuild if the building is damaged.” Earthquake insurance is at most 50% of the fire insurance amount and pays by damage level.
• “The previous owner’s unpaid fees are nothing to do with you.” The management association can generally claim them from the new owner.
• “Rental management fees have a legal cap.” They do not; you and the management company agree them, so compare each company’s written explanation.
• “If you appoint a domestic administrator, tax is handled too.” The domestic administrator covers condo matters; the tax administrator is a separate system.

How Do You Decide What to Do Next?

When viewing a property, ask the agent for these documents: the explanation of important matters (重要事項説明), the management fee and repair reserve amounts and the increase schedule, whether the unit has any arrears, the condo bylaws (whether a domestic administrator is required, and how insurance and costs are shared), and the annual fixed asset tax amount. Once you have the numbers, divide the repair reserve by the exclusive area and compare it with the guideline range, then ask an insurer to estimate fire and earthquake insurance premiums.

If each of these is clearly explained, you can build the monthly and annual holding costs into your budget. If the repair reserve is far below the guideline range with no increase schedule, or the handling of arrears is unclear, pause and get answers before going further. For purchase-stage agent fees, registration costs and taxes, and how a sale is calculated, see the main article, “Buying Property in Japan Costs More Than the Price: Agent Fees, Registration, Taxes, Insurance and Holding Costs”.

Japan Condo Holding Costs FAQ

How much are the management fee and repair reserve each month in Japan?

The national averages in the 2023 survey are JPY 11,503 per unit per month for the management fee and JPY 13,054 for the repair reserve, excluding transfers such as parking fees. Individual condos differ widely, so rely on the explanation of important matters for the specific property.

If I buy a resale condo, do I have to pay the previous owner’s unpaid management fees?

Possibly. The Building Unit Ownership Act provides that claims arising from the bylaws or an owners’ meeting resolution can be enforced against the new owner of the unit, and the MLIT standard bylaws template states that management fees and similar charges fall into this category. Before signing, confirm whether there are arrears, and settle in the sales contract who bears them.

If I live overseas and rent out a Japanese condo, is the earthquake insurance premium tax deductible?

As of September 2026, no. The earthquake insurance premium deduction applies only to residents for Japanese income tax, and the insured property must be a home or contents the person regularly lives in; non-residents and rental properties do not qualify.

Data Notes

• The information was checked on September 30, 2026, based on the MLIT condominium survey, repair reserve guideline and standard management bylaws; laws including the Building Unit Ownership Act, the Earthquake Insurance Act, the Income Tax Act, the Local Tax Act and the Rental Housing Management Business Act; and explanations from the Ministry of Finance, the National Tax Agency, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Taxation, the General Insurance Rating Organization of Japan and the Japan Housing Finance Agency.
• The following conclusions are drawn from official documents; no official source states them in a single sentence. That there is no legal requirement to take out fire insurance is drawn from the Earthquake Insurance Act and documents from the Ministry of Finance and the Japan Housing Finance Agency; not all laws, other lenders or individual condo bylaws were searched. That non-residents and rental properties cannot use the earthquake insurance premium deduction is inferred from the requirements in Articles 77 and 165 of the Income Tax Act. That rental management fees have no legal cap is drawn from the absence of any cap in the Rental Housing Management Business Act and its enforcement regulations.
• The purposes of the management fee and repair reserve follow the MLIT standard bylaws template, which has no legal force. That cover for the inside of the unit and contents generally has to be arranged by the owner is inferred from the template listing only common-area insurance as a management fee item. The national averages for management fees and repair reserves come from the 2023 survey, and later changes could not be verified.
• For earthquake insurance base rates, the page consulted lists the version filed on June 10, 2021 and applying to policies starting on or after October 1, 2022; for fire insurance reference pure rates, the page lists two revisions, in 2021 and 2023. Further revisions may follow. The fixed asset tax payment dates are taken from the explanation for Tokyo’s 23 wards; elsewhere they follow each municipality’s rules.
• The Condominium Management Appropriateness Act has a further amendment taking effect on April 1, 2027, whose content was not compared here. There are no official figures for typical fees for domestic administrators or rental management.

Have a question about this guide? Leave a comment below, or ask Zagdim directly.

Sources

• 国土交通省－令和５年度マンション総合調査結果〔概要編〕: https://www.mlit.go.jp/jutakukentiku/house/content/001750161.pdf
• 国土交通省－報道発表資料（令和５年度マンション総合調査結果）: https://www.mlit.go.jp/report/press/house03_hh_000210.html
• 国土交通省－マンションの修繕積立金に関するガイドライン（令和６年６月改定）: https://www.mlit.go.jp/jutakukentiku/house/content/001747009.pdf
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• 国土交通省－令和７年改正マンション標準管理規約（単棟型）及び同コメント: https://www.mlit.go.jp/jutakukentiku/house/content/001999013.pdf
• e-Gov法令検索－マンションの管理の適正化の推進に関する法律: https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/2/law_data/412AC1000000149
• 財務省－地震保険制度の概要: https://www.mof.go.jp/policy/financial_system/earthquake_insurance/jisin.htm
• e-Gov法令検索－地震保険に関する法律: https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/341AC0000000073
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• 住宅金融支援機構－火災保険・地震保険のご案内: https://www.jhf.go.jp/hensai/hoken/index.html
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• e-Gov法令検索－所得税法: https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/340AC0000000033
• e-Gov法令検索－地方税法: https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/325AC0000000226
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• 総務省－地方税制度：固定資産税: https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_sosiki/jichi_zeisei/czaisei/czaisei_seido/150790_15.html
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• 国土交通省－宅地建物取引業者が宅地又は建物の売買等に関して受けることができる報酬の額（昭和45年建設省告示第1552号）: https://www.mlit.go.jp/totikensangyo/const/content/001750229.pdf
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Important Notice

This article is a general summary of information and is not individual legal, tax or insurance advice. The information was checked on September 30, 2026. Amounts, rates and rules may change, so rely on the current notices of the relevant Japanese authorities and on the specific condo’s bylaws and insurance contract, and consult a tax accountant (税理士) or other professional where needed.