Village House

About the Client

Village House Management Co. Ltd. provides affordable rental housing in community settings across Japan. The company manages over 100,000 low-cost units in 1,000 locations spanning 46 prefectures, supporting communities with accessible, well-managed housing.

The Challenge

Village House needed a modern digital platform to:

• Serve a multilingual audience, including English, Japanese, and Portuguese
• Make it easy for users to find, bookmark, and enquire about properties across Japan
• Ensure staff could capture and manage enquiries efficiently to maintain high occupancy rates

The solution also needed to support complex business workflows, including call centre operations, interaction tracking, and reporting, while accommodating Japanese language specifics such as Kanji/Kana input.

The Solution

Cerebrum worked closely with design partner, Yosh, to deliver a modern, mobile-responsive TYPO3 website with multi-language support. Key features included:

• Geo-located property search with filters by area, map, transport, and free text
• Property data via API, synchronised with business systems to ensure up-to-date availability
• Custom client relationship management (CRM) system tailored to Village House’s operations, enabling staff to track interactions, follow up efficiently, and optimise call centre performance
• Considerations for Japanese language input, reporting, and integration with other business systems
• Enterprise hosting with security and redundancy for reliable, business-critical operations

The platform allows staff to manage content, respond to enquiries, and maintain property data easily, while visitors enjoy a streamlined, user-friendly experience, making it simpler for residents to find suitable housing quickly and confidently.

The Results

• Enterprise open-source CMS for flexible content management
• Self-managed content by Village House staff
• Geo-located property search with easy bookmarking and enquiry functionality
• Property data API integration synced with core business systems
• Custom-developed CRM to manage customer interactions efficiently
• Enhanced community impact, helping residents easily find housing and improving overall service delivery
• Ongoing support and maintenance
• Enterprise hosting with SSL/TLS security, CDN, and redundancy