Myself and my wife (Taiwanese) have been looking to buy a property in New Taipei. I am just wondering if you think I am looking at properties that will place a large financial strain on us going forward.
We are looking to pay no more than 13Mil (including renovations). We have been looking at places around the 11.5-12mil mark. We have 4.5mil in savings at the moment and have a combined monthly income of 150,000NT. We are both in our mid 30’s. Our income should increase over time but not by much I’d imagine.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on what we are doing.
Around the 12M mark and assuming you put down a 20% downpayment, is 2.4M. You indicate renovations of about 1 to 1.5M, best case your up to 3.4M with 1 M in hand. You might need to pay real estate a % depending on the real estate agent and then there are some legal fees.
I think if you calculate it out a mortgage works out at about 5k a moth for every 1M or so lent if giving back over 20 years. so thats around the 50k a month.
How big is the place you are looking to buy, 1 to 1.5M in renovations might be either doable or stretching it depending on the size.
My wife tells me that most places are posting asking prices online that are 20% higher than what they will eventually agree to see for. Does this sound common for the Taipei housing market?
Correct, although it varies and getting all the way to that 20% is not easy, even 15% can be an achievement.
But these days the Government is listing all the prices houses are being sold, so you can look on line to see the actual prices people paid for houses near or even in the building you want to buy.
Ok be careful on which area in Xindian, that area has huge fluctuations in price from area to area within it. My advice is that if you want a home go for it, if it’s an investment I’d not go for that area. I think it’s an over priced district but I could be very wrong.
ok that’s good if the house is convenient for transportation. If you ever fall on hard financial times you need to make sure you could rent it if necessary. My 2 cents.
Quoting myself, because this is an important point. It used to be a 20% swing in negotiation, but that trend is coming to an end as people can now check online the actual purchasing price. A construction company for example, is now more likely to have a fixed number with no negotiation.
25-30 year old building you are dealing with house owners who will have a bargaining range. But since they and you can go online and check, that 20% rule might be a thing of the past. Just saying.
Why plop that much money down for a 20 year old house when you can get a new one (5 years or newer) for the same price? Go to Sanxia, the newer Bei Da area or on the outer boundaries of it. Fantastic homes, great area to live, MRT is going in, tons of new homes, etc.
Just calculate percentage of.your income.your willing and able to out into mortgage every month. No kids on horizon? Does wife have a govt job ? These are factors . Getting a decent income in Taiwan.is a pain.
Mostly seems fairly reasonable for the area and the age and savings etc. Leave some savings in cash.
He did say that he was looking in New Taipei. New area in Sanxia could be an option, just like @SuiGeneris mentioned.
There are other planned neighborhoods, such as Linkou, where OP may find newer houses at good price.
Note that the prices listed are the ones reported, which do not always represent the actual sales price.
Maybe it is better now, but they were all over the place in 2016 when we checked on those.