Looking for a apartment in taipei (after landing)

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

  • i am going to study in ntnu university soon and i need to know how to go about finding a apartment

  • can someone please explain THE BEST WAY to find a apartment in taipei from scratch? let me clarify the situation, i have just landed in taipei, checked into a hotel, and now im at the hotel exit, WHAT DO I DO NOW??? (do i walk until i see a real estate agency and just go in and ask? or is there another way?)(i probably have 1 week time limit to find a apartment)

  • and also second question is which area/suburb in taipei are good? (i really want your opinions)

  • please help , thanksssss

(please do not remove this post, please!!!)

2

Probably best to get into a hostel and save money and plan on getting to know the city first and then hunting a place to rent. Give yourself a month.

Use some agents. But first go all over the city and see whats up where?

3

Welcome to The Island, Kent.

First of all, you gotta do some homework. Read here and in other forums, books, etc. about the city layout and what each district has to offer.

Do you knbow anyone in town? If not, ask for herlp. yes, wqe know you are an adult, a young male probably, but it is always a good idea to have someone go seaching with you, for a lot of reasons. One of them is that if your friend/acquaintance/coworker/person introduced by someone from back home has better idea of what to expect -especially pricewise- and if Taiwanese will also have teh experience of negotiating for teh best deal. This last is very important.

Now, you may think that going through an agency is the best way. What do you knwo about agencies in Taiwan? How much do you have to pay? What are the contractual responsibilities? These questions can be answered by doing your homework and being better prepared. It is knowing teh diference between Tsui Mama and Rebar Real Estate, for instance.

As Tommy said, spend the first days in a cheap hostel. Make a list of your priorities: do yuou want to live alone? Share an apartment? Do you want a cheap house no matter what or you’d rather live right next to the MTC no matter what you have to pay? These and otehr questions only you can answer, and it is better to have that clear before you start anything else.

That said, best of luck. One you have a few more data, teh questions won’t be quite general and then we can help more.

4

I suggest you head over to Tsuei Mama they should be able to give you a better idea of things and they’re a non profit organization.
Some other options can be found here and here
If you can read Chinese, then 591 is a good local resource.
Hope that helps a bit.

As with regards to what’s the best way and best area, I guess it depends on your budget etc. but the further out from the city, the cheaper it is, with some exceptions.
You also need an English speaking friend that knows Chinese in most cases, or you’ll have a hard time getting appointments outside of Tsuei Mama or the two English websites above.

5

Actually, my first step would be to contact the University and find out if they have some kind of housing placement program or at least an area on campus where rentals or shares are advertised. With a big campus, I would imagine that there are lots of students looking to share flats and there must be a place where they find each other, no? This is just a stab in the dark, as I have never attended university in TW. Good luck.

6

[quote=“Icon”]
As Tommy said, spend the first days in a cheap hostel. Make a list of your priorities: do yuou want to live alone? Share an apartment? Do you want a cheap house no matter what or you’d rather live right next to the MTC no matter what you have to pay? These and otehr questions only you can answer, and it is better to have that clear before you start anything else.

That said, best of luck. One you have a few more data, teh questions won’t be quite general and then we can help more.[/quote]

  • thanks for the help everyone
  • my budget is only around 17000 NT/month being a student and all, and i would like to find a 1br apartment living by myself, preferably modern type design, which doesnt have to be in the heart of the city
  • will i be able to find a decent place within my budget??
    (im still doing my research)
7

[quote=“kent11”][quote=“Icon”]
As Tommy said, spend the first days in a cheap hostel. Make a list of your priorities: do yuou want to live alone? Share an apartment? Do you want a cheap house no matter what or you’d rather live right next to the MTC no matter what you have to pay? These and otehr questions only you can answer, and it is better to have that clear before you start anything else.

That said, best of luck. One you have a few more data, teh questions won’t be quite general and then we can help more.[/quote]

  • thanks for the help everyone
  • my budget is only around 17000 NT/month being a student and all, and I would like to find a 1br apartment living by myself, preferably modern type design, which doesnt have to be in the heart of the city
  • will i be able to find a decent place within my budget??
    (im still doing my research)[/quote]

Well, an apartment -not a room with your own bathroom- will be all 17 thousand or more if on the Shida area.

