Taipei area for family with young kids

I have accepted an expat assignment to work in Taiwan for the next 4 years and I am currently researching where would be a good place for my family to live in.

Some background information about us:

  • My wife and I are fluent in both Mandarin and English.
  • My kids, 7 and 5 years old, will be enrolled at Taipei American School in the Shilin District.
  • We will not have a car.
  • For work I will have to commute to Taoyuan 2-3 days a week and also regularly to Taichung and Tainan/Kaohsiung.
  • My company will provide about $50k USD a year for our rental apartment.

Obviously public transportation convenience will be critical for us not only for my work commute, but also for my wife and kids getting to school and getting around the city. Based on this requirement, I have identified living at the Taipei Main Station Q Square Apartments as it seem to be the center of the city public transportation. We could literally just turn the corner and have access to all of the primary modes of public transport.

I have done some search on the forums, however, I could not find anything on living near the Taipei Main Station. In my mind, this thinking seem logical, however am I missing something that I have not thought of or simply don’t know about?

I think that living in taipei main station and that your children have to go to Tianmu is not the best idea. You have to look for housing in the area of mrt Zhishan Station there you will find all the services you need and a better quality of life, and for your children it would be more convenient to go to the school

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Second on Mingde. Don’t live at Taipei Main Station itself, really no point, it’s crowded, not a great neighborhood for families, and far from TAS. Put yourself anywhere on the red line around Mingde or Zhishan station and your kids will have an easy commute to TAS, plus you’ll have an easy trip on the red line to Taipei Main for the HSR down south for your work trips. Taxi straight from your apartment to Taipei Main will also be easy if you don’t like the MRT or have bags etc.

Also, you’ll get a little more bang for your buck up there, although with your housing budget, you’ll be able to find a very big, very nice apartment no matter where in the city you want to be. Just be careful to find a good agent, some will see your (massive) budget and just think $$$$, what you want is a conscientious agent who’s going to really go the extra mile to find a place that’s actually good value for how much you are paying and is exactly what you want.

Oh and make sure not to sign a two year lease. Sign one year so you have the flexibility to move if you end up wanting to live somewhere else once you know the city better.

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I agree with this. Taipei Main Station is a great spot in terms of public transport, but the quality of life there isn’t the greatest. It’s the central hub for mass transportation, so lots of air pollution and personally, I feel like it’s always crowded wherever you go.

The thing with the Taiwan American School is that it’s not that close to the MRT station. You still got 2km to go from ZhiShan MRT station.

I would suggest staying near ZhiShan or ShiPai MRT stations. Your kids can easily get to school and you do not have to change trains to get to Taipei Main Station. WHen it comes to the weekend and finding a place to relax, you need not go far as the area is quite green and there’s plenty to do up on Yang Ming Shan as you are at the foot of it.

Thank everyone for the responses, they are all great points and I really appreciate it! I can see how going north and away from the crowd would improve the quality of life for my family and be easier for them being close to school. This will certainly add to my work commute and I will need to re-prioritize our needs as a family. Thanks for the tip on not signing longer than 1 year to keep flexibility, I will definitely keep that in mind!

As others have noted, I don’t think it’s a popular expat area…

I would reconsider the car and use that to get back and forth from Taoyuan, living closer to school. Your rental allowance is, umm, robust. Do you get to keep any under run? Can you reduce it in favor of a car allowance? You could seriously cut it in half and be in good shape assuming you get to pick your own place. Even cutting it by a 1/3 would afford a nice car rental;/lease. Having a car to make your work trips a couple times a week would be ideal IMO.

This is totally possible, especially if the company leases the car for you, they can deduct corporate taxes for it!

please delete this duplicate post

Being an expat area or not is not really that important to us. For right now the plan is to not have a car for the duration we are there, that’s why location and access to public transportion is going to be so important. I do not think I would be keeping the left overs of the rental budget.

I do not think the company want to provide me a car due liability reasons especially when I am using it for business purposes. Previous guys that went on expat assignment did not have a car either. Dealing with having a car also does not appeal to me especially when in Taipei, however I could very well change my mind once I get there.

