Apartments in Taipei - how bad does it get?

I would agree with the person that said to look for a expat who is leaving and snake their apartment. I did this and my apartment is better than anything I ever had at home as it has air conditioning and a washing machine. Plus, the previous tenants painted the walls a nice shade of blue. If you end up with one of those nasty hard beds, you can get a pad for it at Ikea. They’re a little overpriced but I haven’t had a moment of regret since buying mine!

Hi Violet,

Landlords: If you can talk to the previous tenant, try to do that. If not, spend some time with the landlord. Ask whatever questions you want to ask (with the help of an agent or other Chinese speaker). Although this is good advice in any rental situation, I mention it for Taiwan because this is where I was surprised. Basically, I discovered that my landlord doesn’t expect to ever spend money on the apartment for repairs. I have gotten him to do so, but it was difficult and always a struggle. I even offered my standard “apartment repair deal” – I fix and the landlord pays for materials. No go. He actually suggested with a straight face that I pay for all materials and do the work, as if he fully expected me to agree :laughing:. I’ve heard from several others that many landlords are similar – very stingy when it comes to spending money on the apt. That said, they will gladly be the beneficiaries of any improvements to the apartment that you’d like to make!

Noise: If you are sensitive about this, try to avoid living near a temple as they can be the source of a lot of noise (parties, gongs, firecrackers, etc. at all hours). Also, if you live near street-level, and there is scooter parking nearby (as there is almost everywhere in Taipei), this will be the source of a lot of noise. Just imagine people starting and revving up chainsaws at any time of day or night and you’ll get the picture (did someone suggest a “highrise”??).

Appliances: In most Western apartments, unfurnished apartments have no furniture but always have the basic appliances (stove, fridge, etc). Not true here. Check to make sure that the place comes with basic appliances or you’ll have to buy them even while renting.

MRT: It is wonderful. I’d highly recommend living somewhere close to it (10 minute walk or less). Also, there are a few stations under construction that may open in the next year or two. So, if you’re going to be here for a long time, you might end up with a choice apartment for cheap near a yet-to-be-opened MRT station. You’d have to research that.

Good luck,

Seeker4

I looked at a half dozen apartments when I got here, and they were uniformly shitholes. At minimum they would’ve required a lot of work to be liveable.

Finally I lucked into a host family arrangement in a quiet neighborhood. The place is pristine, with good lighting and ventilation and gorgeous hardwood floors. The family is wonderful, too: I get asked to any meal I’m around for, they don’t mind my odd hours (or my girlfriend!), and they readily help me with any daily living issues that come up (there were quite a few at first). I’m happy to avoid the “living with other westerners” bubble, and very grateful for what I feel’s been a more intimate glimpse of life in Taiwan. The incredibly low rent and painless rental agreement are also very nice!

I highly, highly recommend an arrangement like mine if you can find one.

Whatever you do, get a feel for the neighborhood before signing anything. One of my friends failed to do that before signing on a place. Now he lives above a brothel, in a street of brothels. His landlord’s cool, and the place is comfortable enough (only after several months’ labor), but I don’t envy him. Apparently chattering prostitutes and the sound of… other things… disturb his sleep.

This is a great idea. But as I’ll be new in town, I won’t know many people. I guess I can fish around here and on tealit, but are there any other avenues for doing this that I should know about?

I’m not much of a handyman, so I doubt I’ll be making many repairs to the apartment myself.

I’m not really worried about avoiding expats. Currently there are so few foreigners in my small town in Japan that it’s been over a month since I’ve even seen one on the street. :help: I think balance in these things is better for me than one extreme or the other.

Thanks for all of the advice people. It helps a lot. :notworthy:

Avoid agents if you can. I’ve had several bad experiences. If you can at least speak Chinese (reading would be better), you’re all set. Just find a neighborhood that you like, and there are always lots of bulletin boards with signs for apartments for rent. You can also just pop into a building that you think looks nice and ask the security guard if there are any apartments for rent, or look at the mailboxes and if there’s one for rent there will usually be a sign with the character 租 and a phone number. If you have any Taiwanese friends, they could help you with this. Even if you’re an excellent Chinese speaker, it still usually helps to take a local along with you. They’re better at bargaining, and a landlord is less likely to try to cheat you.

I found a nice place by doing the above with my ex-boyfriend’s help. I speak pretty fluent Chinese, but he speaks Taiwanese, and that can make a difference sometimes. My place is about 30 pings in Banqiao, about a 15 minute walk from Xinpu MRT station, newly renovated (the building is about 10 years old), trash collection service, security guard, etc. The landlady put in all new kitchen cabinets, sink, and stove at her expense, she and her husband also helped to paint, put in a new door to the balcony, etc… She’s a bit nosey (most Taiwanese are), but it’s a nice place - two bedrooms, HUGE living room, two full baths, kitchen, balcony, NT$15,000 per month … and my cat likes it too! I got most of my furniture from IKEA, since I didn’t have enough furniture from my old 5 ping studio apartment in Zhonghe.

Let me share my apartment experiences…seeing as I have lived in four places in four years.

My first one in Xindian was out of desperation. I had spent almost two weeks living out of a suitcase in a love hotel and was going crazy from the lack of workspace. One can only do so much work from a mattress on a tatami. I rented a room in a 2-bedroom, 2-bath (with full-sized bathtubs in both) apartment on the 11th floor of a high-rise building in Bitan above a police station…with a swimming pool, laundromat, sports room, library, Japanese garden, 24-hour security…and a beautiful view of the Bitan river from the living room balcony and the mountains from my bedroom balcony (also full-sized). Garbage got dumped off in the garage where someone else took care of chasing down the truck. My American roommate turned out to be a local celebrity…soap opera, commercials, ads, and of course her own pop band. Then after going home for Christmas, I came back to learn that the landlady was selling the place. No problem for her since her mother’s fellow Buddhist nuns had given her a place to stay until she went off to college, but that left me scrambling to find a new place to live before the month ended. Time there: about 6 months. Completely furnished. Rent - $10,000/mo. including $1000 building maintenance fee ($20,000/2 people). Also had a 1-hour commute each way by MRT and had to be on the train before 7am in order to get there on time. Also involved walking on a suspension bridge everyday. I hate bridges…especially suspension bridges.

