My real estate agent told me that he hasn’t been able to find a bank that’s willing to lend money to foreigners. I know there must be banks that would do it, but no luck so far.
Anyone got any tips? We are thinking about 70%-80%.
I have heard that you need a guarantor
Also, which location? This is the most important, if its in TP county, the “local” banks may help - the “Taipei banks” are very taipei centric
Or, just buy new - the contructor will also help arrange
Good luck
[quote=“sheknows15”]My real estate agent told me that he hasn’t been able to find a bank that’s willing to lend money to foreigners. I know there must be banks that would do it, but no luck so far.
Anyone got any tips? We are thinking about 70%-80%.[/quote]
True, not all banks lend to foreigners, but real estate agents are not the best ones to pursue this matter: do it yourself is more effective. That is not their area.
First of all, make sure your nationality is in the list of foreigners that indeed can buy property or secure documentation enabling you to.
Second, get the cost estimates, with per ping info, common areas, etc. plus a chart -for negotiation purposes- of what banks are lending to people interested in the same project -such as, let’s say for example, Bank of Taiwan is lending the Taiwanese at 1.65% for the first six months, and you need 5 million since you must give an initial payment of 2 million, etc.
Third, in previous threads we have mentioned HSBC, Fubon, Mega -ex ICBC-, and Bank of Taiwan as entities that are willing to give mortages to foreigners. You can head to them with this basic info, and compare rates/conditions. Show them the info above and see if their rates are better or worse.
Fourth, I’ve personally been to all these and yes, they do ask for a guarantor, preferably local. Yes, they do up to 80%.
Thanks guys. You’ve been very helpful.
The apartment we found is in Taoyuan county, Zhongli actually, near Sogo. Apparently they are building a MRT station near the area. The line is going all the way to high speed railway station, the airport, though Xin-Zhuang, eventually Taipei. Supposed to be a good investment.
Hope everything works out. Fingers crossed.
[quote=“sheknows15”]Thanks guys. You’ve been very helpful.
The apartment we found is in Taoyuan county, Zhongli actually, near Sogo. Apparently they are building a MRT station near the area. The line is going all the way to high speed railway station, the airport, though Xin-Zhuang, eventually Taipei. Supposed to be a good investment.
Hope everything works out. Fingers crossed.[/quote]
-
check the MRT is actually close - this is a realtor line normally, we looked around in Xinjuang and they said, “near the new MRT”, which was actually 15 minutes drive through awful roads, it was closer to cross the bridge and hop on the “red line”
-
investment may be good, but also you may want to make sure you are happy living there
-
the gov seems to plan on building lots of “affordable” housing in that same area - could work both ways, either a deluge of young hip young professionals, or a bunch of bluevan men also waiting on an investment
-
if it is an ‘investment’ it probably means that most of the money has already been made and youre looking at paying the inflated price as if the MRT had been built… check into it
Good luck
Chinatrust’s Banchiao branch will lend to foreigners (without a guarantor) if you pass their credit standards in terms of salary level, length on your job, general credit check, etc., and if they positively appraise the property you are going to buy. (If you provide a guarantor, their credit requirement threshholds may be lower.) However, they are a very local bank, and you will need to have the ability to do all of the paperwork and communication with them in Chinese or there probably won’t be any way for you to complete the application process. They may also want to see permanent residency status of the foreigner who is applying.
If you trust your wife you can do it all in her name - have your salary paid to her and she’ll qualify for the mortgage no problem.
Just keep a record of the payments. In any event, you own 50% of the assets either of you acquire after marriage except assets inherited or received as gifts unless you have signed a pre-nuptial agreement. So another way to look at it is that even if the house is in your name, she owes half of it even if you paid for all of it.
I had no problems at all obtaining a loan from First Bank’s Northern Taoyuan Branch, to buy my house in Linkou, and I didn’t need a guarantor. It was all as smooth and easy as I could possibly have asked for. But I borrowed only one third of the NT$9 million purchase price, already owned another home in my own name with nothing owed on it, and have a pretty solid credit profile in all material respects, so my case might not be indicative of a general tendency for this bank to lend to foreigners.
A number of the replies are presuming that the OP is male and is married to a local female. I suppose that statistically for forumosa this is quite probable, but was this explicitly stated anyplace?
[quote=“sheknows15”]My real estate agent told me that he hasn’t been able to find a bank that’s willing to lend money to foreigners. I know there must be banks that would do it, but no luck so far.
Anyone got any tips? We are thinking about 70%-80%.[/quote]
Why on earth would you ask a real estate agent how to finance your mortgage?
This can become very expensive for you and very lucrative for him.
I’d talk to some banks, yourself.
[quote=“engerim”][quote=“sheknows15”]My real estate agent told me that he hasn’t been able to find a bank that’s willing to lend money to foreigners. I know there must be banks that would do it, but no luck so far.
Anyone got any tips? We are thinking about 70%-80%.[/quote]
Why on earth would you ask a real estate agent how to finance your mortgage?
This can become very expensive for you and very lucrative for him.
I’d talk to some banks, yourself.[/quote]
Most of the new developments have already a deal made with a certain chosen bank, so peopel who come to inquire about houses can get the whole deal: a quotation of teh house costs plus any remodeling involved with the loan calculations and such. So, yeah,m it would be logical to ask the agent firts if you can get a deal, too, but as a hoem buyer I agree you shouldn’t just limit your search to what the agent says, no matter how attractive it looks. And as a foreigner we know the sale can get “complicated”.
And well, “sheknows” sounds like married and a guy to me. 
This is good advice, you don’t need to send the whole salary of course 
, also watch the tax bracket.
Main thing is to show steady income into a bank account in Taiwan, then have the the deposit on the ready (more the better), if you have security that is good. It’s also good to have a Taiwanese guarantor. From what I have heard there is no discrimination involved.