Rental contract price negotiation

What is a reasonable percentage to go down in the price negotiation for a two year contract? (Contract to be signed and paid for by the company.)

I know it varies on many factors but some said that the were able to get the price down by 25% or more.

Thanks again for the help - we have an agent, but this forum has been a great resource and I am grateful for the additional info!

:grinning:

Does it matter if company is paying your rent?

If the budget covers say…80,000NT/month, but your rent is only 75,000NT/month, do you pocket the 5,000NT?

Or are you just curious?

25% sounds quite high for the rent. You might have better luck negotiating out the building fees which can actually be quite high and aren’t usually included in the rent. Reason says money is money, but reason doesn’t always rule here.

in that case, I think 25% down will be difficult.

If you can sign the contract and pay by yourself, you could get the price down by 10% or more, because the original price for the contract with a company most probably includes taxes the owner has to pay.

ranlee,
Yes, it matters because we have a specific allowance, and everyone says look for a place in a higher price category and then negotiate down. We would not get the difference in cash, just trying to get the most for our allowance, as we want housing of a comparable size and quality to our lecurrent home. This is proving more difficult than we had originally thought.

squall1,
I meant 25% off off everything together, taxes, maintenance fee, etc.

Could it be the case that it can be possible negotiate the maintenance fee down if the asking rental price including tax is less than 5% above the stated budget/allowance?

In that case, negotiate first. Nothing matters before you put down your John Hancock.

I’m curious and you don’t have to answer if you want to keep this private, what is the budget your company is giving you? You’re coming over with the wife, so that definitely entails more than you coming solo. I know that my friend who got transferred from Holland was originally given 45-50,000NT/month, but didn’t find anything he liked in that range. He then got bumped up to 80-90,000NT/month when he stated that he was bringing his wife along too.

FYI you can use the @ + our username to to tag us so we see your replies :wink:

Yeah, they rather not rent out than cutting too much off the price!

Just make it clear to the landlord that the money will be in his/her pocket at the same time each month for the whole rental period, negotiate the maintenance/security fee (try to include). Because when they cut rent price and word gets out, not good for the future or the same building.

@ranlee

I myself am curious about what figures others receive but am hesitant to disclose our actual amount. :wink:

Maybe there is there a poll feature on here?

Yes the budget is for the the two of us, but we do not know for sure if one coming alone would have gotten any less. The amount seemed generous at first, although it is lower than others we know of.

Thanks for the tag tip :smiley:

only?

1 Like

based on my own ecperience id assume that they will come down at least 10%。 if they came down 20% you’d probably be doing well on the bargaining front. some landlords and agents will let you know that the price cant come down. others are expecting you to bargain. highlighting that you wont be registering the household can help.

i never rented for more than 20,000. for a three bed in new taipei.

In OP’s case, the company will sign the contract and pay. I think no-hhr cannot help.

Do it this way:

Buy a property in your wife’s name, then rent it from your wife. When moving on, sell the place and make more profit.

Ah it’s too bad, a roundabout number would’ve helped (me) help you a lot. It can help us tell you that if you had a budget of x0,000NT/month and are asking for amenities and standards that will cost you x00,000NT/month. This way, we can tell you, you might need to compromise x for y and a for b.

No worries, we’ll work with what you give us!

Check with HR at your current location. Doesn’t hurt to ask. They may not be aware that you’re taking the wifey!

There’s a poll feature. Click the gear icon next to the emoji icon and there’s a drop down menu in which you can create a poll.

Nonetheless, knowing other people’s budgets wont’ help us help you decide on a place!

@ranlee is there a private message feature here?

The company (HR at home and here) knows there are two of us.

True, a poll will not help us decide, but there is a general curiosity of where we stand in comparison to others. (In other words, how generous is our company compared to others? :wink:)

To be honest, haggling is not well seen by Taiwanese when done by foreigners. They have the idea that we make a lot of money - :rofl::sob:- so you will come out as an SOB. And they simply won’t rent to you.

Please notice there are a lot of empty spaces and homes and businesses. People here are not hurting for money. They buy the property as an investment and do not depend mostly on the rent. Some landlords may have up to 80 properties. That si why they prefer to leave the place empty -it keeps gaining value anyways- and rents here are so “dissasociated” with earnings and value of property atht they really are not worth it. Keep that in mind.

Now, usually the haggling is done by the rental agent. Normally, the properties that have English speaking agents or landlords or are marketed towards expats are more expensive than the rest. From what I gather, you are being offered a new or at least renovated apartment. The landlord may want to recoup their investment. That leaves less room to haggle. You have the agent’s fees and the landlord’s face to consider, too.

25% is very unlikely, a did hear of a deal I heard of someone getting was when they paid for an entire year up front and got the maintenance fees dropped because of that - worth around 15% I think.

Data point for you: we negotiated our rent in a new building behind Taipei Main from $32k + $3k maintenance fee to $27k with no maintenance fee, so that’s a 23% reduction. It had been empty for two months so we felt we had leverage.

@Icon
Thanks for the insight and the added info on the local “landscape” - it is always helpful to know what is happening with real estate and what the customs are for renting, etc. We have also come across quite a few apartments which the agent explained had been bought as investments or for the children at some point.

@eldrich & @okonomiyaki - thanks for sharing your specific cases.

One way to keep the face factor good, is to say that you love the apartment, think it is worth the asking price, but unfortunately your allowance is only X, so can they do you a favor by coming down. That actually worked for us.