However, along Hoping East Road, closer to Xiamen Street, Kuling Street, etc… -check Google Maps- you will find some nicer, maybe 2 bedroom, for that budget. Not teh nicest neighborhood, but close to school, food, MRT transportation and recreation.

Other option is closer to NTU, but not on the technology Buiilding Station area -too expensive- but moving closer to Xinyi.

And of course, if you head to the burbs, it will be a lot cheaper. For example, a 2 bedroom would be 10 to 13 thousand in our lovely lake area of Bitan. Another area also prefered for its amenities and vicinity to Shida is Dinxi Station area. Check MRT maps for reference.

Now, as to decent place, it depends on the apartment itself more than the neighborhood.

One more thing: what people call here taofan or studio is usually a room with its own bathroom, maybe a small kitchenette, but rarely anything else. These go for 15 around Shida to 8 and even 6 thousand in the 'burbs. Most share laundry facilities, and are usually stacked 8 per floor or single door. These are quite popular with students.

Of course, more Westerdized and hence spacious studios are also to be found.

8

-hmm thanks for the info.

  • does anyone know any good websites for searching apartments in taipei which HAVE PICTURES.
    (im currently looking at craigslist, tealit, masterhomes (mtr)

thanks -pleeese help—

9

Sure, here are Kiiji’s listings. for apartments between NT$10 and $20K. But follow the advice of the poster and go to Tsui Mama. They will point you in the right direction.

If you want to live in a new place. move to the suburbs (Banqiao, Danshui, Xizhi) etc. and start enjoying your commute.

10

[quote=“Feiren”]Sure, here are Kiiji’s listings. for apartments between NT$10 and $20K. But follow the advice of the poster and go to Tsui Mama. They will point you in the right direction.

If you want to live in a new place. move to the suburbs (Banqiao, Danshui, Xizhi) etc. and start enjoying your commute.[/quote]

  • hey, yes i dont have to live in the city centre, and i dont mind living in suburbs. by the way, are the suburbs much cheaper?

  • and also i found some really nice modern apartments in zhong shan (中山區) do you (or anyone else) know anything about this area? is it a suburb or part of the city center?

  • thanks --pleese help–

11

Zhongshan is in the city but is not really central by taipei standards if you are going to NTNU. Still, if you are within a few minutes of the red line, you can take it south to Guting MRT station and walk to NTNU in about 10 minutes. Zhongshan has some nice areas but is also home to Taiwan’s vice district centered around Linsen N. Rd. No real problem with that except possibly noise in some areas, but that’s true everywhere in Taipei.

Yes, the suburbs are much cheaper and have newer apartments. Since you are going to NTNU, you should consider Xindian, Yonghe (very crowded), and Zhonghe since they are on lines that connect to Guting MRT. But think about this carefully–although the suburbs may have newer places to live they are cheaper for a reason. They are very crowded, transportation is bad, sidewalks are nonexistent, and everyone spends their free time in Taipei. Your apartment may be nice, but outside will be hellish and boring.

Finding a good place to live in Taipei takes a lot of time and effort. You need to visit 20-30 places in person and then visit your final candidates at several different times of day. You probably don’t have that much time. My advice: find some student digs around NTNU–west of Roosevelt Rd. is cheaper but there are many places out on Heping east of Xinsheng S. Rd. Look at rooftops–many have been nicely redone although probably not to your standards.

Good luck

12

Oh c’mon don’t scare the lad silly.
Xindian isn’t that bad, really…
Yonghe and Zhonghe on the other hand…
And there are plenty of sidewalks in this part of town and then there’s of course the new bike paths that runs all along the river, so you could in reality ride a bike to school, if you can stand the heat :smiley:

13

I would recommend YongHe. Near DingXi MRT, you can find a decent studio for $10K per month. It’s fairly close in to Taipei, so it’s easy to get to by cab or bus.

If you go to DingXi, walk to ZhongShan Road, turn left, and go a few blocks, you’ll see an off-brand convenience store (SJ Mart, or something like that) on your right maybe a block or two before you reach the night market. Go in and ask to speak to the nice old bat who runs it with an iron fist (you’ll need an interpreter). She and her poor henpecked husband have rooms above the place. They’re quite reasonable. Just DON’T LET HER CLEAN IT FOR YOU and hose the entire place down with bleach before you move in. Trust me on this. Use LOTS of bleach. Convenient to the night market, the MRT, and a decent laundromat if you have stuff that needs a real dryer. The rooftop apartments are the best choice IMHO (they have their own bathrooms). REMEMBER THE BLEACH.