Thus came apartment #2 in Muzha. Five year old brick (!) building, fifth floor apartment (with elevator although the first floor was a split level so you had to walk up half a flight of stairs to get to it). Beautiful view of the mountains from my bedroom with an inclusive bath (no tub). My bedroom was so big I had a huge desk, bookshelf, a loveseat, a double bed, and still lots of room to walk around. I moved in with two young Taiwanese people: a 24-year-old girl and a 34-year-old man (not dating) each with their own bedrooms although they shared the bathroom. The kitchen was to die for…cabinets galore and tons of room to maneuver. They had a washer and a line to hang clothes from a walk-on balcony with a view of the mountain behind us, a beautiful wild tangle of vines, colorful wildflowers, and butterflies. A huge living room…this place had to be over 50 pings easily. You had to chase the trucks down, but they came around 9pm and stopped right outside my building. Then things went sour, right about when my mother came to visit and stayed in my huge bedroom. The girl made a point of locking her bedroom door in front of us when she left. Then she showed up with a dog, unannounced…a problem since I already had a cat and you can’t bring another animal into a cat’s house without a proper introduction. We won’t go into how things spiralled until she was calling the other roommate on her phone to tell him to turn down the volume on the TV (which was not allowed to go any higher than 12…out of 99 regardless of how loud it was outside) or how after asking the guy to catsit while I went home for Christmas, my cat had developed an acute fear of the girl and would run cowering whenever she entered the main room. I knew I had to move out, however when my “share” of the electricity bill shot up after the girl got an air conditioner installed in her bedroom…my “share” among three people was nearly $4000/mo. When I found out that I was also paying half the rent (while they paid 1/4 each) I started looking for a new place to live. I would have loved having that whole apartment to myself, even if it cost me $20,000/mo. to do so. It was absolutely perfect once you got rid of the girl and her dog. Supposedly furnished, but they made up some lame excuse about why the only furniture was a rusty second-hand set of three chairs and coffee table…had to buy my own bedroom furniture. Time spent there: 1 year, 3 mos. Commute was a bus ride with one transfer…about 15 minutes.

I fled to apartment #3. I had had enough of roommates and decided to go it alone. This apartment was much smaller, but I could do what I wanted with it. It was a two-bedroom with a leaky bathtub (albeit a small one, not useful for more than collecting water or bathing a cat) on the second floor of an old building in an older district of Taipei. When I went in I had all the colors picked out for each room. A trip to B&Q and I spent the first few weeks sanding, spackling, caulking, painting, and moving in (moving in handled mostly by Steve the Mover). I was sure that it was going to be the last apartment I would live in. It was a hop, skip, and jump from a red-line MRT station in a quiet back alley, with lots of shops and fast food restaurants around. My neighbors were friendly and ran a little food stall from next door. Sure the place was rough around the edges (really rough, even after all the sanding) and had no kitchen to speak of, but it was all mine. Well, mine and the B.A.R.'s (that being Big-Ass Roaches) And when the six-legged ones became more populous, causing me to flee to a hotel after three of them flew in through my bedroom window (everyone together…EWWWW!!!), I knew I had to find a new place to live. Rent there was $12,000/mo. commute by MRT 10-12 minutes with one train transfer and one bus transfer. By the way, leaky roof and insects managed to ruin most of the furniture I brought with me to that place. Thousands of dollars worth gone.

For the first time, I had no serious time restraints for moving (#2 was being given back to the landlord after the 18-month lease ran out for the guy’s company) so I had a chance to look around and nearly took a $25,000/mo efficiency on HePing Rd.

Apartment #4 - a 12th-floor 1-bed/1-bath (top floor at that) with a great view of the mountains from a panoramic window (no bars) which took my breath away when I woke up my first morning of living there. It has a kitchen with a real stove, although the breakfast nook takes away a bit of space. Not that I mind having an instant table. Has a utility balcony. Not much view from it, but the window certainly make up for it. Huge bedroom with built-in closets (yes…closets) and vanity. Full-sized bathtub. Amen! Part-time security guards and garbage is just a matter of taking it downstairs and tossing it into the general garbage area. Friendly neighbors who don’t pry beyond “where are you from?” “how long have you lived here?”. And it’s on the same road as my school. Commute - 5 minutes by taxi, 8-10 minutes by bus. Unfurnished aside from the closets, vanity, and bed box. Rent: $15,000/mo. +$932 for building fees…but well worth it in my opinion.

Coincidentally, my current place is right around the corner from the hotel in which I stayed when I first got to Taiwan. I can see the sign for it from my living room window. Talk about a full circle!

So that’s the skinny on my experience with apartments in Taipei. Granted, I make more than the average English teacher here, but if you really want comfort, it can be had. My first two apartments came to me through me putting an ad on forumosa and tealit. The last two were from ads on forumosa. I have never used an agent and when I did, he pointed me to that $25,000 efficiency which was about the size of the living room of the apartment I chose. In any case, good luck in your search.

Steve the Mover is great. He’s moved me everytime I’ve moved in Taipei, which would be 3 times.

Great to see you recommend somebody who does a good job :smiley: . ou move so aften perhaps you should just live in the back of one of his trucks lol :slight_smile: