Bancho School District: ¥500,000 a Month for 50 m²? Kojimachi Costs Twice Myogadani, but Rents Are Only 40% Higher

Condominium asking prices per square meter in Bancho and Kojimachi are about 2 times those in Myogadani, yet asking rents for similarly sized homes are only about forty percent higher. Not a single listing in the past year’s rental data asked 500,000 yen a month for 50 m².

Two figures in a report on school catchment areas

On November 5, Money Post WEB published an article on Bancho Elementary School and Kojimachi Elementary School, described as prestigious public schools in Chiyoda Ward. In it, real-estate journalist Junji Sakaki made two claims: condominium prices within their catchment areas were roughly 2 times those around Myogadani in Bunkyo Ward; monthly rent per square meter was approximately 10,000 yen, putting monthly rent for a 50 m² apartment with 2 bedrooms and a dining-kitchen area as high as 500,000 yen.

The report comes as resale condominium prices across Tokyo’s 23 wards remain elevated. Tokyo Kantei announced on October 22 that the September average asking price across the 23 wards, standardized to 70 m², was 126,290,000 yen, down 0.4% from the previous month. Prices had fallen for 4 consecutive months but remained high in absolute terms. At these prices, school catchment areas rank alongside cost and transport access when families with children choose a home.

According to the report, Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education statistics show that about 45% of Chiyoda Ward’s public elementary school graduates enter private, national, or metropolitan combined secondary schools. Among the 23 wards, only Bunkyo Ward ranks higher, at about 52%. This helps explain the concentration of family demand in Bancho and Kojimachi: living within the catchment area provides access to the school, and many families already plan to prepare for junior high school entrance examinations during the elementary years.

For investors, the second figure is the one that needs scrutiny. Sale prices determine acquisition costs; rents determine income. If monthly rent of 500,000 yen were realistic, Bancho’s rental returns would not lag far behind Myogadani’s. Below, we test these claims against Urbalytics rental and sale listings.

500,000 yen a month for 50 m²? No such listing in the past year

We examined rental listings for individual residential condominium units within a 10-minute walk of Kojimachi or Hanzomon stations, first observed between November 2025 and November 2026. Restricting floor area to 45–55 m² produced 44 listings, with a median monthly asking rent, excluding management fees, of 299,500 yen. The 90th percentile was 350,700 yen, and the highest asking rent was 415,000 yen.

In other words, no rental of around 50 m² in this window was listed at 500,000 yen a month. Under the same criteria, Myogadani Station had 31 listings, with a median asking rent of 220,000 yen and a 90th percentile of 275,000 yen. The median gap was about 79,500 yen, with Kojimachi–Hanzomon at roughly 1.36 times Myogadani.

Removing the floor-area restriction does not change the conclusion. All residential rental listings within a 10-minute walk of Kojimachi or Hanzomon stations totaled 260 listings, with a median monthly asking rent per square meter of 6,119 yen. The 90th percentile was 8,325 yen, and the maximum was about 14,100 yen. The claimed rate of “about 10,000 yen per square meter” sits at the very top of this distribution: an asking rent for a small number of luxury properties, not the typical level within the school catchment area.

Urbalytics Kojimachi Station Condominium Market Report reports an asking rent of 7,001 yen/m² for September 2026, including management fees, based on 63 listings. Although the methodology differs, this is also well below 10,000 yen. At these levels, monthly asking rent for 50 m² would be roughly 300,000 to 350,000 yen.

Prices are about twice as high, but rents only about 1.4 times as high

The report’s claim of “about 2 times” does align with the data. According to Urbalytics station market reports, the median condominium asking price per square meter at Kojimachi Station in September 2026 was 3,662,000 yen/m² (based on 39 listings), while Myogadani Station recorded 1,861,000 yen/m² (based on 46 listings). Kojimachi’s figure was about 1.97 times Myogadani’s.

In the same month, asking rents were 7,001 yen/m² at Kojimachi Station, based on 63 listings, and 4,937 yen/m² at Myogadani Station, based on 189 listings. Kojimachi’s figure was about 1.42 times Myogadani’s. Prices were nearly twice as high, but rents were only about forty percent higher. That is the finding in this story that matters most to investors.

