The Best Conditions I Settled On for Moving After Four Years of Remote Work

After six years of living alone and four years of remote work, I looked through a huge number of listings when moving, went to see places in person, and eventually found the common points that made me think, I cannot compromise on this… This is basically a memo from the recent period when I was searching like crazy, but I think it will be useful for anyone who is about to look for a place for remote work.

Concrete interior walls

I think a lot of people have an image like “RC buildings have good soundproofing” or “wooden and steel-frame buildings have noise issues.” But in reality, you cannot feel safe just because the building structure is RC. The one thing you absolutely need to check is what the wall between your unit and the next one (the party wall) is made of.

Even in places where the exterior is rock-solid reinforced concrete and you cannot hear cars outside at all, it is completely normal for the partition with the neighboring unit to be gypsum board. (In fact, most of the places I saw were like that.) And if that wall is gypsum board, or another material with poor soundproofing, you will still hear your neighbor’s daily-life sounds, and your own daily-life sounds will leak out too.

In other words, even a steel-frame building is mostly fine for neighbor noise if the party wall has strong soundproofing, while even an RC building is likely to have noise problems if the party wall is flimsy.

For people who talk about somewhat confidential company information (me), or people who tend to make noise while gaming late at night (also me), remote work is difficult unless the party wall is also made of a heavy material with strong sound insulation, because otherwise some kind of problem may come up. I treated this as an almost absolute requirement, so my list of candidate properties shrank all at once.

Condominiums or exposed-concrete designer apartments tend to have a higher hit rate

“So how do you check what the party wall is made of?” is the obvious question, but it is basically not written in listing information on sites like SUUMO. The ideal approach is to inquire and get drawings (section drawings) or specifications so you can check, but doing that every time is seriously a lot of work. I did it at first too, but I kept repeating the cycle of find a promising RC property → ask for the specs → learn that the party wall is gypsum board, so I changed my approach.

That approach was to filter for condominiums or exposed-concrete apartments, such as designer-style ones. In most cases, those two types had concrete all the way to the interior walls. For reference, I chose an exposed-concrete place.

Update: I wrote up my thoughts after living in an exposed-concrete place for one year

This may help if you are thinking about living in one. Humidity and Smell: One-Year Review of Living in a Newly Built Exposed-Concrete Rental Apartment

Fiber optic cable is run all the way to the room

Having fiber optic cable run all the way to the room (fiber-to-the-unit wiring) is a must. It directly affects meetings, RDP, and work performance.

I want connection speeds above 1Gbps

If you are considering more than 1Gbps (usually 5Gbps or 10Gbps), it is safer to first check whether you can sign up for 10-gigabit service at that specific address and building.

As a quick method, check whether FLET'S Hikari Cross (10G) can be ordered for the property’s address. That lets you confirm whether the area and building support 10-gigabit service. (Even if you ultimately use a different provider, this helps you judge whether 10-gigabit service can even be installed in the property.)

There is an elementary school nearby

This seriously changes the neighborhood safety. Places along school zones or near parks may be noisy depending on the time of day, but areas with an elementary school within walking distance tend to be very safe.

Every morning there are older men and women holding flags and directing traffic, so it feels like the community has eyes on the area.

Electrical capacity is at least 30 amps

For remote workers, there will definitely be times when your work PC, personal PC, and multiple appliances are all running at the same time. If the breaker trips then, the world ends, so 30 amps or more is essential.

Since it directly affects your electricity bill, you should be careful about going too high, but if you have room for it, higher is better.

Air conditioner age

As a rule of thumb, within about five years of manufacture.

Remote workers are often home year-round, and you will usually end up working while keeping the air conditioner on to maintain a comfortable temperature. If you cannot do that, stress builds up normally and it affects work performance, so the air conditioner should actually work well.

If the air conditioner is extremely old, or the room is large / there are multiple rooms but the unit is underpowered (or there are not enough units), summer and winter can be pretty rough.

A building where the first floor is not a shop

This also directly affects quietness and safety.

If the first floor is a shop, you are directly affected by people coming and going, deliveries, BGM, business-hours noise, and if it is a restaurant, smells, insects, and the environment around the garbage area, so I think it would be tough.

Finally

Because remote workers spend so much time at home, indoor comfort (sound, internet connection, power, and air conditioning) directly hits your quality of life.

On the flip side, if you cover those points, it becomes easier to compromise on other conditions. (This is just my personal feeling, but compromise is extremely important.) If you have a solid understanding of the conditions you really need, it becomes easier to find a room too, so I hope this helps.