I doubt anyone can argue with that.
This was your conclusion.
Which I find to be FULL OF SHIT as listings of 3 bedroom semi-detached in London zone 2 are all >1 million on real estate website.
And you are telling me that this kind of money (>40 mil NTD) can only get you a rubbish 2 bedroom in Taipei?
Yet everyone thinks Taipei’s housing market is the unreasonable one.
Rookie numbers.
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Everything is going to depend because everyone’s job and financial situation is different. In general, I do tend to agree with Gain. If we’re talking about the average person, what you get in Taipei and New Taipei City is more than get in London or other expensive large world city. I definitely know compared to NYC, my wife could certainly make 50-100% more in salary with the same exact job (office worker), but rent would be 2-3x more, public transportation would be 3x more, her health insurance premiums would be 4-5x more (and healthcare costs would skyrocket) and her income would get wrecked by Federal, State, City taxes, as well as Social Security & Medicare taxes. She would end up coming out ahead here. I’m sure it would be a similar situation in a city with London. In all of these cities, the property values are all outrageous; where Taiwan wins is in substantially lower rental costs and cost of living. Where the other cities win is the ability to get a really high income job opportunity. That’s pretty much, in my opinion, the only way to come out ahead there.
This is a huge reason why I believe Taiwan is generally a much more stable nation than others.
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It was indeed - and when you do something for your main source of income, you usually trust your conclusions.
Ok Mr Keyboard warrior - read carefully - I said “when I moved to Taipei” - and yes, that was true then, as like I said, I looked to investment opportunities here (after coming over from successful ones in Thailand) - but in the end it made sense to purchase in London, especially when you take rental returns into things.
The last property purchased in London was a Zone 2 (Clapham Junction area, right by Clapham Common) - 2 bedroom maisonette with garden and full size basement (which has now been converted, so the property is now 4 bedroom, 2 living room, 2 bathroom - but that’s besides the point) for £375k - so around 14 million NT at current exchange rate.
The argument above was about average salary, or “good” or whatever, so let’s take 60k NT and say £3.5k which is 133,000NT (and back then was even higher, but let that slide) - over double.
So now find me a property as I said for 7 Million NT in a desirable part of Taipei…
I’m going to buy property in Taiwan and 1 in London. The UK political climate hates landlords right now so it’s hard to own more than 1 property due to addition stamp tax for a second property. Maybe I can buy another under a company.
I think there are good investment opportunities in both places.
This is not true, Maybe in Xizhi and with the parents or in-laws paying for the deposit. What couples can afford a place in Taipei with average salaries?
Many in new Taipei. Might be possible in some parts of Taipei like Wanhua 1 bedroom apartments.
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Wanhua has its charms. Today a nice grandma asked if I wanted to brew some tea 泡茶 with her. How kind. I told her I’m not very thirsty.
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Yeah, I know that alley.
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Maybe not in central Taipei, but some would buy in Shilin/Beitou.
And like I said, Taipei is small. Commuting from New Taipei is not exactly a big hassle.
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Where? For reference.
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Not many couples, most are probably moving out to Taoyuan, Xinpu, Linkou .
And prices still went up in the biggest recession in record when they suspended the stamp duty…Because the government and many people want and expect that.
The current stamp duty threshold increase (to £500k) has also been applied to second homes, although you still need to pay a surcharge, 3%.
At the moment If you buy through a plc you will still have to pay the same. However there are other tax benefits if you buy as a plc, and the tax rules for private landlords have been tightened up recently.
Foreign buyers will also have to pay an additional 2% surcharge from some time next year.
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25% of Tory MPs, and 17% of all MPs are landlords.
The current government are propping up the housing market and reducing property tax revenues, whilst running up a huge bill due to coronavirus.
Mhhh, I wonder which parts of society are going to come out on top.
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I’ve heard of many HKers being in the market for houses in London these days.
The house builders have been selling off plan in China, HK, SG for years, but also elsewhere too. We have several friends from HK who have purchased property here recently.
We saw a development last weekend that guarantees a 5% yield for 2 years. This was in an area I wouldn’t want to live, but for an investor with cash these sorts of things are very convenient.
Even though I have benefited hugely from it, the way the housing market works in the UK, particularly London, is unfair and annoys me.
If you ever need a Chinese speaking solicitor who can deal with foreign fund transfer let me know. From experience, most day to day solicitors are useless at anything beyond the basics.
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I’m actually moving to the UK myself. I think London property is worth investing in. I think zone 3 has some nice options.
What I do worry about is the depreciation of the pound though.