The problem with living much further out is that the MRT charges based on distance. If you live in Danshui, you’ll be paying quite a bit every day for transit, not to mention spending a couple of hours on the train every day. Also, if you’re in town late (out boozing, no doubt) and miss the last train, you’ll spend a fortune on a cab ride home.

Also, I would recommend against Banciao rather strongly. Every time I went there, the air pollution was horrendous (even compared to the rest of Taipei). Danshui had relatively clean air, but that commute is a killer.

14

There is a taofan available near my home, a foreign NTU student was there. LCD TV, mini frdge, 30 seconds away from MRT. 8 thousand. I used to make it to Shida in 15 minutes, walk from MRT included.

15

-thanks for all the help, ive looked at many apartment listings and,
-on a couple of the listings it had links to (what i would assume) to be the landlords blog/facebook type page which just had pages of house listings all offered by him. can
someone please just confirm if these type of sites can be trusted? because it just seems very weird to use a social networking site to advertise housing.

-(cant advertise ey)

16

Great thread and just what I need too, thanks Kent!

Are Yonghe and Zhonghe really that bad? What about Xindian and Neihu? There seem to be some nice places, but it’s so hard to tell when you’re looking from 7/8 time zones away! When we do arrive, we’ll be wanting to concentrate on areas that are decent, but we dont’ mind out of town places. We’ll get enough ‘downtown’ noise and bustle when coming in to class etc. What are decent suburbs?

Also, how does Tsui Mama work? We did go there when I was in TW 12 years ago, but I’ve slept since then! :smiley:

17

You guys just don’t get it. Taipei’s suburbs are in general more crowded and noisy than Taipei City itself. That’s especially true of Yonghe, Zhonghe, and Banciao all of which are like that because they are close to Taipei and have newer buildings. Xindian has some nice places near Bitan and up in the hills, but then your commute is getting longer. Much of Xindian is like Zhonghe though. These places are in Taipei County which has less money, more people, and worse traffic.

18

Thanks for your response, (even though it wasn’t very polite!). What you have to remember is that where a lot of expats are from, the suburbs are WAY nicer than the central areas and still quite a bit cheaper.

Now then, we’ve bagged Zhonghe, Yonghe and Banqiao, (which I wasn’t really up for anyway), but was about Neihu? How’s that for environment and costs anyone? Now that it’s well connected, seems like quite a nice proposition.

19

Neihu is in Taipei City and developed later than other parts of the city. You are more likely to find newer buildings to live in and it has Costco and other box-like retailers. It has good access to East Taipei and the Neihu Software park, so many people with office jobs in those areas live out there. There is good access to the hills behind Neihu for cycling or walks.

It is not very convenient for anyone studying down in the Shida/Taida university district even with the new MRT. It would take at least 40-50 miuntes to get there by MRT and involve two transfers or a bus ride from the Technology Building stop.

On the downside, there are very few cafes, bars, decent restaurants, or cultural activities. It is across the Keelung River from east Taipei, and, in general, it doesn’t have much character. But if I worked in East Taipei, I’d live in Liuzhangli or Muzha rather than Neihu.

20

Sounds good so far. :slight_smile: Not at all worried about cafes and bars etc as we’re not into social drinking and will usually do evening meals at home, having lunch near ShiDa etc. I just want somewhere that’s environmentally nice - esp as I’ve always lived in a place like that, except when I lived on Yanping N Rd sec 2 for a year!!! :stuck_out_tongue: Noise, noise, noise - hated it! I know the downtown lanes and alleys are better though.

No worries about getting to ShiDa from there though. You can get off at Tecchnology Building (21 mins from Neihu stop, according to the bumf on the official MRT site) and walk up Heping E Rd for 15 mins or so - I did that last year when we staying with friends just around the corner from ShiDa. I don’t mind the walk (got used to it walking up the hill at NCCU last time I studied over there) and I could use the exercise - fat legs need movement!!! :smiley: :laughing:

Thanks for the input. There’s not much we can do at the mo as we’re not even arriving until mid-Aug, but I like to plan well ahead where poss.

:bow: