This.
I don’t get why people insist on living in Taipei City or smack in the middle of it. If it’s to be near the nightlife…ok. However, I think the reasons to live outside Taipei far outweigh any reasons to stay in Taipei.
Take Sanxia, Bei Da, area for example. Everything you need is right there and it’s new, growing, clean, well organized, has decent real honest to goodness sidewalks!
Jobs: It has two elementary schools which both have English programs with foreign teachers. One of the schools has the English Village government program with all its awesome benefits, time off and bells and whistles. Plenty of big chain cram schools as well as smaller ones.
Food: Plenty of new places to eat popping up around the University. Has all your fast food cravings too… McDonald’s, KFC, Subway, MOS, Starbucks and a couple small diner joints who sell Western food. There are open air vegetable and fruit markets as well as the old street area. Many good local food places too.
Shopping: Carrefour, Wellcome, Jason’s Market as well as smaller shops for groceries are there. Hola and B&Q are there too. No department stores though. But how often does one shop at department stores?
Nature: you have the River bikeway, trails, nearby mountains for hiking and exploring, a park on almost every corner, the huge University grounds with open fields, a lake, ducks, tennis courts, basketball courts, a running track etc. And the air in Sanxia feels so much cleaner than Taipei because of the famous Sanxia winds. All that pollution crap gets blown away daily. You are walking distance to beautiful farms too.
It’s so easy to live in Sanxia and never have to leave. Rents are nice too. I was renting a 4 bedroom, 2 bath NEW flat with a River view and 2 parking spaces for 18,000 a month! Loved it so much here, I decided to buy.
If you don’t absolutely have to work in Taipei City, don’t! You can find good teaching jobs everywhere! (Not sure if the OP will be teaching).
Here are pics of the area I live in Sanxia. Even has great bakeries with real bread!
I wouldn’t have found my nice apartment in a Taipei high rise if I just searched on 591. I found it through a real estate agent. It turned out the landlady just wanted the agent to help her screen out undesirable tenants, and the rent was actually quite reasonable. Sure I had to pay the commission, but it was worth it in hindsight.
Sui Generis: Sanxia looks nice indeed! We don’t insist on living in the city center, but we like joining events and meeting friends on a regular basis, plus visit our folks in Hsinchu. That’s the main reason why we’re a little reluctant to places which are outside the MRT area. But you’ve convinced us to check it out…if places are that cheap, we could splurge on Uber rides every now and then.
Thanks for all the inputs guys, we’ll re-evaluate our approach based on the tips and try again!
The newer area of Sanxia was designed with this in mind. The developer wanted a more “Western” feel and layout to the city. So, wide sidewalks with plenty of street parking was planned in and made. People who live there, including myself, take pride in this.
My family and I moved here a few months ago and finding housing was definitely a big stress for us. We ended up settling in Beitou and really like it. 5 minute walk to MRT red line and then it’s pretty quick to get anywhere. We concluded that our expectations of rent were unrealistic–we wanted a 3 bedroom, near MRT, between $20,000-$30,000. We ended up going over on price but not quite as badly as we could have. I do feel like cost of living in Taipei is low overall, but housing is kind of the exception, unless you live pretty far out.
The main thing that helped me feel sane was to hire an agent. I had been scoping out places on 591 for months ahead of time but it was just so difficult to set up appointments to see places without knowing any Chinese. We ended up paying her half a month’s rent for her service and it was totally worth it. Even now she’s still a huge help to us as we reach out to her if we have any issues the landlord needs to fix.
Finally, it helps to live somewhere that is close by to where you want to be, but maybe is not itself the most happenin’ place. We live off the Qilian MRT stop, and while we’re finding things we like about it, it’s not as nice (for us) as some other areas–few sidewalks, no western restaurants, etc. But a short ride on the MRT and we can find those things! Hope this is helpful for you!
It really is near impossible without Chinese ability or a friend who can help.
Exactly. I found the apartment in Sanxia I rented on 591, but it was listed there, by luck, through an agent. That agent really helped us out a lot.
Later, we found our house to purchase through an agency as well, of course. Their fees are not all that outrageous. Using an agent also helps as a middle man between you and the landlord and kind of also helps keep the landlord on the up and up.
This was my experience as well with the place I’m in now. The agent looked over the lease that the landlord presented and found a penalty clause that was no longer legal. He went round and round with the landlord trying to explain that the law had changed at the beginning of the year. She reluctantly changed the lease, and the agent also convinced her to improve a couple of things in the apartment before I moved in. Totally worth the half month’s rent fee.
Though trying to talk law with Taiwanese will get you nowhere… Taiwanese are not law abiding and talking law is pretty much the nuclear option. Expect your landlord to make your life a living hell (and they can regardless of the law). For example, registering your HHR even though it’s a legal requirement that you register there almost all landlord will balk at this!
It was an excessive penalty for breaking the lease, like 2 months rent and/or losing your deposit, something like that. Anyway, the most they can penalize is one month’s rent (if I understood correctly). This was in Taoyuan.
I had worse landlords in the states. Like they have all kinds of rules and huge fines for breaking them. Like having pets, overnight guests, etc. and I’m not even sure what is legal and what’s not. I’m not that familiar with Texas rental laws and I’m not a lawyer…
