Kaohsiung- Updates on neighborhoods/districts? Where to live...?

I am currently in Taitung, and am looking at moving to Kaohsiung. The rental market in Taitung is…small. Finding something more than a studio suite has been almost impossible.

So, I am now starting to search in Kaohsiung. I’m hoping to find a short-term rental for one month so I can try to get a feel for the city and where I might want to live, but any tips would be great.

I don’t care about going out at night, but I do care about a peaceful neighborhood with a market of some kind within walking/biking distance. The most important thing to me is probably the air quality. Are certain areas of the city going to be cleaner than others? What are your experiences with that?

I don’t mind living out of the center of everything, if it will get me more for my money and a cleaner place to live.

The 591 site I’m searching on has the following options for the areas I can search in Kaohsiung…can anyone offer opinions on any of these areas? I did search through the forum but the info I found is several years old, and not sure if things have changed much since then…

https://gyazo.com/1a4bb0ce3412600d94aaa0a56cfde39d

I’m afraid Kaohsiung will not be suitable for you. Air quality is bad for many days out of the year. Don’t know if some districts are better than others or if all are pretty bad.

The best thing you can do is go to the facebook group : Kaohsiung Apartment Rentals. I was just there and there’s lots of short term rentals. And BTW, I’ve been here 6 years and never noticed any extreme air problems.

Not sure how reliable this is, info for expats

from Taiwan

Although not so bad today, Kaohsiung has some of the worst air in Taiwan along with the rest of the west coast including Taipei.

If you check the air quality index you’ll find many days that even rate hazardous and people should stay inside.

You might not notice it but it is there.

You haven’t specified your budget.

For example, you can get a room in the tallest building in Kaohsiung for NT$700 a night and that works out to about 21,000 per month. Some of them have a kitchenette and a separate bedroom but you probably pay a little bit more. There are many companies that provide time in the building. I booked a room through a hostel service a few weeks ago and my room had a kitchenette TV and Wi-Fi and toilet paper and water and refrigerator and toothbrushes and soap and shampoo nearly everything. But that room was 1100 per night.

I live in Kaohsiung.

People are right about the air quality being bad. Significantly worse than up north. Unfortunately, it is s pervasive that it won’t matter what suburb you live in, if it is a badly polluted day, your suburb will also be polluted. In winter the AQI is generally between 130-170. It’s much better in summer.

That said, there is a lot of construction and I think finding a rental property is pretty easy. I didn’t have too many problems and if you can speak and or read Chinese you will have no problems.

Zuoying is a nice area. It is reasonably affluent yet affordable. It has good access to the MRT and lots of shopping centres, western and taiwanese restaurants. A few bars. Most of the younger foreigners tend to live closer into the main city close to Love River. You can get a 2 bedroom apartment in Zuoying in a modern building for 12000-20000 per month. Other parts of the city are cheaper (apartments can be had for under 10,000) but generally the buildings are older with smaller apartments.

There are a number of big and small markets/night markets all over Kaohsiung so just ask a local in the area and they can tell you if there is one close by.

Kaohsiung is a reasonable place to live. I would personally prefer to live in Taipei just because it is more cosmopolitan and exciting. However, your money goes a lot further in Kaohsiung. Things are really cheap here.

Hey all- THANK YOU for the updates.

And yes, I had read that Kaohsiung was pretty horrible in regards to pollution…but had also come across a post by someone here ( Best area of Kaohsiung to live in? made my alexk a ways down the page) and it sounded like some areas might be a little “cleaner” than others, if only because there are not a million scooters below your window each night. Admittedly, that is a really old thread now.

I think I did find a short-term “full-service” apartment place that will reserve a room for me for June. They are asking 12,000NTD / month + electricity. It’s right on Love River I guess.

I’d like to ideally find something for less than 12,000NTD for a more permanent place, but for the right place I could make allowances :slight_smile:

BlueWhale- about the Zuoying district, can you tell me if this is written as: 左營區 ?

I think that translates to the “left camp area” in the search box once I convert it to English on the 591 site. Just trying to figure out how to filter the area as I search.

Thank you again, everyone!