Turned down for an Apartment Rental Today

So recently I have been apartment hunting. The area I am looking for does not have a lot to choose from so I was just driving from building to building asking the guard.

At one place it was an old man renting the place. Everything was old, he had not renovated it from its inception im sure, but he wouldn’t budge on price and he started to walk away from me and my Taiwanese friend when we started discussing a possible reduction. He also said that if anything broke, IE refrigerator, washing machine, etc, it was my problem. I decided if he was going to be like that up front, he would not help if anything ever did go wrong.

Second apartment, nice a large 3 bedroom in a nice area. The landlord was a lady who seemed a bit troubled why a single guy wanted a large apartment for himself, I said that I liked the space. My local friend again called her to set up a second meeting, and she said she spoke to her brother who said that foreigners are trouble and that I would likely trash the place and leave without paying. I am not sure why they would be worried when they are getting 2 months up front in deposit, but she said she would think about it again. Today she called my friend to say that her brother convinced her that all foreigners are trouble.

I did not know that there was that much on the news that was anti foreigner, but my friend said the landlord referenced the news and “all the bad things foreigners are doing recently” as the reason she didn’t want me there.

A bit bummed but what can I do. I guess the situation is better than Japan, where I heard that it is darn near impossible for a foreigner to get an apartment to rent.

Wow that’s pure racism…

I wouldn’t rent her place but I would love to get her on tape and sue her ass!

That means she has no idea what she’s talking about. I would tell her my salary and that I was very willing to pay her mortgage payments for her but now I’ll be taking it somewhere else instead. I also might add a quip to the nature of “you’re what’s wrong with Taiwan.”

Apartment hunting in Taiwan sucks, for various reasons.

The stuff you’re encountering though sounds pretty severe. Are you presenting yourself in a way that furthers your interests? i.e. clean haircut, clean shirt, polite friend, etc. Good packaging could help get your foot in the door–literally!

Good luck with this. And do keep us posted.

Guy

what a couple of morons. i’d like to get some revenge by having a viewing of her flat and then take a dump in the living room mid viewing. just to live up to her expectation of how badly behaved foreigners apparently are.

i saw an ok apartment online recently, with a super nice balcony area. but i was put off when i read the requirements, the landlord sounded like an idiot. it specifically stated no drug addicts allowed, they want to keep the apartment CLEAN! so no dirty drug addicts can live there, any drug addicts that live there will be reported to the police!

i guess they had suspicions about you wanting 3 bedrooms, (as opposed to a perfectly normal taiwanese ratcage with a hob right next to the bed) because they thought you wanted to create some sort of drug addicts hideout for all the bad foreigners to live in.

Bumped into this situation myself after following a list my university gave me of landlords who wanted tenants. At the time, I justified it with “young students, party animals probably”. But I have heard that one in many other cases, and faced it again when helping newcomers. Not that common but annoying.

In Japan, you must have a local Japanese guarantor to rent a place. And yes, it is still difficult.

Thanks for everyone’s (well mostly everyone’s) comments .

it was a rant and I feel better now. Hopefully the search will pan out. currently there is only 10 listings for the area I want to go to so I am getting a bit antsy since those listings aren’t suitable.

I might have to go the real estate agent way soon, but it is a waste of one months rent

A couple weeks ago I put down a deposit through an agent on a place I had every intention of renting. When the agent called the landlord to set up a time to sign the contract he told her flat out he wouldn’t rent to a foreigner.

Usually, they’ll just give you some lie like “it’s not available anymore”.

Or “my nephew is coming back from the UK and I need to give the apartment to him.”

Guy

I had a difficult time getting my current apartment. I could tell the landlord didn’t what to rent to non-Taiwanese. I had to deposit before signing, sign certain conditions. Agent kept sending back new requests from the landlord. I think the landlord was passive aggressively trying to get me to back out. But eventually my agent persuaded her to lease to me. I’ve paid the rent on time, so hopefully she has a better impression of me now.

+1 to this. Be polite, pay your rent on time (please!), keep the place tidy. We won’t convert everyone but we can change perceptions here one person at a time.

Guy

some of this came from the report on the Hong Kong day renters (tourists) who trashed the place in Taipei,
foreigners are barely a blip on the rental market here so it’s not word of mouth.

[quote=“headhonchoII”]some of this came from the report on the Hong Kong day renters (tourists) who trashed the place in Taipei,
foreigners are barely a blip on the rental market here so it’s not word of mouth.[/quote]
I remember that case. they were Taiwanese, BTW.

They were Taiwanese? Any link
to that?

This say they were HKers.
m.scmp.com/news/china-insider/ar … g-visitors

[quote=“jesus80”][quote=“headhonchoII”]some of this came from the report on the Hong Kong day renters (tourists) who trashed the place in Taipei,
foreigners are barely a blip on the rental market here so it’s not word of mouth.[/quote]
I remember that case. they were Taiwanese, BTW.[/quote]

You mean they became temporary residents of a “gated community”, meaning they did spend time in jail for their antics.

They were a couple of nut cases from Hong Kong. But to be fair, there was a nut case squatting in Hong Kong’s miracle mile, made in Taiwan, family loaded, just… did not want to go.

My English landlord in England told me he would never rent to ‘gypsys, pakis or job seekers.’ The entire planet is populated by racist pricks. Don’t read too much in to it.

And they look like two cute , innocent young ladies. Ha.

Can’t trust anyone.

Why would a gypsy want to rent a flat?

My BF (Taiwanese) and I have both come across the "why do you need a 3 bedroom apartment, there is only 1 of you’ comment (we don’t live together, so this is both of us looking for our own place separately, and dealing with different landlord/Ladies.

My current landlady was also very concerned about this, I explained that I had just gotten divorced, sold our house, and had 25ping’s worth of furniture.

She then expressed concern about me being a foreigner, and her friends had advised her to only rent to Taiwanese, so I showed her my bankbook balance.

After that we were fine.

I wonder what it is that makes them worry about 1 person living in a 3 bedroom place?

Maybe locals have a reputation for organizing sex/drug parties, OR maybe they are worried that their renter will sublet the apartment?

Ahh, I think
know what’s going on.

There’s been a lot of news about people renting and then sub letting places. That’s their real fear.
Fear of them not making as much money as they should :slight_smile:.

BTW, landlords can and will
sue if they find out
you sublet OR if you move a bunch of other people in. One woman got sued
for moving her family into the apartment when she claimed to be a single person renting.