Yilan is very cheap, especially outside of the main cities/town. I live between Yilan city and the sea. It’s a 10 minute ride to the center of Yilan, but for locals it’s THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE so the price of housing is very low. I need to ride my bicycle for 7 minutes to get to the closest 7/11, that’s like an odyssey by Taiwanese standards.
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7 minutes and 11 seconds would be an Odyssey to locals.
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Hi Russ
Auntie Peng’s 
on this matter: better not.
Firts of all, you are married. Right now everything is peachy but if the winds change, you will lose everything: the house, the kids…and you will be with no savings. Please consider that the law here will lean towards your wife and you can quote your State law all you want, it will be useless.
Your wife wants that security Taiwanese wives have here, because if the Taiwanese man leaves them, they will be destitute. That is why before they marry they ask the guy to put the house under their name. Yes, even nowadays, as it is a custom from before. Hence, the guy can have adventures outside and all, and the woman does not fret about the future. She has got the house.
I would be very careful about leaving no savings. As a foreigner, you are already not in the same pension system, as married folk you may get a bit something but you must plan for the future with wise investments.
I would negotate with the wife so that she gets that sense of “financial safety”. Set aside a separate fund or something on her name and think of it as a gift. meaning you may not see it again. Then sepearate the funds, try to keep some for yourself. After that, buy life and health insurance, put up a trust for the kids, get your ducks in order for the worse that can happen and hope it does not happen, but if it does, everything is clearly marked and prepped. Murphy’s Law and all that jazz.
On that note, get an APRC the soonest you fulfill the requisites. Protect yourself. Understand the local law and the discrepancies when it is applied to foreigners, traps and all. Become independent in Chinese and keep on learning for any future career upheavals.
Good luck.
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Definitely make sure you can put that house under BOTH you and your wife’s names, not just hers. If you cant legally do that, you shouldn’t be buying a house in TW until you can.
I recommend Dave Ramsey for financial planning info. Suze Orman gives good advice too but some people don’t like her, though her info is excellent and somewhat more cautious than even Ramsey on Emergency funds.
Gocurrycracker you mentioned is a good blog for the New American Dream of youngsters who may not want to own a home but rather save 1-2 million USD in Roth IRAs or ETFs/ Indexes and then live off the 4% earnings per year( 7% - 3% inflation) and travel the world without ever being tied to a 9-5 again
Didn’t realize you can get a house for 2 million even in Yilan…
Our apartment was 20 years old but no one lived here, so we’re the first people living there. I consider it “kinda new”, in the sense that it was in as-new conditions even if the building has been there for a few years.
In the same price range you can buy older single houses that require some work to renew walls, furniture etc.
While we were browsing for a home we went to check some apartments that were recently renewed and costed around 2.5/3mil for 65/70 square meters.
Keep in mind all these prices are far from cities, the closer you get to civilization the more shekels are required.
Also, some areas that are popular for tourism, like all the arch of land going from Meihua lake to the Jiaoxi hotsprings passing close to the mountains, can be very expensive for housing because a lot of people buy a home to turn it into a bed and breakfast.
The part of the region where I live, Zhuangwei, is one of the cheapest because it’s just rice fields squeezed between Yilan city and the sea.
The cheapest I’ve seen in Luodong 2 years ago was 1.7 million for a very tiny apartment, must have been 40 square meters or so. There’s a huge building by the sea that has (had?) a ton of brand new apartments on sale between 2.3 and 3 million, no idea how many are still available. Most of the largest, more expensive apartments were sold out when we went there to have alo ok.
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Thanks looking at it now, I rode around Zhuangwei on a bike it was a nice area, like you said lots of rice paddies near the sea. But everything I find in that price is 11-15 ping and really old.
We found our house on Rakuya, it was on sale directly from the owners. Things found on 591 and Housefun were either smaller or more expensive.
Also, it took us almost 1 year to find a good deal for an apartment of decent size in good conditions.
Sounds like you got a great find
Hey RussJ do you actually getting like 2 apartments for 12 mio TWD, in one you will be living, another one can be rent out for like 20k/month. When is mortgage Maturity?
If you see yourself in taiwan for next 15 years, and answer to above question is yes, than it is really good decision. Negotiate hard, get 1,65 mortgage rate and try drop the price to 11 mio twd. You are really flipping here with your thoughts, so can walk away without feeling pity. Negotiate hard, with arguments, i mean short term trend is positive for you, prices are dropping. There is tone of empty apartments available. And tone of real estate agents. Those guys must be desperate. They will give you something more or just walk away.
Am for buying. You will end up paying 15k per month, less than rent and will own a place, eventually. Plus your wife will gain some face. And her family will give her piece, and show more respect to you. Happy wife, easy life. Make sure yea to put your own name on it.
I mean with those things is always like this financial reality and maths + your personal priorities. Most foreigners saying for last 15 years price will drop, while smart foreigners tripled their profit. Guess what, they have Asian mentality here, and taiwan economy is doing fine. Japan lost decade can not happen to them. Do not believe the hype, that there is less kids. They are importing south east asians. Taiwan came so long way last 20 years, i can totally imagine in next 20 years south east asians being bigger part of society. Guys will have more rights, opportunities in taiwan. Is just that owning an apartment is such a big face for asians, i really hardly see prices ever drop over 30 or max 40 %. They are totally irrational and can drive markets crazy. Just how asians are. + they are crazy about living in the center, in taipei. On another hand i hardly imagine crazy growth. I would give like an estimation in range 10 to 40 % of growth in next 20 years. Taiwanese elite is full of cash, compare price of taipei vs seul singapore, hong kong, shenzhen and will soon figure out taipei has a lot of reserve. Do not compare to west. Compare apples with apples.
