Can a citizen of a foreign country buy property–an aprtment or house–in Taiwan?
Depends on the mutual agreement laws with your home country,
(not Kidding)
Now a warning!
My wife and I have been looking for a place for about 7 months. Most of what we have seen are rotted, insect infested hell holes, with walls crumbling and roofs falling …etc, but still 5 to 6 million!
Finally, we found one we liked and had been there 4 times to check and re check. Last sunday we were there with the realtor and my wife’s mother. We had talked for weeks and choosen a bid price. The sunday meeting was to sign some papers agreeing to the price we offered and to begin hard core talks with the owner over price.
Papers on the table, pen in hand the realtor comes up with,“you need to give me 100,000$ cash so that I can take it to the owner as a show of good faith.” I flat out refuse to give him cash, I told him when the deal is struck we will give the owner a 10% downpayment with the balance to be paid within 30 days but under no circumstances am I giving him or anyone cash.
He hems and haws and then agrees. I sit again to sign when all of a sudden my mother in law yells STOP!
She noticed a tiny paragraph in 6 point font that states the building is actually built on public land which is zoned for road use not residential use. I can see the realtor has this [quote]FUCK[/quote] look in his eyes. he tries for an hour to convince it is[quote] no problem, don’t worry.[/quote]
We refuse say thanks and leave.
3 hours later he faxes us some “papers” which are [quote]official[/quote] city zone maps and properties. However, we can clearly see that he has crossed out the number of our building and hand written the address on the place which the building now stands.
My mom in law goes ballistic. If you have never seen the hellfire of words a pissed of 50 something educated Taiwanese women can unlease I suggest you stand the fuck back, it was scary!
When buying a house be careful. We were dealing with one of the biggest Real Estate firms in the city and they still tried this shit so
Let the Buyer beware.
Another to watch out for is making sure you are actually getting the number pings the realtor says you are getting.
My father-in-law bought us a house (which I have been regretting since the day he did it…but that’s another story…) in Hsin Chuang that was supposed to be 33 pings. It was 4.5 million NT, but since it was ground floor and had space for two cars and a few scooters, we thought it was a pretty damn good deal. However, when my father-in-law got the deed after making the purchase, we found out it was only 28 pings! After the realtor assured us numerous times the place was 33 pings. And my father-in-law, of course, refused to take any action…
Goddamn I love Taiwan.
Although, now, we just purchased a new condo that is still being built, payed about the same price as our first place, but we’re getting a brand new home instead. We had awesome service (when we went to see the demo rooms, I was on crutches and the people there moved absolutely anything that could remotely get in my way), payed a small downpayment (around 100,000) and were told that we don’t have to start actually making payments until we move in.
Sorry for my stupidity, but whats a ping?
Sorry for my stupidity, but whats a ping?
It’s the unit of measurement they use here…I can’t remember how big it is though…something like 4 meters squared IIRC. I’m probably really wrong on that one though so don’t quote me on it.
An mythical Taiwanese unit of measurement often said to be equivalent to 36 square feet.
In my neighborhood, there are two guys without local wives that purchased property. One is from Australia and the other is from the USA. There is also a Canadian that is part owner with his wife and another just puts it in his wifes name. I just put my house in my wife’s name, but it isn’t necessary, unlike many other countries in Asia, it is easy for foreigners to purchase property including the land its built on in Taiwan.
I just bought a house. First bank and city said it must be on my wife’s name, no way for a foreigner to have the bank loan or house on his name. Well, I was more interested in the house than in the bank loan to get my name. 
Now both loan and house are registered on both my wife and my name. So it works if you insist.