I mentioned it only in reference as to why there isn’t much mention of that area here. When I came I also didn’t want a car, but am glad I have one now. Good luck with the move!

Stay close to the school, make it easy for your kids.
Taxis are cheap and TieanMu is quite nice.

Your rental budget would work out to approx NT$ 100,000 per month (12 months + 2 months deposit for a total of 14 months)

That’s a pretty good budget for a family of 4 in Beitou. I currently live in the area near Zhishan Mingde Shipai MRT stations - my monthly rent is about 50k a month in a 30 - 40 year old building. I do not have a car. I do have a bicycle with a child seat, and I am thankful for it.

I have been shopping around for a house to buy in the area, so I’ve been around a bit. My 8yo attends TAS, so I can appreciate how close you want to be.

In the map below:

A. there are several 5 - 10 year old buildings. Very nice and very close to Mingde MRT. I have friends who stay there and have visited as well as looked at apartments for sale. You should be able to rent a 40 to 50 ping place for your budget. These newer buildings have high monthly maintenance fees - NT$ 8,000 in one building where I inquired. This is about a 15 to 20 min walk to TAS, but my friend who lives there says the school bus turns at Wenlin Road on to Mingde.

B. there are several very nice looking buildings right by Shipai MRT - in good proximity to Taipi Veterans General Hospital. This would be my 2nd choice place to look if I were in your position. It’s also a 15 to 20 min hike from TAS so you should check how the school bus might help.

C. I visited a place facing TES and nearby Zhishan MRT. There may be 2 or 3 similar types of buildings that are 5 to 15 years old.

D. A lot of gated buildings in this area that’s about a 5 walk from TAS. If you ride a scooter or bicycle to the train, this should be a very nice area to consider. But if you have wheels, then you may as well look north of Tianmu West Road where you will have a lot of nice choices. I haven’t checked rentals but I would expect these apartments to rent for 80k to 100k

Another advantage for A B and C is they are on the side that allows you to quickly reach the freeways going south. So, if you had to head to work by car (Uber) you can spare yourself the traffic on Zhongshan N Road where TAS is located

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And lots the buses

Thank you very much for the detail response and the map! I will certainly start doing research in these areas!.

Tianmu aerial

Walking Tienmu near American School

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Here is the list of rentals in Beitou >60k a month on 591

After dropping off the kid at school, I took a quick spin on my bike around the areas I mentioned and took some photos. I updated the map to show where I took the pictures

The 2 E photos are take from different spots in Area D - behind the building with all the flag poles.

The flag pole building is on the left side of View F, which is taken from the parking lot of Chenhsin Hospital facing the creek


This is Ginko Garden. Earlier this year, the second floor apartment on the left side (blocked by the tree overlooking the playground set) was vacated. I was passing by just as the owner was pulling out of the driveway, and she asked the security guard to let me go up to have a look. It was not for sale, however. I forget how much she wanted to rent it for but I am under the impression it was 60 to 80k. This is a 10 min walk from TAS and a 10 min walk to Mingde MRT Station or Shipai MRT Station. The curtains of the apartment were drawn this morning when I passed by and the guard was away so I couldn’t ask if it was still available for rent.


In the view at H, the first building on the left is where my buddy lives - nice place with an outdoor pool. The places I was looking to buy are in the small middle building in the middle of the picture behind the tree - the guanlifei here is 8,000 per month

The view at I is on Wenlin Road - you can take that road all the way out to Tamsui. There are 3 3-to-5 year old buildings that look very nice - they are all in this photo. The brown building on the left half of the photo is on the corner of Wenlin and Mingde Road. I was told that was where the TAS School bus passes (my kid has not needed to use the school bus, but my impression is that when you need, you simply indicate when in the online parent portal - I do not know how this will be billed, so you need to ask around how it really works)



View L shows the building that I looked at - this side of the building overlooks the Theater (on the right) and TES is just beyond the theater (off photo) on the other side of the overpass bridge.

View M shows a building on Dexing Road between Building L and Zhishan MRT. It calls itself New Tianmu and looks like a brand new building.

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Thank you so much for the even more in depth and detailed photos. I have been doing further research based on this and also looking around with street view.