You have a budget of 280m yen to buy a house in Tokyo and you work from home; where do you buy it?

fwiw i'd go nakano or koenji instead of the fancy west side. 280m there gets you a whole building, not just a flat, so you could have the top floor as your studio and rent out the lower units. that's basically free living plus income, which matters more than a garden when you're home all day.

the vibe is way more creative too, lots of indie coffee spots and record shops to rotate through on breaks. train access is fine, chuo line to shinjuku in 10 min, but be careful about the soba noodle places near the station, they're loud at lunch and it's tempting to eat out every day. also older buildings here might need soundproofing if you do video calls, so check the walls aren't paper thin.

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i'd look at jiyugaoka honestly, not for the main street hype but the side roads towards kuhonbutsu. you can get a modern-ish house with a rooftop or a small courtyard for that budget, and the wfh win is the cafes, but the real reason is the quiet. it's dead silent in the day, like you can hear the wind, which is rare that close to the tokyu lines.

another angle nobody mentions is the old mansion market in setagaya, like soshigaya or kamimachi. 280m gets you a 1990s building with huge 3ldk units that have actual separate studies, not just a nook. the concrete walls are thick so video calls are fine, and you're near the setagaya line which is slow but charming, plus the farmers market on weekends is a nice break from the screen. just budget for a renovation, the kitchens are tragically dated.

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honestly if i had 280m and wfh was the deal, i'd go den-en-chofu over the usual suspects. it's quieter than meguro, way greener, and you can get a proper detached house with a garden office situation, not just a room. the tokyu toyoko line gets you to shibuya in like 15 min if you need it, but the real win is the oyamadai side where it's all residential and dead silent during the day. plus the bakery scene on the main street is dangerously good for lunch breaks.

the catch is older houses here can have weird layouts, so budget some cash to knock down a wall and make a real study. and check if the place has a water heater that's not ancient, because cold showers at 3am when you're on a deadline are the worst.

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Cash-only "reserve" is the tell.

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