I need help discerning good and bad deals on apartment rentals. Can someone help me get a better idea of what I should expect for 20k vs. 40k in Taipei? I’ve seen an amazing looking apartment for 19k on youtube and I believe they described the rent as a bit higher than average. I’ve also seen listings on Facebook Taiwan Apt. Rentals and 591 that look perhaps modern but small and totally uninteresting for >40k. Here was the youtube video (it is in Yonghe but still) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hoHyjH3p3c&ab_channel=Travelingjoe
It’s all location. 10 ping apartments in 東區 will be 40k if they are in a newer building with dry-wet separation in the bathrooms and modern furnishings. Go to Wanhua and the same thing would be 25-30k. Go to New Taipei City and even cheaper
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The video is dated 4.5 years ago - since then, prices have gone up.
For comparison: I paid 26k for 11 ping studio in Xinyi in an elevator building with pool 10 min walk from the MRT. I guess now, the landlord could easily rent out this apartment for 28k-30k.
Before signing (that was end of 2020), I also looked at other studios (all in rather “good” locations) - the range was from 16k for a rundown place without real windows to 30k for 8 ping studio directly on top of an MRT station.
Now I live in New Taipei City (Linkou) with no MRT station nearby and I pay 25k for about 25 ping including a parking space.
So yeah - that and a bit of luck.
For 40k, I would at least expect a one-bedroom or even two-bedroom apartment. For a studio, I think 40k is too expensive - even for a good location in Taipei.
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Thanks!
A tiny room in xinyi, and tiny as in tiny, 4 pings or less, is like 15,000 a month. I’m not sure the need to be in xinyi but same room in danshui would be 3500 or so.
Though the room in xinyi have elevators, maybe 10,000 without.
Location is the biggest determiner in rental price.
In the country 15,000 rents an entire 3 story gongyu.
Location is important, but so is the color of your skin. Most westerners are paying more than the locals for the same apartments.
Really? Is this for Tapei? Every place I’ve lived in I found on 591–which has prices listed for everyone–and most I negotiated down a bit. All of these have been in Taoyuan and Hualian, so maybe it’s different elsewhere.
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Major difference. Now its impossible to negotiate down in Taipei.
I never really managed to negotiate down much at all… Only time that ever works is if I offer to pay a year’s rent at once and maybe get a 5% discount. Not a whole lot honestly.
Maybe it will work in danshui with student housing, there’s a ton of them, and not that many students anymore.
Like maybe if you agree to the landlord that you will be responsible for all repairs, that might get them to knock it down a bit (because some of those repairs can cost a fair bit).
That seems very risky, given the potential cost the renter might then be exposing themselves to (repairing or replacing AC units, appliances, the landlord’s old furniture, structural damage, plumbing and electrical problems, etc.). I think they’d at least want to set a cap to this.
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By a room, do you mean a yǎfáng (雅房)? This is a room with no ensuite bathroom. Usually the cheapest option.
I believe the the next step up is usually known as a tàofáng (套房), which is a room with an ensuite bathroom. It could be a studio, in which case it will be advertised as having a separate entrance.
A gōngyù （公寓） is an apartment/condominium. It can also refer to a building that contains condominiums. Note that many English-speaking Taiwanese don’t know the word ‘condominium’. They will say ‘apartment’ or even ‘house’.
A townhouse with three (or even more) floors in the country or a town is known as a tòutiāncuò (透天厝) or thàu-thinn-tshù in Taiwanese. In practice, this is universally pronounced as tòutiāncu in Mandarin because of the influence of Taiwanese. Sorry, it’s a heavily bilingual country with code mixing.
I see foreigners renting 1-2 bedroom apartments in old buildings in core Taipei for NT$25 to $30k. These places seem fine to me but are apparently not up to the standards of some. NT$40k should get you somewhat nicer apartment of the same size in newer building with an elevator. They may be overpaying slightly but location is everything.
I understand that you can get larger and nicer places in even newer buildings out in places like Danshui, Linkou, and perhaps Xizhi and Banqiao. These are in parts of greater Taipei and involve various commutes if you need to come into core Taipei regularly.
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