Especially in winter and during typhoons.
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Giant bag?
Set up a company that buys the apartment, rent it with your allowance, than later sell it and pocket the profit.
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Didn’t know that, then OP’s offer is still good (100k monthly with no rent to pay) but not as good as if he could have bagged 30k more from the allowance offered. That would be good to negotiate 120k instead of 100k and settle for a 62k house allowance.
This budget is getting into mortgage territory.
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Yeah I didn’t realise when in the U.K. Now I’m out here and speaking with some agencies I understand. I thought it was like Hong Kong, which was why I was asking. I have some friends in Hong Kong so I guess confused.
Anyway a few agencies have reached out and sent me some sample listings.
Is this indicative of the market or is this a mark-up because I’m using expat agencies? They have to be work approved so no flexibility with just going on the rent.yungching.com.TW website.
They seem pretty decent and obvi grateful, just don’t wanna be hustled with a mark-up.
If you are comfortable and happy with those then that’s all that matters, but those are quite inflated.
Edit to add that the actual SF listed is likely much higher than the real, liveable private space of the apartment. 1300sf one bedroom? They include the common spaces of the building in some fashion, that’s common here, but these look like they are using that loophole to max effect.
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I’m not sure about the mark-up for location, bit those are not too huge (26-36 ping) 1 bedroom places without parking at 80k including management fee and taxes. Sounds like a bit of foreigner mark-up to me. Some might be justified by dealing in English with you, and taking care of landlord handling also during the rental period?
Maybe you can try finding the exact same places on 591.com.tw and compare?
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They’re a bit marked up. Part of that is likely because this is through your employer and you are therefore getting a “tax included” price. And the other part is your employer is working with agencies that cater to expats on work assignment and know that they can list apartments at higher prices.
For comparison, I pay $60,000 for a 25 ping 1 bedroom in the heart of Taipei. Building is only a few years old and has 24 hour security. I negotiated for the management fee to be included in the rent. So yeah, if you didn’t have to go with an approved agency, you would have more options and could negotiate a better price.
Nicest listing seems to be the second one. It’s the top floor, so you wouldn’t have any noise from neighbors above. 26 pings should be fine for 1-2 adults but you need to see the layout to see how the space is used. A lot of places feel cramped because the use of space is bizarre.
Ideally you can view the apartment in person before making a decision but at a minimum ask to see pictures of the building. 2009 doesn’t seem that old but buildings can age really fast here.
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These listings look like they are from Elegant Realty and their target market are foreigners who have companies pay for their housing, relo, driver, schooling costs for kids, hardship allowance adjustments, etc. Typically tax is included in the price because the company signs the lease, rather than the individual tenant.
Also included in the price is the ability for the tenant to claim a rental deduction on Taiwan taxes, which means that the landlord will have to pay taxes on the rental income.
Bottom line is the price can be negotiated down from what you see there if you are not going to claim a rental deduction and/or if your company is not going to be signing the lease.
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Mind blown! 
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Man, how do you guys find good apartments here? I’m trying to get a newish 1 bedroom here with easy access to green line within 35000 NTD but I can’t get anything more than 14 ping. Been looking for a month and talked to all the popular agents (including ones that cater to expats like URHouse)…
Feeling like giving up and staying in an old place
What’s “newish”? Building age 5-10 years? Price is a bit aggressive for that.
Do you have any friends that speak Chinese? I never found the expat agencies to be very good. Better to try to rent directly through a landlord if possible and if you can’t, be in a position to deal with any agent listing an apartment you like.
I think a lot of people do that. The rental market here sucks.
- Building age <= 15 years.
- My SO is Taiwanese and both of us have tried and failed to find a modern 1 bedroom in that area (close or on green line) for that price. Most of the ones we like are in Daan/Xinyi which would fuck up commute for me.
- Looked at 591 and FB groups and many other websites…
That is enough to fuck up your commute? Is it that difficult to walk a few steps to change lines?
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What station on the green line do you need to commute to?
Although many Taiwanese think otherwise, 45min+ commute each way is unacceptable for me. My upper bound is 30 minutes approx unless I can really find an amazing place in a slightly-far-away area. From my understanding, Xinyi/Daan are the most overpriced anyway.
Unfortunately, my workplace is a 10 minute walk from near one end of the green line in Dapinglin Station, so I’d have to spend about an hour in total each way if I live near Daan/Xinyi.
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Dapinglin is also on the yellow line. Have you considered New Taipei? Prices are lower there too. Should be able to get a larger, newer place in Yonghe or Zhonghe for $35,000.
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It’s not, and Dapinglin is in New Taipei already.