I’m an English teacher in Spain, and for obvious reason I’m thinking of jacking it in here and making the move to Taiwan (my wife is Taiwanese, among other reasons). I plan on waiting until late summer/early winter, and getting myself a job in central Taipei. However, I don’t much want to live there, and I was thinking about finding a place North of Taipei (I’ve been to both Beitou and Dan-shuei and I quite like those places).
Two questions; firstly, are rents in these areas much cheaper than downtown Taipei? Could anyone give me a ballpark figure for, say, a 3 or 4 bedroomed house/apartment (one thing I remember about Taipei is the distinct proliferation of apartments and lack of houses - is this accurate?).
Secondly, is a daily commute into the city a feasible plan from, say, Dan-shuei? It’s been a long time since I made the MRT journey and I can’t remember how long it takes.
When I was looking I remember seeing a nice apartment in Tamsui that was maybe 20-30% cheaper than what I ended up finding in Xindian. But you had to commute by bus to Tamsui station, and from there if I remember correctly it’s one hour down to Taipei Main.
Thanks, that’s a lot longer than I expected. Still, it’s do-able I suppose. I wouldn’t bother my arse getting on a bus though - wouldn’t a scooter be a better option?
It depends where he wants to live. Danshui has three MRT stations and the first Taipei MRT station is Guandu. From Zhuwei, it’s 40 minutes max by bus(756) or MRT. It will be more expensive than inner Danshui for sure.
It’s also as low as 25 minutes to Xinpu on the 947.
Zhuwei grants the best of both Danshui and Taipei low travel times but you pay for it.
Danhai can be as low as $13000 for a two bedroom flat.
I’m also in Spain and contemplating a move back to Taiwan in the Summer or right after. Good luck!
I used to live in Tamsui for a while, you definitely get a lot more for the same price than what you’d get in the city centre. But of course commuting times are much longer. Beitou is much closer and still has that “village” feel about it.
In Tamsui I used to live near the Carrefour Tan Xin store, plenty of modern apartment buildings there where you can get a really nice 2-br place for 17-19000NT. I know of people who rent big houses in Tamsui too for quite a lot less but those rentals don’t tend to make it much on 592 but rather seem to be a word-of-mouth sort of thing.
Yeah, I just can’t see the already-sick Spanish economy recovering from this anytime soon. I run an academy here, and I’ve seen a steady decline in student numbers over the last 3 years, and if I stick around here next academic year, it’s likely to be even worse. The autonomo fee is crippling too.
Yes, Beitou is an option too. And yes, a house is much more attractive to me than an apartment.
Thanks for the info, and good luck to you too. Keep me posted if you hear anything pertinent.
*edit, this post is in reply to jMarc; I’m not sure I posted it correctly. I’m still getting used to the forum.
beitou is still taipei, one of the nicer areas too. apartments there might be cheaper than tianmu and da an or something but it will cost more than danshui.
danshui has tons and tons of new, big and cheap apartments. if i could endure the distance i would move there, or bali. locations vary though. most are not even close to the MRT station.
A 45-minute to one hour commute isn’t so unbearable is it? I think foreigners become accustomed to the Taiwanese way of thinking that anything more than a fifteen minute journey to work is too much. But most Westerners have probably had much longer commutes back home. I certainly have.