Housing in Taiwan

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

Not enough space… I think you could just about fit the whole of Taiwan into any of the big LA communities. Like Adam said there are some rather nice western style communities springing up in Taichung but I’ve gone house hunting there and realised we haven’t been missing much. Rows of neatly trimmed, perfectly kept and boring as shit streets. I kind of like being able to live somewhere calm but head into the chaos at will.[/quote]

Still, I haven’t seen one place in Taiwan which I would like to live in.

In fact, the biggest reason I would absolutely not want to live in Taiwan for a longer time is that there is only these shabby neighbourhoods with only flats available.

I grew up in one of these typical European suburbs, and I cannot imagine something else to live in for 30 or 40 years. I could never live in this 2 or 3 room flats… and then even have children?

Is there anything in Taiwan which would at least to some degree resemble a European suburb - one family houses, nice, quit neighbourhood?

They have that in Japan… of course, the houses there are as shitty as in Taiwan (no insulation etc. - they should have copied from Europe, not from America), but at least they have neighbourhoods with gardens, nice houses (apart from the insulation and that they all are maybe only 2/3 the size of a European house), silent neighbourhood etc.

I don’t want to live next to rich people, just middle class…

Is this some kind of Taiwanese mentality? “I don’t care if the outside is really dirty and shabby?”

2

New to Taiwan I guess :slight_smile:
There aren’t really European style neighbourhoods anywhere in Taiwan. It’s just a very different society and too many people crowded together. Middle class people could not afford the type of house you are talking about in cities.

3

Some call it the Taiwan exotique, others call it a festival of junk: http://www.thewildeast.net/news/2010/11/taiwan-architecture-a-festival-of-junk/

4

To be fair, a fair number of people in urban areas outside of Taipei live in what we would think of as townhouses. Places like this:

I personally think its not where you live but how you live.

5

Yes there would certainly be a ‘number’ of people. You still need to be VERY well off to afford a house like that in Taichung , Hsinchu, Taoyuan or Kaoshiung. It’s also not European/Western are their gardens are tiny and they don’t really have a neighbourhood. But yeah the standard of housing is getting better in towns and the countryside, you can see many nice places going up in Miaoli and Ilan for example.

6

Reviving this thread to link a report by the great @StevenCrook with some stats that should cause widespread outrage and/or shame, but of course will not, as the landlord class continues to whistle past this housing graveyard.

https://topics.amcham.com.tw/2022/11/urban-taiwans-stumbling-shift-to-sustainability/

Guy