Consider your personal situation, u planing to stay here right, having 2 kids. I mean you are an american. Taiwan was actually only country where unknown folks try to hire me on the street, just for simple fact am caucasian. Getting a job here is no big deal for you.
Best investment a man can make is invest in him and his family. Next to it, is property, when invested in right markets, cause bank is willing to give you leverage of 250 x salary. Try to ask em to give you so much money for your business, or index fund lol
Also negotiate with your wife. Obv she is huge for it. You are worry about your savings, right, ask your women to get an extra job or better job. Push yourself harder to accumulate this cash again. This mortgage can really driven you guys to work harder. Will figure out where wife stands.
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That is another issue. If he is getting two aprtments for 12 mill, it means one is a top floor, an “illegal” addition, in the common area of the roof. In summary, the deed he is going to get is for one a[partment only, the other they may say it is part of the property and he may be able to use it, but legally speaking it is a grey area as it is in a common, public space. he has to deal with teh neighbors on that matter. Moreover, it could be “legalish” if it is built before acertain date, menaing it si older than dirt -30 to 40 years old- with all that implies. Most people who but those thinsg are with the purpose of having it demolished in some point by a big company that returns two apartments for one. Hence, there is a hole to his plan on returning in 10 years to the States.
That gocurry cracker guy does know about stocks and stuff, but his timing was also really fortunate with US stocks I also suspect he used to earn a lot of money. US stocks up 3x in 10 years hard to go wrong.
I’m loving lbis and the 2 million ntd apartment 
.
I’ve thought about moving to Yilan before but access to the airport is a bit tricky, to Songshan isn’t too bad though .
Going to Taipei is a breeze, there are buses every 5/10 minutes to either Nangang, Techonology building, City Hall or the bus station. To Taoyuan airport it’s a bit more annoying, even though the new metro (thanks Ko-bro!) helps a lot because I can catch a bus, get to the bus station in 80 minutes then get the metro to Taoyuan.
My wife and I don’t come from rich/wealthy families, and mine is on the other side of the world, so we’re mostly on our own. Priority #1 for me has always been affordability, I don’t care about having to commute for hours if that means that in 3 or 4 years that apartment is going to be 100% ours. That’s a lot better for me than buying a place in Taipei and having to work 378564 years then pass the mortgage to our kids who’ll have to work for an extra 476 years, according to standard Taipei housing prices…
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That really isn’t accurate, but you’d need to read through his stuff (and others like him) to understand…I don’t have time here. He talks about what he earns and has earned, posts tax returns, etc.
Anyway, Concerning the financials of of buying vs. renting and taking the difference (down payment, monthly payment difference positive or neg, maintenance, taxes, etc. etc.) and investing it in a standard US stock index over thee same period of a typical mortgage…investing almost always wins. He does the analysis using worst case time periods too.
As stated, there are other reasons to own a home though. I’ll be interested in the OPs take after he has is cup of coffee with him.
He’s almost 100 per cent invested in US stocks or should I say US indices.
That’s been a great and very fortunate ride to be honest.
I know there’s more to it than that but mostly its been powered by great US stock market. I know he held into the stocks during the crash and is long term. I’m also long term Taiwan stocks but when I look at my Taiwan stocks all I can do is laugh at them.
Similar to if you had invested in property over last 15 to 20 years in Taiwan you couldn’t have gone wrong. Hindsight everybody is a genius.
If you had invested in Taiwan stocks you would be hurting in many cases.
I’m no financial genius but I’ve run the numbers many times. Please help me if I’m doing this incorrectly…
If you have 35k to invest and let it sit for 20 years and add to it periodically ($100 US/month) and you acquire 7% yearly interest (standard), you end up with between 175k-200k.
If I buy a house for 12mil which is currently valued at 15, and prices rise slightly to say 18 mil in 10 years, I make the same profit in half the time if I sell it then.
I know this doesn’t account for maintenance and other costs, and there’s no guarantee prices will rise (except by inflation), but in this scenario at least it seems investing doesn’t win.
I’m not here to convince you, he does a detailed analysis on his blog. The comments and his responses are also insightful.
Minus the % real estate fee to buy x 2 and Sell 1x. So 3x in real estate fees. Not sure what the % is in Taiwan? 3%, 6%? The other Positive aspect of buying home is an income tax deduction on Mortgage interest. Im guessing you’re a high income here so that will save you a lot.
Theres not really a clear better order for Investing vs buying a home, it really depends on the current market situation. You have to do both invest in Roth IRA and Buy a House(optional) and have a 6-8 month emergency fund in Liquid savings.
Most Taiwanese young workers this generation have no retirement plan…they just aren’t paid enough to even consider it.
As mentioned by others in this thread, there may be other considerations. One such other consideration for my wife and I is our absolute inability to stick to a savings plan long-term. The only way we can make that work for us is by buying real estate. We bought our place in New Taipei City about 8 years ago. We are now in the process of buying a very small two bedroom apartment in Hualien. So we will be forced now to save a bit more than we have been saving the last few years. I see that as very positive and a big factor in our decision to buy again.
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