Put another way, buying the same amount of monthly rental income in Kojimachi costs about 1.4 times as much as in Myogadani. Sale and rental listings come from different samples, so this ratio only indicates the relative position of the two station markets. It is not a yield for any individual property.

Why is the school catchment premium more pronounced in sale prices? One possible explanation is that, while tenants and owners have equal access to local schools, owner-occupiers are the main buyers seeking to secure long-term access while holding the home as an asset. The rental market also includes many single-person households and corporate tenants with limited willingness to pay for school access, leaving rents behind sale prices. This is a hypothesis; confirming it would require more detailed data on layouts and tenants.

Whole-building gross yields: only about 3.5% in both areas

Whole-building investment properties present a different picture from individual condominium units. In Urbalytics listings over the past 12 months, Kojimachi Station had just 2 buildings, with advertised gross yields of 3.30% and 3.68%. Hanzomon Station had 4 buildings with a median of 3.42%, while Myogadani Station had 13 with a median of 3.50%.

Whole-building yields are almost level across the two areas. However, the Myogadani sample includes several new-build properties with completion dates from 2024 to 2027, whose asking prices follow a similar pricing level and pull the yield distribution down. All samples are very small and should be treated as indicative only. What is clear is that advertised whole-building gross yields in both Bancho and Myogadani are in the 3% range; returns after expenses would be thinner.

What rent should investors assume in the Bancho school catchment area?

For investors considering a condominium rental purchase in Bancho or Kojimachi, the first step is to ground rent assumptions in the data. For a home of around 50 m², a monthly rent assumption near 300,000 yen is more realistic. Using 500,000 yen would overstate income by more than sixty percent.

The second step is to understand where returns come from. With purchase prices about twice Myogadani’s but rents only about forty percent higher, rental income here is unlikely to offset the acquisition-cost gap. Returns depend more on resale prices supported by owner-occupier demand. For a new-build purchase, first check whether the project is subject to Chiyoda Ward’s case-specific request to restrict resale within five years of handover; when reselling, also allow for the gap between asking and transaction prices for central Tokyo resale condominiums.

The third step is to compare alternatives. Myogadani also attracts education-driven demand, but purchase prices are about half Kojimachi’s, asking rents per square meter are about seventy percent as high, and the rental sample is larger. If rental income rather than school access is the goal, looking beyond the Chiyoda Ward Condominium Market Report and comparing Bunkyo Ward’s station markets individually is often more useful than chasing a prestigious school catchment label.

Data notes

Rental data comprise listings for individual residential condominium units collected by Urbalytics, primarily from REINS, Japan’s real-estate listing network. Listings were filtered by first-observed date in UTC from November 5, 2025 to November 5, 2026, and by a walking distance of up to 10 minutes from the station. Asking rents exclude management fees and do not represent rents agreed in signed leases.

Asking rents per square meter in the station market reports include management fees and are calculated by dividing average rent by average floor area. Asking prices per square meter are medians from sale listings, including listings for properties that have sold. Both were compiled for September 2026. Whole-building yields are advertised gross yields: annual income divided by asking price. Depending on the listing provider, annual income may assume full occupancy or reflect in-place leases.

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Sources

1. Money Post WEB, republished by Yahoo! News, 2026, “Prestigious Public Elementary Schools: Why Bancho and Kojimachi Elementary Schools in Chiyoda Ward Are Popular,” https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/0617973a235641c624761df1f2c99d1c23619881

2. Kyodo News, republished by Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun, 2026, “Tokyo’s 23 Wards: Resale Condominium Prices Fall for 4 Consecutive Months in September,” based on Tokyo Kantei data, https://kumanichi.com/articles/2049317

3. Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education, 2025, “Results of the Survey on Post-Graduation Destinations of Public Junior High School and Other Graduates, Reiwa 6 Academic Year (Provisional Figures),” https://www.kyoiku.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/information/press/2025/07/2025073101

4. Urbalytics, 2026, Kojimachi Station Condominium Market Report, https://www.urbalytics.jp/market/station/tokyo/麹町/mansion

5. Urbalytics, 2026, Myogadani Station Condominium Market Report, https://www.urbalytics.jp/market/station/tokyo/茗荷谷/mansion

6. Wikimedia Commons, 2018, File:Bancho Elementary School-1a.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bancho_Elementary_School-1a.jpg