IKEA is going to rent a vertical apartment in Japan

The Swedish furniture chain IKEA is going to rent a "vertical apartment" in Japan. Rental units of only ten square meters should be 99 yen (87 cents), interested parties can apply by the end of this week. The company wants to promote its interior solutions for small homes in this way. The mini apartment is located in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. IKEA published the terms of the lease on its website last week. The company accepts applications from applicants until Friday, the condition is at least 20 years. The rent will be a symbolic 99 yen, the energy will be transferred to the tenant. IKEA wants to rent its model apartment by January 15, 2023. "We all spend more time at home during a pandemic. People who live in very small spaces - and not only in Japan - are often under stress. We therefore decided to show them how they can revive their small household relatively easily, "Chisato Matsuová from the Japanese branch of IKEA tells iDNES.cz. According to the company on its website, the key to such a small apartment is the use of vertical space. IKEA believes that this "non-traditional form of campaign" can inspire many people. "We will appoint a Tokyo tenant in a tender. We are not going to rent other apartments at the moment, "says Matsuová. Tokyo is one of the most densely populated cities in the world; according to the local government, over six thousand people live in one square kilometer in the Japanese capital. According to the CNN website, this is driving the trend of miniature flats. IKEA has expanded its business beyond the sale of furniture and household goods in the past when, together with the Swedish construction company Skanska, it founded BoKlok, which builds so-called modular houses in Scandinavia and Germany. At the same time, it uses large prefabricated building parts, which are only assembled on the construction site, which makes the whole process and the real estate itself cheaper.