Penthouses aside, but still, a 3 bedroom apartment in a 40 year old gongyu in Taipei is close to 1 million USD.
For that money you can buy nicer properties in many major cities in developed countries around the world.
Yep and it is crazy what these shitholes go for. Even when the location isnāt great.
My mother in law lives in Ankang. In the mountains. The house next to hers has been empty twenty years. A wreck. Just got sold. 20 million. It will be gutted and basically built again.
For 1 million USD, youāre lucky if you can find a three bedroom. Most places I see in Taipei for 1 million USD are within 30 ping (usually smaller) and are two bedrooms (that have windows) and maybe a large, windowless closet listed as a third bedroom. Thereās no kitchen or place to put a kitchen in a million USD Taipei unit though, not unless you like balconies that have been converted into kitchens. Thereās no kitchen based on my rather low standards in apartments that are going for 10 million USD here either though, so I guess thatās not saying muchā¦
Even within Taiwan you could buy an American style house, 3 floors, yard, garage, etc., for about 15 million. But the location isnāt as greatā¦ tends to be way out in Yilan or something.
Not really. Iāve looked around. Maybe in Miaoli or something.
.If you are talking about toutian yes but that isnāt American style.
If you are into that style you can also check Linkou. Car is absolutely required though.
I am aware that there are spaces in NYC overlooking Central Park that are 100 million USD or more, but they are at least 8 thousand square feet and their interiors are full of multi-million dollar staircases, more than one fully equipped professional kitchen, etc things that instantly drive the home price up by many millions of dollars. (In Taipei, you get a blank concrete block or worse, really badly thought out and low quality interior design)
Letās focus on the average person, who needs a safe place to sleep, also known as a bedroom (with a window in case of fire or earthquake), a place to sit that isnāt their bed, ideally in a separate room, aka a living room, a toilet and a shower. And maybe a place to prep food thatās larger than 1/2 of a square meter, though I realize few Taiwanese care at all about that. Canāt get that in Taipei City for under 600k USD, except maybe Beitou. On Zillow, Iām seeing quite a few very well designed 2-3 bed, 2-3 bath spaces with massive windows with city views for half that in Manhattan.
It is but it isnāt. Taipei doesnāt know how to build buildings that are meant for people to live in. I donāt know anyone who doesnāt want natural light in their home, yet all you see on virtually every single building in this country are concrete walls where normal developers put windows. Thereās no structural reason for it, as you can see when they put them up that there are steel beams holding the building up. Itās just cheaper to put up a concrete wall than to put in a bunch of windows. So your choices for housing in Taipei become 1 million US dollar concrete cave or 35 million dollar āsuper luxury green housingā. In between those two is just increasingly larger space with an equally tiny quantity of windows or kitchen space. Meanwhile, anywhere else on Earth, the āprime real estateā that place like Xinyi are supposed to be would attract the best, well-thought-out, city views housing. But, other than gimmick building, Xinyi is a bunch of fake luxury garbage buildings with few windows.
What is this?
I keep reading it as nonsensical French! 
Guy
Sure, in very large countries where thereās plenty of space like America.
Letās say Manhattan property price is as cheap as you say, it would be the exception, not the rule. Have you seen apartment listings in Paris or Seoul? A one bedroom is like ā¬500k and no more than 50 square metre.
Anyway I am done here. I really donāt care what you think. Itās not the first time people exaggerate high prices in Taiwan and low prices elsewhere - as if theyāve been everywhere and talked to every realtor in the world.
Divorce is an interesting point, and similarly I wonder if younger people are living apart from their parents more than in the past. That might prop things up somewhat.
Still, on some basic level it doesnāt make sense to me that an āinvestmentā property can continue to increase in value even if no-one will ever live in it. Ultimately property prices have to be based at least partly on their actual utility as places to live, right?
Up on the mountain above Beitou (just over the city boundary into Sanzhi) thereās a whole area of houses and ugly glass apartment buildings that are almost completely empty. The glass buildings must have hundreds of units each, of which literally one or two are occupied. Many of the houses were never even completed. And yet more buildings are going up in that area as I type ā presumably under a pre-sale model where people have paid for them, but (also presumably) donāt intend to live in them.
I honestly donāt get it.
They way these complexes are designed and built, youāll left with a tunnel-like layout and very limited natural light. Bleah!
Guy
Terraced house or townhouse are probably the closest words in English.
Townhouse is comprehensible in Canadian English.
Merci!
Guy
You can pick up a 60-80 ping property with ocean view on the north east coast for well under 20 million NT. An hourās drive into the capital city. There arenāt too many places in the world where you can find this kind of property at such a price.
Maybe itās time to be contrarian and go against the flow, after all these kind of properties are looked down upon by the urbanites of Taipei and are thus available at a fraction of the cost of a grotty apartment downtown.
People always complain about the weather in the northeast coast. It just rains too much.
Thatās for sure!
yeah, no.
I just checked on Zillow - there is literally ONE listing in Manhattan for <=$300k with 2+ bedrooms and 2+ baths, definitely doesnāt have massive windows and city views, and is way up in upper manhattan (as far from times square as beitou is from taipei 101). Itās been on the market since Jan, is a low income co-op with income restrictions (which partly explains the price), a 5th story walkup, and described as a diamond in the rough.
Half a million pounds and an hour from the city. I bet I could find a better property an hour from London for that.
Not with a sea view