It would take 13.5 years of the average London salary (£37,000) to buy a 3 bedroom apartment in Greater London (roughly £500,000). It would take 10.2 years of the average Taipei salary ($882,000) to buy the same size apartment in Greater Taipei (roughly $9 million). In the UK most people are putting about 15% down, and in Taiwan banks allow 20% downpayment but you can get an additional loan to bring it down to 10% or even less. Interest rates are also way lower in Taiwan right now, 2% here vs over 5% in the UK. Banks are also way more willing to give mortgages in Taiwan than in the UK.
If you make the average Taipei salary (882,000 / 12 = $73,500 per month (adjusted for bonuses)), then you could save the 10% $900,000 downpayment plus roughly $150,000 in fees by saving $20,000 a month for 4 and a half years. Not to mention that most adult Taiwanese will have a couple hundred thousand in their bank from 20+ years of red envelopes.
So why do people go on and on about how unaffordable property is in Taipei? The way I see it, every metric shows that when compared to a similarly prosperous region like London, Taipei is much more affordable.
The only thing I can think of is that building quality and fire safety is better in London than in Taipei.
Also whether someone makes the best choice for themselves comes into it as well.
Median house price in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia’s most populous city and my hometown is $935,000AUD. between $800,000-$1,000,000AUD depending on your source.
But, I could get a modern house within metropolitan Melbourne for $420,000.
Just because I could get a loan and buy a $900,000 property, doesn’t mean I should. Interest rates in Australia are about 5% as well.
A lot of people just borrow the maximum amount they can from the bank then complain about affordability. No one forces people to take out huge mortgages.
Taiwan is the same, also a lot of Taiwanese people are very anti-travelling to work. If they were more open to commuting 15 minutes more a day, they could find less expensive properties.
I make over 70,000 pounds, have a Grade II listed property over 300 years old, paid a 40 percent down payment and pay just over 2 PERCENT INTEREST locked in for 10 years. And unlike rest of UK, prices are up almost 10 percent in my area.
I see costs for shoeboxes in Taiwan or Vancouver Island condos/houses and think way, way too overpriced.
Your expectations must be high. You can get a 4th floor 3 bedroom apartment with no elevator in Xinzhuang for 8 to 9 million easily. If you are willing to live in Taishan or Wugu you could get the same kind of deal for 7 million no problem.
If you don’t like the high public space percentages in modern apartment buildings, you could look into the toutian. They are the the townhouse type developments where you have all the floors of one unit and public space is negligible.
We almost bought one before buying our apartment recently. It had an elevator, double garage on the first floor, and living spaces on floors 2-6 with an open plan kitchen. The complex even had 24h security with a guard. It was even cheaper than what we eventually bought, but it was 17 years old and had some other issues.
It did make me interested in this style of house though (possibly for the future) and there are some nice ones on 591.
Well they are amongst the worst shitholes in the whole of Taipei/New Taipei city so I hope so. :).
Even then it’s going to be pretty crappy for that kind of price.
I’m in Xinzhuang regularly as my office is near there. I’ve never seen a rundown gongyu there priced below 15 million. Do you live in one of those 9 million NT type apartments?
If that happened in Taiwan, millions would be homeless overnight. I’d estimate 70% or more of buildings here have structural issues. Probably less than 2% are fully up to code
Why is a three bed in greater London roughly 500K and 9mill in greater Taipei. Where do these figures come from?
Sure, You can buy a three bed for 9 million in greater Taipei but I wouldn’t say that’s the average… and also that would be in a less desirable area. So I’d say the average could be twice that amount for greater Taipei as a whole.
Also, if you type in London with filters of three bed places up to 230,000 GBP (9million NT), there are quite a few choices and I dare say a lot nicer that what you might get if you type in the same for Taipei on 591 website.
I’m not quite sure your argument holds… or maybe I’m missing something.
Probably most people are talking about Taiwan, only taipei folks talk about taipei as if it wasn’t already inflated to the max. That is to be expected.
Also, London is a poor example to compare to Taiwan. Downtown taipei, perhaps.
Also, people arent/shouldn’t really compare to other international mega expensive cities. Most are using domestic comparisons. Which are more relevantgiven wages and realities on domestic production. The prices have sky rocketed here over a very short period whilst income has not.
It’s a pretty simple reality to realize. Rich people buying and selling, playing speculation etc have their opinion. But that doesn’t really reflect the reality for the average person (nation wide), and especially disregards young(er) people now its like 40 year Olds struggling, not 20s) working and trying to buy a home from nothing (ie. Not inherited wealth).
Sky dragons aside, taiwans land prices and speculation is not controversial. And the issue is no joke.
To take into account the normal people salaries, it might be good to look at the median income instead of the average or mean because I’m sure a lot of the rich people are skewing that income number. I would say the mean income reported here is more near (a little lower) than an entry level engineer in Taichung, which I don’t think the average person is making. Many of my non-engineering Taiwanese friends make less than $45kNTD per month.
I feel like the salary reported is too high and not representative of most people, and the apartment cost is very, very low and looking in a specific area.