Most often, sure. But. Many an unmarried aunt are living with the family to cook, clean, do homework and etc for their brothers offspring. I know because i hav helped raise said kids in said situation, and it seems quite common here. teachers see this all the time.
It’s all cultural. Chinese people used to live in the so called 三合院 which is basically houses with three sides, a courtyard in the middle, and a wall with a door in the front. This allowed multi generations to live in the same house but they all have their own family space. It was designed for multiple families to live there, of various generation. Probably in the old days more well off families were more like a clan rather than a family.
But these days with the vastly higher population density the concept simply would not work. But each space in a 三合院 is about equivalent to a 3 bedroom flat today. So room for living, bedroom for the kids, a master bedroom, etc.
I don’t know how most Taiwanese interpret it but I take it to mean that if your parents have difficulty then we are supposed to take care of them.
Those ar my favorite style houses on earth. Not the single or 2 sided ones, the 3 side with a courtyard. Such agood use of a public space. I want to have one soooo bad but family isnt allowed to live there haha. I also like the more linear layout on kinmen rather than the more curcular ones. They are pretty cool too!
The ony reason this housing.style no longer works here is over population. And taiwan.is certainy over populated by any metric of long tern sustainability.
Well, you could always build high rises so that multi generations can live on one floor, but I would imagine maintaining a garden in the “courtyard” would be expensive as hell. But really this would only work for wealthy families.
They already do…you live in a city full of them.
I’d guess 90% of the ones in Kinmen were abandoned by the family when they all moved to the main island. Some were picked up by a government renovation project, and now converted into BnBs, the rest have trees (and one time I saw something green that was much less legal…) growing out of the middle of them. Even families that own that style of home are holding on to the property but buying much larger properties elsewhere and building five-story houses. Effective land use is not a strong suit here. I do love that style of home though. Especially since the middle courtyard gives you outdoor space without anyone being able to come walking through.
Taiwanese in the countryside also used to live in compounds not just sanheyuan, where maybe ten families who were related would share a perimeter wall and temple. That was to protect themselves in the lawless times. They would also grow bamboo thickets for protection and to mark out their village territory.
Real estate prices have boomed…Everywhere ! More interesting would be where they haven’t boomed at this stage. Taipei is a strange choice…Houses haven’t really gone up in price in Taipei metro area when I checked before…Some actually went down such as Linkou.
Here’s a pokemon anyone can collect:
Only 250k for the entire building. Except it’s basically a mess, no utilities and it essentially needs to be rebuilt…
This guy’s not guilty of hoarding property.
Haha. where im from, thats called smart, if not just plain common sense.
evergrande situation looks crazy.
how does it effect taiwan?
I know in taiwan the housing market has been being pumped up out the arse just like Chinas, there are so many empty buildings brand new and empty in taiwan as well. Not on the massive scale as chinas but the problem looms in taiwan too.
this could be a down ward spiral and its gona go splat.
I might even be able to afford a house in taiwan soon…or ill just move to china.
We’ve heard that for 20 years. 
This time may or may not be different. There is obviously a bubble in Taiwan, especially Taipei and random places in the countryside, but it’s hard to say if it’ll pop because of this. On the one hand, yes please! (normal to higher income earners can afford property finally!) On the other hand, no thanks. (What kind of jobs do you think foreigners will have when all of Taiwan’s wealth, which is also almost entirely in property investments, dries up?)
That’s impossible.
Taiwan’s per-capita net worth minus real estate is fourth highest in the world. If you factor in real estate, it’s not that high.
I’d love to see stats, if you have them. My impression from “wealthy” people I know here is that most investments are in real estate, “fancy” wood and jade decor in their homes, or cash quickly loosing value due to inflation sitting in bank accounts.
That’s hard to believe. Link?
We went over this several times here already.
Go to page 127.
Taiwan’s per-capita net worth is 18th highest in the world.
Take away, real estate, it’s #4 or 5 (depending on the year)
And look at where its foreign investment is all going: Cayman Islands:
So what that looks like ‘Taiwan is #4, if you exclude some of the most wealthy countries in the world.’ Useful. ;D