A small yurt about 200 miles south of Ürümqi. No, sorry, that was when we were in Xinjiang. I always confuse the two.
Two minutes’ walk from Danfeng station.
We pay ~6% of our monthly gross income in rent.
Of course, location is the big determiner in rent. I pay 10%. For a 80 ping house, double garage, garden, and there is a swimming pool in the community. I live in the countryside in Hsinchu county. 10 minutes drive to the nearest 7-11, so it is pretty remote. I pay another 10% to rent an abandoned coffee shop in the mountains in Hsinchu county that I fixed up as a weekend house. So I guess we are back to the 20% rule of thumb?
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Sounds cool, hsinchu county (as opposed to city) has some really beautiful spots. Love the area around Guanxi.
Will never convince the wife…imagine the conversation…we’ll live in this remote mansion (remote being very relative in Taiwan) on the weekdays…and then we’ll live in this even more remote abandoned coffee shop in the mountains on weekends lol!
decided to have a search for apartments just to get familiar with it again. found some real horrors so far.
monstrosity!!!
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[quote=“antarcticbeech, post:21, topic:156194, full:true”]
A small yurt about 200 miles south of Ürümqi.[/quote]
Of course, YMMV (YURT Mileage May Vary)…
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I have been here too long. I was like, what is he talking about? That looks great. Took me a while for the Oh crap eureka moment -… literally.
Talk about entertaining your house guests…
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TBH we had a friend who lived in what looked like a Japanese room -paper walls, slidding doors, tatami floor- on a rooftop. The bathroom was a porta- potty.
I lived in a “private dorm” where I had to trek two floors down to go to the bathroom - shower and number 1 + 2. And I mean an open air stall. Very refreshing in winter.
Apart from being able to watch TV and wash your clothes while taking a dump…did anybody notice that was the balcony!!'n
Yup, I noticed the balcony thing too. I admit I wondered where the sewage pipe was connected…
Guy
I get it how they take a big apartment and split it so that they can maximize rent, but doing that in the balcony… or to the balcony, I guess…
Showed that pic to a foreign friend who’s never been to Taiwan and spotted the funny part immediately. She wondered about privacy…both ways, since you have windows on both front and back. At least the front has curtains.
Sewage, smells…if that is the water pipe “containment”, imagine the electricity set up…
its quite frustrating if you start to think about it. its already crowded here, ridiculously so. banqiao has half a million people! do we really need to make it more crowded by splitting the apartments in half or quarters to fit more people in…to a depressing small home? i’m guessing this was a new apartment too so these landlords are obviously contributing to the ever rising buying prices. greed.
heres another stingy one i just found. living room and bedroom all in one baby!
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That split level thing is quite popular in new apartments. But that wooden frame looks pretty rickety.
I am far more worried about the electric outside pipes. My handyman suggested we do that to renew my electric system -which is busted, can’t turn more than two appliances at once before everything goes kaput. he insisted this was better since you do not have to open the walls…
On that line of thinking, that seemingly new apartment could be refurbished. Those windows look like the same as mine, and mine are over 40 years old.
New apartments are hoarded and then never used, kept in minto condition. The very act of buying leaves the market in the same pathethic condition.
You’re looking at it all wrong. You can watch TV whilst taking a shower. You can use the toilet and do your laundry at the same time. Taiwan is so convenient.
That looks incredibly convenient
I spend 11.2% of my gross salary (13.6% of my net take-home) on rent, not counting utilities, building/garbage fee or “realtor’s” fee. My place is neither “bummy” nor tiny (it’s a nice enough 3 br / 2 ba), but it is in an old building with old wiring, far from an MRT stop, no elevator or door man, no parking spot, no oven, no dishwasher, and no bathtub. It does have a large western-style separate shower in one of the bathrooms, nice wood floors, nice balconies, a full-size refrigerator/freezer, a full-size (American brand) washing machine and a small dryer, though.
I could probably technically afford one of those luxury high-rise places if I wanted to spend 25-40% of my salary, but I’d rather spend that money on travel and retirement savings. Conversely, I could probably stay in a tiny dump or live with roommates in an okay place for 5% of my salary, but some things are worth paying for.
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Rent in Taipei is quite cheap, at least compared to similar-sized cities in North America, Europe, or even elsewhere in East Asia. What costs me $940 USD (30,000 NT) here would cost me probably $2,500 in Chicago, $4,000 in SF or NYC, and God knows how much in London, Tokyo, or Hong Kong. THOSE are the cities where I would have to live in a “shit box.” That’s one of the reasons I live in Taipei!
My rent is 15% of my take home pay. When I lived in the US (California) it was about 40%.
For reference, I live in Taoyuan, on the 20th floor of a modern (not luxury) building, 14 ping 套房. I live alone and like my small place because: Extremely clean, tasteful furnishings, washing machine, balcony, separated shower wet area (the whole water-gets-everywhere bathrooms are so strange to my American mind), six minutes from work, etc.
compared to home my place is very cheap sure. and compared to other places, even the big citys in china taipei is a lot better.
but still, most places are quartered off shit boxes, thats just the truth. its very hard to find anything decent for less than 20 000. and i don’t mean miles away from an mrt station either.