I have been searching through the ads and it seems that Taiwan is choke full of apartments… Aren’t there any stand alone houses anymore to be rented out in Taiwan?
Now I am not talking about those million dollar mansions in taoyuan.
What I have in mind are more like these houses found in these ad below… cheap retirement homes with your own yard away from the major cities yet not too far away from the center of any small countryside town in taiwan…
Apartments/condos are overwhelmingly the norm in Taiwan. Standalone houses are usually run-down farmhouses or high-priced rural or suburban estates. There are also a dwindling number of standalone Japanese-built houses in the cities–the owners hang onto them until they die, and their children then sell them off to developers. You’re unlikely to be able to rent them.
There are some areas outside more rural/suburban universities that have some standalone houses, but usually are available only through connections with the universities. And there are those old US military officers’ houses near Chinese Culture University… I don;t know what the deal is, but about 25% of them are lived in; many are in sad states of disrepair.
You can find lots of houses in rural Taiwan. Some are pretty old and run down, but there are also lots of newer houses. I’m not sure how easy it would be to rent one of the newer ones. Those seem to have been built specifically for the owners to move/retire to the countryside. I live in a small, old house in a small town in Taidong County. I’m not exactly close to any nightlife, and the nearest hospital is about fifteen to twenty minutes away by car. You could probably find something relatively close to amenities though.
rural taiwan … that would be Taidong i suppose or are there any other areas in your mind which you would considered to be rural?..[/quote]
btw, I don’t cook and I intend to get a cheap scooter… that would be enough for me to travel from my house to the town centre and/or the beach if I live in a seaside town… right?
I really dislike the nightlife/shopping malls/places with huge crowds although I do sleep in the daytime and write at night… I am a writer you see and I work better in the night-time… this is why I am really looking for a quiet house where I can sleep in the day-time and not be bothered by the noise around me…
Last year, I lived in an apartment in china and there were so much renovation noises going on in the day-time that I can’t sleep through the day yet my mind was too active at night for it to shut down… so I suffered prolonged periods of sleep deprivation…
This is why stand alone houses seem like the only option for me yet I can’t seem to find too many of those in taiwan…
How did you find your house in Taidong anyway? Through the 591 website?
Do the Taiwanese ISPs provide Internet access to rural Taiwan as well and are there any additional surcharges for internet access in rural Taiwan? How fast are the internet speeds?
The high speed rail here is convenient enough that you can get from one end of the country to the other with very little effort. If you don’t need to be in civilisation too often I wouldn’t let that affect your choice too much. Hope you can find something good!
There are some stand alone houses for rent in Xindian, in the mountains. There are entire neighborhoods of townhouses, and because of the distance, half the places are empty all the time and most are empty during the day, so if it is quiet you seek, you’ll find it.
Eh, BTW, you do know you can process your ARC anywhere you live. You are not tied to Taipei for ARC processing. By this I mean that if you live in Taoyuan, there is a NIA Taoyuan office, or in Taichung, there is a NIA Taichung office.
edit:
and did I mention cheap? lovely mountain views for inspiration?
Inside Taidong city, high speed internet is available, once you go more rural, like Du Lan, certain areas don’t get high speed internet or cable TV for that matter, it all depends where you live.
Before you rent, you can ask the telephone company about this.
even in Taidong city, there are loads of duplexes and row houses, but like anywhere else in Taiwan, stand alone houses can be found.
If your looking for a more quiet area, try a gated community.
If your looking rural South or East like Taidong, for example: rural Du Lan, farm houses are hard find, it’s because, in these areas, most people are poor and live in their house, and don’t have a 2nd house to rent.
I just rented a huge beautiful house with a yard in Taidong, and not expensive at all. Asking agents and driving around is how I found my house. good luck!!
It’s easy to find a standalone house outside any town or smalller cities. No problem at all. You can find some in Taoyuan County and Miaoli County that might be useful, maybe up North and the East Coast will have lots of choices. Maybe 10,000-20,000/mth. They all have access to the regular train. Some areas are very quiet indeed as in no one will bother you. The countryside here can be a bit noisy too due to temples or what not but nothing like the city.
Very difficult to find standalone house in city areas though due to cost and density of housing,
[quote=“crystaleye”]I have been searching through the ads and it seems that Taiwan is choke full of apartments… Aren’t there any stand alone houses anymore to be rented out in Taiwan?
Now I am not talking about those million dollar mansions in Taoyuan.
What I have in mind are more like these houses found in these ad below… cheap retirement homes with your own yard away from the major cities yet not too far away from the center of any small countryside town in Taiwan…
rural taiwan … that would be Taidong i suppose or are there any other areas in your mind which you would considered to be rural?..[/quote]
btw, I don’t cook and I intend to get a cheap scooter… that would be enough for me to travel from my house to the town centre and/or the beach if I live in a seaside town… right?
