Don’t buy Sanxia
Question: Is this thread regarding “real” houses? Fully detached on its own plot of land. Or is the word “house” being used to describe condos or apartment high rises with monthly homeowner maintenance fees and parking stalls that sell for 1 million NTD?
Clarification, please.
I’m just curious is there any benefit from buying a house seeing how high the prices are? 11 million NT is like 300-400 thousand US dollars and you can buy much better property for that price anywhere in the US except in the expensive areas (like San Francisco Bay Area).
A 20-30 ping flat in New Taipei City rents for around 15,000 if it’s a crap gongyu, or 25,000 if it’s in a fancy elevator building plus management fees (you will still have to pay that if you own the flat too). You will be paying 50k per month after all the brokerage and legal fees, and it will still take a while to pay it off at that rate, assuming housing prices don’t crash because they can’t find anyone to pay into this Ponzi scheme. Don’t even think to raise rental rates on a tenant assuming you are renting it (most likely at less than half the mortgage payment) because you WILL lose that tenant. Nobody raises rents in Taiwan, the market doesn’t allow that.
The only real benefit you get from owning the house is you can register your houkou without asking reluctant landlords. Or possibly own pets…
If you are buying a house for investment look for the cheapest crap gongyu in a decent location, renovate it and rent it out. Don’t spend more than 8 million (yes I know this is hard to do). You won’t make money overnight but you’ll get something. The idea is buy low sell high. You don’t do that by buying expensive properties.
Remember as a landlord you have to pay property taxes too, this is on top of your 50k mortgage. It makes more financial sense to rent.
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If that’s the logic then the whole world shouldn’t buy any property unless you live in the US.
Except everywhere else don’t have such lopsided house price to rental rate ratio as Taipei. When it takes 100 years to pay off a property at rental rates it makes zero sense to buy. People here only do it because traditions demand that when you marry the groom’s family buys a house for the newlyweds.
In the US you have rent to own deals (albeit on crap properties) that is only 10 years long and the house if yours once you rent that long.
But I will say though public transportation sucks in the US and even rural areas in Taiwan have better public transport than most major American cities. If that’s worth something to live right next to an MRT but personally I don’t mind walking 10 minutes to an MRT if it saves me 10k a month.
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Owning a property helps with huji, schools, doing your own decoration . Otherwise not really many advantages currently.
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That merely means rent is pretty cheap in Taipei (or rather, rent is too expensive in those places), not that people shouldn’t buy stuff.
Houkou can be solved if you talk to the landlord and offer to pay the extra taxes… though most landlords won’t allow unless you are a long term tenant.
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It just means the properties are worth far less than what the purchase price suggests. The demand here simply isn’t so high that it drives up rental prices. Even properties in daan or Xinyi District don’t rent more than 40k for 30 pings and you’d pay way more than 50k for mortgage if you bought it (the property could cost in excess of 20 million).
Under current market conditions in Taipei, it makes zero financial sense to buy. If you want to invest try taoyuan or hsinchu.
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That’s it? One would expect some details to support your opinion.
Care to elaborate?
You get an automatic resident visa if you own property, or how does it work ?
I’m sure you know the vast majority are not us citizens nor do they have resident visas, so most of us would need to factor in costs associated with being actually able to live in the better quality house in the USA…
Dont think it would be that high, we paid 10 mil for ours and our mortgage for a 20 year is only 30k @ 2%
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Your math doesn’t add up/you are leaving out you got a very small mortgage
Back of the envelope if you pay 30k, the mortgage at 30k/month would be about 5.5mil, is that correct ?
Also, you have a 20 year mortgage in tw at fixed 2% interest??
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People keep saying it makes no sense to buy.
Sure, if you are single or a young couple with no kids, renting is fine. But buying also has significant advantages
The reason we decided to bite the bullet and buy a house (new flat) is because we were tired of landlords selling and us having to pack up and move, especially with a newborn. When you have kids, it really changes things. The stress of having to find a new place, a place as decent if not better than what you were already renting, the stress of having to find a new nanny because you can’t find a place to rent within reasonable distance to your current nanny or school, finding a place with the same parking availability etc…it all adds up. Owning your own home eliminates all that stress and gives you roots and security. A place you can eventually hand over to your kids too.
Sure, everything is inflated here. The chance of making a profit from selling later is very low. But for us, it was not a “financial investment” we expected a return on.
We bought in Sanxia and have zero regrets. Driving to Taipei, for now while the MRT line is being built, is not bad at all. If we do decide to sell, it will be closer to the completion of the new Sanxia / Yinge line or just after. The value of our place should go up quite a bit because of that as long as the housing bubble doesn’t burst by then. I don’t think it will burst.
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I absolutely see why one would prefer to own as opposed to renting . Old lags like @Brianjones and myself can’t help but see the downside in Taiwan … one of the lowest rent / value return rates in the world . There are still places to get 7/9% return in investment in other countries and potential capital appreciation … and use the rent money to rent here . I really tried to buy here … but stuck with uk properties … now I need to sell really … I hope this a good time ? Oh no … wait 
. Anyway if you intend to stay and choose carefully , it can work for you . As mentioned , just research as much of the area as you can . Good luck .
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I just bought early last year. I’m in Taichung. 8 million for a new apartment and the mortgage is 28,000 per month. It’s about double the rent but at least I’ll own the place. Even if I resell it at what I paid, I’m saving my rent at least
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Well yeah it is up to you if you want to buy there but I definitely wouldn’t.
Why?
It’s far away, but I guess it depends on where you work. But, if you work in Taipei it’s like 30 minutes at least to the city
Far away from Taipei even with the new section of metro. Additionally San Xia has already been through a bubble and burst and then slightly risen again , but well under what they were originally sold for. The government allowed massive over building to take place there. A lot of the housing they just cannot sell or cannot sell and refuse to sell. There were also a lot of building scandals. Even people I know who bought right near the university cannot rent out easily and have had a nightmare trying to sell it for the original price. A lot of negative equity there.
An older non community place might be alright, but if I was you I’d stay away from the large community housing complexes in San Sha. If they don’t have enough tenants you’ll end up with non serviced elevators…Just my opinion and I could be wrong.
Plus if the bubble burst in Taiwan then the further away from Taipei the worse it will be.