I’m looking for advice on how/where I could rent decent office space in Zhonghe, Xindian or Neihu… Downtown could also be OK. I’m consulting for a foreign company, we’re scaling up hiring some local crew, but before we move on to start a local Rep office, we’ll probably need to group the consultancy somewhere, hence the need for office space.
I’ve explored the serviced office companies (Regus, Farglory biz centers), nice places but most of the services they offer we don’t need and add to the cost (like 8-10 pings fully equipped office with desks + common areas goes for around 100,000NT$ / Mth!). I’m pretty sure I can get a place twice as big for les than half that price and put the furniture in, connect the utilities, etc.
I’d like to hear suggestions and past experiences,
Thanks!
This was maybe 5 years ago, but I found some very decent office space for $15,000/mo and under in the less convenient parts of Taipei City.
I did some casual browsing a few months back and $15k-$22k/mo will get you somewhere decent but old in any of the areas you mentioned.
We have over 100 pings in Taichung across 3 buildings for under $30k/month including maintenance. In two of the buildings we signed a 5 year lease and spent approx $500k refurbishing to modern standards. One of those I negotiated 5 months rent free to compensate for the increased property value from our improvements.
Whatever anyone tells you about improving other people’s property, it worked out nicely so far. For example our admin office is about 12 pings and the interior looked like complete shit but it was otherwise fine and a steal at $6000/mo with tax paid for commercial use. The cheapest I found a fully furnished office of similar size was $15k/mo. 3 years ago I spent $200k ripping out the walls, floor and ceiling to end up with a very office that has cost $386,000 over 3 years including refurbishing and rent deductions. The fully furnished office would have been $540,000 over the same period - so what if the landlord got their place improved on my dime, we both win.
Regus and the like are a great idea in places like the US or UK but there’s absolutely no need in Taiwan where dedicated offices are so easy and cheap to rent.