Apartment Hunting

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

Today I went apartment hunting, and I looked at a couple “Tau Fuan”, or single rooms. Lo and behold, being a spoiled American, I was shocked! They were these dinky little rooms (approx 8 ping) with a small gross bathroom. And the shower was like down the hall! My dorm room in college was like a luxury suite compared to these places I saw. Needless to say, I was very turned off to the idea of those places. My question for whoever can help is… are there any nicer types of places to live in Taiwan, without the price being too steep? The room I saw ran for approximately 7000 NT. Please, if anyone has any suggestions for a spoiled American, please let me know. I would prefer places with a kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom with shower, and even a washer dryer/ airconditioning if I am lucky. Please help! Thanks

Tim

2

Try:
Yung Ho
Tui Mama
Zhong Ho(Chung Ho)

Cheap spotsto live, can get a 2 bedroom for around $12,000NT. Lots of restaurants, shops and the Yellow line of the MRT.

Get a Chinese literate friens to look in the newspaper for you. Agents are not your friend, they want you to pay as much as possible, so they can get a higher commission.

Good luck,
Okami

3

Thanks for the help. Any help with the Hsinchu area? That is the actual area I am living in. THank again

4

We paid NT$7k for a flat in a town north of Hsinchu, and finding flats there wasn’t hard giventh the fact that 17% of all housing units in Taiwan are empty. Get a mandarin speaker to help, walk around the neignborhood you want to live in and look for red notices with black writing on them.

5

Pay more and you can get a gorgeous place. Look around, you aren’t in Kansas anymore, it’s really crowded here.

6

ahhh it’s “Tao Fang”

7

Maybe a “yafang” or room in a shared apartment might be more to your liking… look around bulletin boards in pubs etc, if you have a Chinese friend there’s a big bulletin board on Shihda Rd. a bit south of Hoping, next to the night market alley.

8

Looking in the shida area is not gonna do him much good when he’s apartment hunting in Hsinchu.

NT$7k for a small room? that’s nearly Taipei prices.

I would suggest getting a Mandarin speaker to help you and then just ask around. My first flat in Yangmei (north of Hsinchu) was found thru connections. The second (a house) was thru a real estate broker.

You can try them as well. Tell them your budget and ask them what you can get. They are likely to have small flats coming out of their ears - at least that’s the case in Yangmei.