I’ll start with a disclaimer: I do not have the money to buy a home and possibly never will, whether it be in Taiwan or anywhere else, and that’s fine.
What bothers is that, assuming I did have the money, there’s nothing in Taiwan that I feel is worth buying. There are so many nice units you can get all over the world for the right price, but in Taiwan, even if you had an infinite amount of capital you’d still just end up with a concrete block in a building with cheap and uninformed imitation of Roman columns on the bottom and tasteless tiling up to the roof.
People have the money to pay the inflated price tags, why not actually make the places livable?
There are nice houses in Taiwan, but you have to get them outside of city centers. I’ve been to some fairly nice ones just outside of Taoyuan. Looks very European and stuff, and from what I hear, compared to what units sells for in Taipei it’s actually not that expensive.
Pardon my skepticism. Even many of the really, really upscale places I’ve seen in Tianmu (and out in the countryside of Taoyuan) are a tacky faux-European mockery of design.
I’d love for someone to prove me wrong, but I’ve never seen a house anywhere in Taiwan that, if I owned it, I would be proud to show it off to my friends and family. From the outside to the inside, I would start a tour of every house I’ve ever seen with a “bu hao yi si” before trying to justify something that’s terribly and unnecessarily wrong with it.
Not really. We have discussed this ad nauseum. There are nice places in Taiwan. They are just out of our budget. I call this “the Steak Syndrome”. People complaining about the fact that a 100 nts of recycled meatlike product sucks simply do not have the means/the inclination to spend500 to 1000 for a decent cut of meat. Yes, in our countries, we an have a decent, delicious steak for 3 usd, but not here in Taiwan. Same for houses. Sure, I can show you gorgeous things in the ol country, but the truth is, a similar place in Taiwan is out of our salaried league.
Disclaimer: that does not make allowance for taste, I know. I go bonkers when I see the windowless buildings, the Kousi XVI décor clashing with the environment, the mansion without a single painting just gaudy religious statues. But generally speaking -or I can lend you some of my home décor or architecture or celebrity magazines- there are nice places out there. But severely out of range.
That’s not the case with me. Right now, I couldn’t afford a parking space, so I’m not talking about “in budget” or “out of budget” because there simply is no budget.
I waste a lot of time on 591 trying to find some dream house just for me to admire, and to date I’ve not even found a single one. The modern is drab and soulless, the historic is filthy and in disrepair. Unless there’s a 591 that only rich people can log into, I really don’t think anything will fit my definition of “nice” – which really isn’t all that exacting.
Au contrarie, 591 is budget stuff compared to what really lies out there. Whether is rent or but, 591 is still not the most coveted option - see Escher inspired bathrooms for one.
I’ll try to find a couple of links for you. As to those places in your link, you have to realize the environment plays a large part in their beauty. And Heaven knows in our cramped Taiwan, that is not the case. The great view in the ol country is a sky so blue it hurts my eyes, green, luscious mountains and rolling hills with colorful houses. Here, my view consist of my elderly neighbor in his underwear -summer is here, yippee!.. not-, my dear Penelope the spider and her ever growing web, or a concrete mass intercepted by the yellow gas line.
There are nice houses in Taiwan providing you have the funds. I’ve seen nice houses in Yilan or the Tainan area (outside the big cities, though).
Anyways, I bet the best thing anyone could do here is locating a piece of land and directly hire the construction company to make it for you. This way you cut one link of the chain, and save a lot of money. There are nice places in Xindian or Beitou/Tanshui where that could be done, and even better if you go far from Taipei.
There are loads of nice houses in Miaoli, mostly folk from Hsinchu or Taipei, locals who made money in the big city or local civil servants or corrupt politicians. Decent places with gardens and yards.
[quote=“Hokwongwei”]I’ll start with a disclaimer: I do not have the money to buy a home and possibly never will, whether it be in Taiwan or anywhere else, and that’s fine.
What bothers is that, assuming I did have the money, there’s nothing in Taiwan that I feel is worth buying. There are so many nice units you can get all over the world for the right price, but in Taiwan, even if you had an infinite amount of capital you’d still just end up with a concrete block in a building with cheap and uninformed imitation of Roman columns on the bottom and tasteless tiling up to the roof.
People have the money to pay the inflated price tags, why not actually make the places livable?
Looking at that photo, I can tell that no children live in that house. Just look at how neat it is!
Furthermore, no people live in that house. There is no chair/sofa facing the TV.
I followed that link; the first place was the penthouse of the Heinz Julen Chalet in Zermatt, Switzerland. I’m guessin’ that’s too spendy for you or me, but we can dream. Here are some nice photos / architectural porn: mountainexposure.com/zermatt … house.html
“Sleeps up to 8- USD 517 to 1146 prpn” . . . I guess “prpn” means “per room per night”, right?
Another is Viceroy Bali Luxury Villas in Ubud. You could get their cheapest room on Agoda for US500/night.
So I’m guessing that most of those photos in the first half of the link are not private homes, but luxury villas. You should look at luxury hotels in Taiwan if you want to compare fairly.
I do see your point, though. People spend a lot of money for a real shithole in Taipei. They could buy some great property elsewhere in the world for the same price. And if you spend 30 million on a 30-40 ping apartment, you might as well have it well designed. At least put a photo of Santorini up on the wall.
I recently brought a place in Xiangshang and I have to say I really like it, I had to sell a place in Australia to get the funds (as problems with borrowing large sums of money here due to being a foreigner) but overall I really dig the style and layout and the price wasn’t extortionate.
The biggest issue was a lack of storage space and no oven in the kitchen, but after 4 months of renovations (and probably another 6 months to go) we are finally ready to move in.
That being said, we spend a good 4 months looking at places to buy and by and large they were either not modern enough, too far out of the city, too expensive (there is some nice house porn available for over 30mil) or just too small. Overall it’s cosy and modern and for now we’re content… That being said, I will look at building the next house as to some extent the OP is right, there is a shortage of decent houses and most of the newer ones are in estates…
This is the only image I have online of the place I mentioned photographing for WSJ. All the other photos from it are still embargoed until they publish.
I could fill up this thread with the weird and wonderful from Hualien. But they’re horrible houses. Really nice places are hard to find, and considering how many places are being built around here, it’s rare that I find myself nodding in approval.
There’s an awful lot of the same stuff going up, faux-European town houses (in rows, or stand-alone) with 3 floors and 4 bathrooms.
