Abandoned housing has my attention

Near the place that I work is an abandoned place next to the sidewalk which seems to be in ruins. The location is very good, and under normal circumstances I would not be able to afford a location like that.

I know that it could mean that the place is haunted, debt ridden or some or other type of legacy dispute going on.

With superstitions running high in Taiwan, would it be reasonable for me to assume that I could get a bargain on this? Has anybody been down this road?

Maybe people think the place is haunted, maybe the owner is holding out for the value to increase, maybe the owner does not own the ground it sits on

Maybe inquire first

sounds interesting, though.
If you find out anything, and might wanna buy the place - keep us updated!

are foreigners allowed to squat in Taiwan? is there such a thing as ‘squatters rights’ here?

(and not ‘have a dump by the side of the road’: you know what i mean).

If you wanna squat go to the Netherlands … they have a law that gives you the right to squat as the owner of the building leaves the property empty for too long and can’t prove he’s going to bring it back into the market within the year or so …

Has anybody interested in some real estate driven up and around Danshui. As you drive east and then south, you will see many abandoned communities and single family houses. Excuse the expression but, everytime I take that drive I get an . . . . . . . . . This is some of the most desirable real estate in Asia. It sits there without anybody giving a shit except the cockroaches. I know that Taiwanese do not like the sunshine, and . . . . hell, all of that. The fact remains that this is property that most investors would have a huge climax, just to have an opportunity to bid upon. The good thing is that this propery is the first foreignors see. Try going further south along the east coast. There is so much view property here at a song that I just smile every time I go south. Ya wannna make some bucks? Get smart. Buy some ocean view property and wait. It might take a few years but, hell you don’t need to retire yet anyway. Wait for it. It will happen and you will settlle back with ample funds and enjoy life. Wanna teach som English? Hell no. I gotta enough.
But Dawu is mine!!!

[quote=“Enigma”]Has anybody interested in some real estate driven up and around Danshui. As you drive east and then south, you will see many abandoned communities and single family houses. Excuse the expression but, everytime I take that drive I get an . . . . . . . . . This is some of the most desirable real estate in Asia. It sits there without anybody giving a shit except the cockroaches. I know that Taiwanese do not like the sunshine, and . . . . hell, all of that. The fact remains that this is property that most investors would have a huge climax, just to have an opportunity to bid upon. The good thing is that this propery is the first foreignors see. Try going further south along the east coast. There is so much view property here at a song that I just smile every time I go south. Ya wannna make some bucks? Get smart. Buy some ocean view property and wait. It might take a few years but, hell you don’t need to retire yet anyway. Wait for it. It will happen and you will settlle back with ample funds and enjoy life. Wanna teach som English? Hell no. I gotta enough.
But Dawu is mine!!![/quote]

controversial statement of the day " i know that Taiwanese don’t like the sunshine" yeah right we be livin’ in a nation of sun haters

Here in Xindian there are SO many homes left abandoned…some look perfect. I went to ask the guards and they say that the owners only care about the land, not the house, and dont want to rent it out because then they have to claim tax and having to deal with things that break in the house is too much mafan.

Correcto Mundo. All about speculations, and it ain’t gonna improve with Chines looking for a tax friendly investment in Taiwan.
It is simply too late to buy property in TW. Risk ratio vs inflation is like playing on the stock market now.

I would seriously doubt if you could squat on a piece of property as a foreigner. It would be too strange. You may be able to fake it for awhile if you knew the owners were away, but property is something the Chinese take seriously, especially with land so hard to come by in Taipei. Squatting does happen in Taiwan, but I’m not sure if you could gain title to the property with out it being clouded up. So while you may have a place to live, you could never sell it nor borrow against it. Where’s brianlkennedy when you need him?

There was a report that there are about 1 million empty homes in Taiwan. Now take in the difference between buying a new and old property(The down payment). The fact that you can’t trust a whole lot of renters to maintain the property. I’ve cleaned enough houses to know. Also the fact that people run off without paying their rent if possible and the possible damage they can cause. My in-laws have left a house(4-story) vacant for over a decade due to a bad experience with renters. Later the thieves were nice enough to rip out all the wiring and take out the metal railing for the stairs. One house I had looked at in Xindian, the landlady had taken out the electricity meter so no one could squat there as she had had squatters in the past.