I really dislike the nightlife/shopping malls/places with huge crowds although I do sleep in the daytime and write at night… I am a writer you see and I work better in the night-time… this is why I am really looking for a quiet house where I can sleep in the day-time and not be bothered by the noise around me…
Last year, I lived in an apartment in china and there were so much renovation noises going on in the day-time that I can’t sleep through the day yet my mind was too active at night for it to shut down… so I suffered prolonged periods of sleep deprivation…
This is why stand alone houses seem like the only option for me yet I can’t seem to find too many of those in Taiwan…
How did you find your house in Taidong anyway? Through the 591 website?
Do the Taiwanese ISPs provide Internet access to rural Taiwan as well and are there any additional surcharges for internet access in rural Taiwan? How fast are the internet speeds?[/quote]
You might want to try to find something near Wuli. Then you can drive your scooter to Xindian MRT station. From Xindian to Taipei Main Station is 20 minutes on the MRT.
There are rural parts of Taiwan pretty much everywhere outside of Taipei, and maybe they even exist there. There are certainly rural areas in Taoyuan and everywhere south of there, plus everywhere on the east coast.
My wife found this place. When we first lived here, we were staying in a very small apartment on the edge of a town which was largely the result of being told well before coming here that my supervisor at my job would look for some places for us, rocking up and finding what we thought would be temporary for only a few days and then finding out that my supervisor had done absolutely fuck all to find a place for us. After a few months, we really started to get sick of where we were living, so my wife went looking for somewhere else. She drove around and looked for different places and spoke to people and asked if they knew of any places (because everyone here knows everyone else’s business). This is the one we liked. We got kind of lucky in many ways. It’s by no means the Taj Mahal, but it’s a pretty good deal, I think. Incidentally, it had been empty for a few months before we moved in and it’s about two or three hundred metres from where my supervisor lives. :fume:
[quote=“Icon”]There are some stand alone houses for rent in Xindian, in the mountains. There are entire neighborhoods of townhouses, and because of the distance, half the places are empty all the time and most are empty during the day, so if it is quiet you seek, you’ll find it.
Eh, BTW, you do know you can process your ARC anywhere you live. You are not tied to Taipei for ARC processing. By this I mean that if you live in Taoyuan, there is a NIA Taoyuan office, or in Taichung, there is a NIA Taichung office.
edit:
and did I mention cheap? lovely mountain views for inspiration?[/quote]
I intend to surf and swim… so mountain villas are really not my taste… too far away from the beaches…
i was kinda visualizing a cheap stand alone house near the beach and yet not too far away from the center of a small town cos i like to consume those 100 NTD buffet takeaways and any small town centers are full of these 100NTD eateries… i would also need to ride down to the local supermart for groceries and stuff…
you can renew your ARC in any county. With me the only inconvenience of being in the south is renewing a candian passport, which they (canada) make very aggravating.
In pingtung county its easy to find standalone, certianly easier if you know someone that speaks chinese. Hope on your scooter as a few peopel standing around…We are often escorted by people…they drive us right to their friends who will rent a house. The house we rent now is stand alone, 1 floor long rectangle style as usually plus open roof by teh moutnains (safe distance for mudslides though!). We pay $3500/month. Need to actually pay for water here though, which i have never had to before in Taiwan…but thats probably normal for most people. water is $140/month. before we paid $5000 fora 4 floor new house but it was attached.
All I can say is if you like freedom and dont like G.Y. neighbour telling you what you can and cant do on your deck, or always asking what your doing at night, DO NOT LIVE IN AN ATTACHED HOUSE. I swear to god i will never ever live in anything that even has 1 wall attached to anything lol. And if you have pets like dogs, its even more important. neighbours are like mothers, lovely to visit often, but never live with/attached to them :fume:
You had previously asked for the coolest area during the summer Where is the coolest place in Taiwan to live in throughout the summer? - have you abandoned that idea now or found “near Taipei” to be that area?
And seeing what goes down those rivers at the west coast i wonder about swimming or surfing there…
crystal: Well, I live in the East Rift Valley. The ocean is about an hour away. There are plenty of towns along the coast north of Taidong City. I’m sure you could find something there. If you don’t need a job and intend to write, then you shouldn’t have any problems. You should be able to find something fairly cheap and your general cost of living should be quite low.
[quote=“crystaleye”][quote=“Icon”]There are some stand alone houses for rent in Xindian, in the mountains. There are entire neighborhoods of townhouses, and because of the distance, half the places are empty all the time and most are empty during the day, so if it is quiet you seek, you’ll find it.
Eh, BTW, you do know you can process your ARC anywhere you live. You are not tied to Taipei for ARC processing. By this I mean that if you live in Taoyuan, there is a NIA Taoyuan office, or in Taichung, there is a NIA Taichung office.
edit:
and did I mention cheap? lovely mountain views for inspiration?[/quote]
I intend to surf and swim… so mountain villas are really not my taste… too far away from the beaches…
I was kinda visualizing a cheap stand alone house near the beach and yet not too far away from the center of a small town cos I like to consume those 100 NTD buffet takeaways and any small town centers are full of these 100NTD eateries… I would also need to ride down to the local supermart for groceries and stuff…[/quote]
Did I mention rivers? Hot springs? Half an hour drive to Yilan and East coast beaches? Close to supermarkets and great buffets, plus those great seafood places where the fishies, crabs and lobster await their fate swimming in tanks next to you.
