Hi folks,
I’m looking at a place at the moment which is a little house (not sure if it can be classes as such, but I’ll call it that anyway), which is in a quiet lane in Taipei. I’d just like to get some views on what I should be looking out for / be concerned about if I were to consider renting such a place. Should I be concerned about flooding, earthquake resistance, crime, neighbour not being so welcoming of a foreigner, anything else?
Thanks,
Fish
Ah, the old Japanese style homes. Really pretty. Problems: bugs get in more easily. Flooding depends on the area, but it shouldn’t be an issue. Quakes? Older structures always pose a risk, but I am more distrustful of the newer ones. Noise might be an issue. Crime is usually not. Neighbors? It depends on them and it depends on you. Be friendly, be neighbourly, don’t do onto others and all that jazz.
Make sure it isn’t close to a temple.
You don’t want to be near a night market or traditional market either.
As everybody knows, the main advantage of living at street level is that you can park your scooter in your living room. So make sure there aren’t any steps without ramps or other obstacles that might prevent you from doing this. 
Seriously though, living at street level is, IMO, far preferable to living up in the sky simply because it’s much more convenient, but there is at least one drawback, namely, less privacy. How serious a drawback this is depends on your neighbors, whom you aren’t likely to really get to know until after you move in. By which time it may be too late.
Other points:
Houses can sometimes be long and narrow, which means that you want to have as much natural light as possible coming in at the front. So frosted glass windows are a definite advantage since they allow you to fully open your curtains without the neighbors from across the street seeing in.
You’ll probably have a metal roller door. These can be quite noisy to roll up and down, which means your neighbors will probably know about it when you come home at 5.00am or whenever. (But really, who cares?)
Streetcats. Occasionally, there are territory wars that last up to two weeks with nightly noisy fights among the male street cats. The upside is that at least they keep the rat population down.
Needless to say, there could be problems associated with the age of the house, such as rising damp. Avoid, if you can, a house with wooden windows. They are useless for blocking noise, they rattle in the wind, and they aren’t mosquito-proof.
Earthquakes. My philosophy with my own house is that it’s 60 years old and has therefore probably been given a good shake about a hundred times or more. It hasn’t fallen down yet, so it’s probably pretty safe as far as earthquakes are concerned.
Flooding. Could be a problem. Don’t leave valuable stuff lying around on the first floor during a typhoon.
Some houses have no rear exit, which means they might be a fire trap. If this is the case, consider buying smoke detectors and a fire extinguisher.
That’s about all I can think of right now.
Basically, if you make the effort to make friends with your neighbors, living at street level can be a great experience.
I wouldn’t do it myself unless it was a quiet alley. But where are these mysterious quiet alleys located?
One word.
Fucking rats.
another word:
Ants
More roaches, rats, and ants, especially if there is a restaurant or market closeby. Yes, temples! If it were one of the Japanese houses though, I’d snap it up in a jiffy.
[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/vibasounds/reigndear-royalties-2012[/soundcloud]
Temples were the main reason I moved out of my Japanese house. Eight of them surrounded me, two right behind. 8!!!
I live at street level on the busiest road in Kaohsiung. The noise isn’t a problem - you get used to that. I fall asleep pretty easily even with all the scooters and cars roaring past at all hours. However, I would really prefer to live in a high-rise apartment. The only reason I’m still in this house is that because of the location (busy, noisy street, and plonked between a bunch of daytime businesses which are unoccupied at night) I can play my drum kit nice and loud any time I want without the noise disturbing anyone. I could never play a drum kit in an apartment building.
As previous posters have said, pests will be a major problem. Rats and mice are a constant hassle, as are ants. Someone mentioned stray cats fighting, but I haven’t heard much of that, perhaps due to the constant buzz of the street noise drowning out most other sounds.
Also, the air quality is probably way better if you are living 10 stories +++ up than at street level.
As other people mentioned too, the fact that the house is a long rectangular shape, and wedged between three taller buildings, it only gets natural light through the front. The back and side rooms never get any natural light.
Oh yeah and back to the pest topic, termites are a constant problem too…
I live on the first floor right next to a temple. I consider myself to be quite a sound sleeper so noise like traffic and even building work on the floor above at odd hours doesnt bother me…
However the noise of blaring horns and drums from the temple at 6am would quite literally wake the dead. Lasts around an hour. I wondered why the landlord was happy to accept just one month deposit.
A slightly bigger problem is that it appears he or someone else has changed the front door to the building…of course not leaving any key for it. So when i come back from going out i just have to hope im lucky and one of my neighbours leaves at same time
[quote=“FarFlungScot”]I live on the first floor right next to a temple. I consider myself to be quite a sound sleeper so noise like traffic and even building work on the floor above at odd hours doesnt bother me…
However the noise of blaring horns and drums from the temple at 6am would quite literally wake the dead. Lasts around an hour. I wondered why the landlord was happy to accept just one month deposit.
A slightly bigger problem is that it appears he or someone else has changed the front door to the building…of course not leaving any key for it. So when I come back from going out i just have to hope im lucky and one of my neighbours leaves at same time[/quote]
So sorry to hear that, FFS. having been there, I understand completely. 
Rats might be an issue. People in my area who live at street level complain about them all the time. Even keeping an incredible amount of street and house cats around does not help. That might be because of the veggies market we have in the neighborhood, though.
I live on the 4th floor and I’ve never seen a rat. Even roaches rarely make it up here, provided I keep the place tidy.
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[quote=“FarFlungScot”]I live on the first floor right next to a temple. I consider myself to be quite a sound sleeper so noise like traffic and even building work on the floor above at odd hours doesnt bother me…
However the noise of blaring horns and drums from the temple at 6am would quite literally wake the dead. Lasts around an hour. I wondered why the landlord was happy to accept just one month deposit.
A slightly bigger problem is that it appears he or someone else has changed the front door to the building…of course not leaving any key for it. So when I come back from going out i just have to hope im lucky and one of my neighbours leaves at same time[/quote]
Why am I not surprised at this. Unfortunately living beside temples is a well known issue people run into. One bitten, twice shy. In my time I have dealt with stray dogs and cats, fireworks and funerals, home renovation, house construction and traffic noise. Yep it’s a party every minute. That’s why I now live on the side of a hill in the suburbs on the 15th floor with only fresh air for neighbors (and force 8 gale some winter days…can’t win them all!).
I lived in a wicked Japanese house in Taipei with a roommate for a couple of years, quite some time ago. Great character place, nice convenience at street level, but that novelty wears off QUICK. You’ll get more mosquitoes, ants, and cockroaches. And rats. Wow, we had lots. They stole our soap a couple of times, I kid you not. And there is a significant advantage as far as noise goes too by getting up off ground level. The higher up the better of course. It was fun for a while, but eventually I wanted to live in a more solid housing situation.