[quote=“Enigma”]Has anybody interested in some real estate driven up and around Danshui. As you drive east and then south, you will see many abandoned communities and single family houses. Excuse the expression but, everytime I take that drive I get an . . . . . . . . . This is some of the most desirable real estate in Asia. It sits there without anybody giving a shit except the cockroaches. I know that Taiwanese do not like the sunshine, and . . . . hell, all of that. The fact remains that this is property that most investors would have a huge climax, just to have an opportunity to bid upon. The good thing is that this propery is the first foreignors see. Try going further south along the east coast. There is so much view property here at a song that I just smile every time I go south. Ya wannna make some bucks? Get smart. Buy some ocean view property and wait. It might take a few years but, hell you don’t need to retire yet anyway. Wait for it. It will happen and you will settlle back with ample funds and enjoy life. Wanna teach som English? Hell no. I gotta enough.
But Dawu is mine!!![/quote]

If you drive on from Danshui towards Keelung you’ll come across an abandoned piece that could have once been a holiday resort or some upmarket apartments. They are all shaped like elongated UFO’s and color coded. Its all a shambles now, but its again on prime land. Thats all out of my league, but there are MANY instances of this, even in Taipei city. I’d like to try and make a bid for something. even flatten the whole piece out and draw lines for parking. Saves renting to bad tenants.

Yeah, seen those houses too, they’re made from glasfibre by the looks of it, very odd buildings. I guess they got mashed up in a Typhoon. I also saw a whole bunch of houses up in the mountains in Xindien that were abandoned, like 20 or so, with a nice view and all… Really makes you wonder…

That’d be these ones.

I like them - especially as I’ve already made 6 figures off them through licensing photos of them. This month they’re on the cover and an inside feature in an Italian architecture magazine called Abitare.

So what was that place?
Someone should fix them up and set that place up as a weekend holiday retreat, but then again, this is Taiwain, so it won’t be successful, as there’s both water, sun and fresh air out there…

[quote=“cfimages”]That’d be these ones.

I like them - especially as I’ve already made 6 figures off them through licensing photos of them. This month they’re on the cover and an inside feature in an Italian architecture magazine called Abitare.[/quote]

Yes, those would be the ones. Featured in an architecture mag? some of us have it so easy…

Those houses have been like that for the better part of a decade. Do anyone know what happened?

Six figures NT? Not bad. I should take my stuff off of Creative Commons. I’ve never made a penny from any of my pictures.

I heard there’s a bus from Danshui MRT to go there ? Somebody knows the number of the bus ? Thanks !

Six figures NT? Not bad. I should take my stuff off of Creative Commons. I’ve never made a penny from any of my pictures.[/quote]

Yeah, over 6 figures NT. If only it were US.

I was curious about the original question and asked one of my Taiwan lawyer colleagues. In Taiwan, there is a squatter type provision under Civil Code Article 769, but that requires 20 years of open and continuous occupation of a property (10 years under the good-faith provision of Article 770) that is not registered with the local land offices and which of course is not government land. In other words, as opposed to the U.S. states which often regarding “adverse possession” where the land might clearly belong to another person, Taiwan’s laws are basically aimed at forgotten bits of property that aren’t clearly in the books as belonging to someone. Here are translations of a couple of provisions that my colleague has forwarded to me:

[quote]Article 769: A person, who has peacefully, publicly and continually possessed another’s real property which is not recorded for twenty years with the intent of being an owner, is entitled to claim to be recorded as the owner of the said real property.

Article 770: A person, who has peacefully, publicly and continually possessed another’s unrecorded real property with the intent of being an owner for ten years, and was acting in good faith and not negligently at the beginning of his possession, is entitled to claim to be recorded as the owner of the said real property.[/quote]

Some of the “abandoned” apartment complexes are cleared out for various reasons and likely have actual owners. Sometimes it’s for safety reasons (earthquake or typhoon damage, or perhaps unsafe construction materials used), but I’ve also seen large blocks of apartment buildings that have sat around for many years with constructions signs outside the metal fences stating that the properties are veteran housing that is “currently” under renovation. But if a property actually belongs to someone and it’s registered with the authorities, there’s not much to be gained from squatting other than the mere joy of having one’s own rent-free ruin!