Prefab. Houses

In Europe we have a lot of companies that build beautiful and pretty affordable prefab. houses in all materials, but in Taiwan I cannot find much.
So far I’ve only found one company in Kaohsiung, and I’d like to broaden my possibilities.
There’s a huge amount of options on the other side of the sea (mainland and hk mostly), but I’d prefer to look for Taiwanese companies.

ANy ideas?

I’d prefer wood, but even standard steel structure + panels would be fine.

Google “cargo container houses” images. It’s amazing what you can do.

Google “earthbag domes” images, while you’re at it.

Google ‘mud brick’ houses.

:slight_smile:

Google “chabola”.

There was a thread somewhere in foromosa with some examples of what you are looking for. Actually some of them were pretty acceptable. And a piece of land in Yilan with your house and small farm sounds cool!

There are quite a few options out there already and companies that specialize in such. One outfit is called ‘ant houses’ in Chinese. My uncle in law just stuck something together on some land in Miaoli, Im eager to check it out!

I did read somewhere that shipping containers could pose health risks due to the presence of certain metals. I can’t remember where I read it.

This guys are from Japan and make awesome modular prefab houses, totally safe against earthquakes and typhoons, and with great insulation.

i-domehouse.com/

Some nice ideas, thanx!

Are there any legal issues behind a house built entirely on containers? I’ve hears some different stories, like according to some people you cannot apply for a real address and water/electricity, but there’s a restaurant in Yilan which is made from containers, so the whole thing sounds a bit weird.

I’m not familiar with the specific construction laws in Taiwan, but in any country, there is one constant: go ask an architect.

First of all, you’ll need to know if the city allows you to build on the land you want to build your house on. That’s fairly easy if you go to the city office and ask about it (or the architect can do it for you, but he’ll probably charge you for that).

As for the construction materials: You can build your house out of fossilized turds if you want, and if an architect signs a project saying it’s fine for living and signs the appropiate paperwork, the city hall will give you the license (providing you pay the fees that you have to pay for) and you’ll be able to ask for whatever you want to (electricity, water, phone… whatever). Well, in some countries with really strict building laws (like Spain, or other EU countries) this might not exactly be true, since each building has a couple of requirements to comply with. But in Taiwan I’ve seen people living in places that would give nightmares to more than one architect or engineer, so I’m quite sure you won’t have many problems about that.

If you don’t know any, I have a couple of architect friends and I could ask around if you’re interested.

Ibiz, if you succeed in getting a home that way, please let me know because I might do the same. Really.

I will!

My wife and I are still in the process of planning everything. We don’t like apartments, and most full houses on sale are either in terrible conditions or at a crazy high price, so we’ve been looking at the land+prefab house.
Since I work with import/export I have many contacts in shipping companies and it would be easy to get some containers at a very low price, some companies can even deliver them with windows and doors already installed (or at least they can help with the “cutting”).
If during an auction we could manage to put our hands on a piece of land of a reasonable size we’d love to make a bad&breakfast using some containers with insulation and some nice interior design (probably out of wood), the price of the containers and interiors is not too bad, but land can be painfully expensive.
We’re keeping our fingers crossed, worse case scenario will be a small-ish land just for us, and no b&b !

I have seen some container buildings in the areas, some two stories high. But the other option is to just use prefab wood or ‘tie pi wu’ type buildings.

[quote=“Ibis2k12”]
If during an auction we could manage to put our hands on a piece of land of a reasonable size we’d love to make a bad&breakfast using some containers [/quote]

I swear to God that I was thinking of the same during the last weekend. I mean, a B&B is an idea that I have had in my mind for a long time, but when you asked about containers, I combined both things, and there’s no backpackers place in Yilan. may be we can talk about business before one steals the idea to the other :smiley:

The main problem here is the land! Officially it costs 4 wan x ping, which is crazy expensive for me considering how much unused land there is.
If you have a look at 591, housefun etc you can only find extremely large lots, often used for agriculture. But when I go to work I often passe by unused lots of land that are not listed anywhere, sometimes they even have the “On sale” sign. Last weekend I took my wife for a ride and by spending half an hour riding around in smaller roads we found many places that would be perfect for us, and I cannot believe that a piece of unused land, with grass and debris everywhere, is sold at 4 wan x ping.
Hopefully land and house owners will realize that if on every road there’s a huge number of “On sale” signs, it’s about time to lower the price if they hope to get some money out of it.

I’m sure if you take a look around (physically, I mean), you’ll see more lands for sale than you could see on internet. There will be lands belonging to older people who can’t really put an ad on a website because they don’t know how. The other option is going through an agent, but he’ll take a piece of the cake, so to speak.

Depending on the area it can be cheaper. I doubt that in Yilan you have to pay 4 wan/ping, I’ve been told of newly-constructed houses in Yilan for that price. Or near Tainan.

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Exactly, that’s what I mean. Someone decided that the market price for land in Yilan is supposed to be 4wan x ping, but basically no one is buying at that price.
My wife found an auction that starts at 3.75 wan x ping and it’s already the third time they try to sell it because no one even makes an offer at that price.
Since both me and my wife enjoy the life far from city centers, we want to spend some time looking for unused land that is not listed anywhere. We’ve already found a lot in Wujie, but we also want to check in direction of Mei Hua lake and Su Ao, because for most locals those areas are almost in the middle of nowhere and it’s easy to find abandoned houses and properties.
I’ll never understand how 5 kilometers from a main suburb can be considered PAINFULLY FAR AWAY for Taiwanese, but I guess it’s a matter of different habits.
I really doubt that if we find an abandoned, ruined house in a location that we like, someone may decide to ask 4 wan x ping -__-

I’ve just noticed your reply!
Do you know the chinese characters for Tie Pi? I know the “Wu” for house, but I don’t understand the first 2!

鐵皮屋

The people who hold the land are hoping for deep-pocketed developers to snap it up and build a high-rise. They probably will.

[quote=“Hokwongwei”]鐵皮屋

The people who hold the land are hoping for deep-pocketed developers to snap it up and build a high-rise. They probably will.[/quote]

In some areas, prices are beginning to go down. This will be slower in places where the bubble is not so inflated, but it’ll probably start in that areas (fewer buyers).

I’d say: have patience. If you wait, the price will go down. Don’t be shy offering much less than what’s supposed to be worth (which it isn’t). If they tell you no, just slip them your card and tell them “just in case you change your mind”.

I bet some old people without family, or whose family lives far from there will have to sell their homes to pay for a retirement home, or some guy who’s paying for a mortgage he no longer can (or wants to) afford will have to sell quickly or lose everything. Thing is, most of them will be expecting to sell at much higher price, but if they ask you a ludicrous price, you can always say “we saw an apartment in -insert downtown neighbourhood here- and it was at this price, how can you ask so much for a land which is SO FAR AWAY from the city?” In this case, their peculiar sense of distance plays in your favor.