This paper documents housing rent rigidity under downward pressure, using the monthly household/room-level movement of housing rents through tenancies and vacancies in Tokyo during the period 2000Q1–2017Q2. The consistent overall rent rigidity exists because of the small extensive margin (limited adjustment opportunity) and small intensive margin (rare adjustment in the contract renewal stage). We observe rent rigidity leading to a “tenure surcharge,” that is, sitting tenants pay higher rents than the market rent level because the alternative—high moving costs for tenants—is less attractive. The downward rent rigidity obviously cannot rationalize the conventional explanation of upward rent rigidity in an inflationary context, such as depreciation and/or tenure discount. We show, however, that landlords care about retaining good long-term tenants by offering a small discount during the tenancy, along with a small degree of time/state-dependent adjustments.

本文使用在2000年1季度至2017年2季度期间东京通过租赁和空置产生的住房租金的月度家庭/房间水平变动，记录了在下行压力下的住房租金刚性。由于广泛的边际利润（有限的调整机会）和密集的边际利润（合同续订阶段的稀有调整）较小，因此存在一致的整体租金刚性。我们观察到租金僵化导致“权属附加费”，也就是说，在座的租户支付的租金高于市场租金水平，因为替代方案（租户的高搬迁成本）吸引力不大。租金刚性下降显然无法使通货膨胀，例如权属折旧和/或使用权折扣等通货膨胀情况下的传统解释合理化。但是，我们显示