Can a foreigner buy an apartment in Taiwan?

[coralia]

Can a foreigner buy an apartment in Taiwan?

[Northcoast Surfer]

... an apartment in Taiwan?

Yes, of course!

[urodacus]

It'll cost you money, though. several million Taiwan dollars... 5 to 15 for a place in Taipei, for example.

www.591.com.tw is a good site. you will be much better off if you can read and deal in Chinese.

[housecat]

Good luck getting a mortgage without a Taiwanese co-signer, though.

[coralia]

How much (approximately) would a studio in a city other than Taipei (say, Kaohsiung, Hualian) cost? I have searched the web but nothing came up - I assume all relevant websites are in Chinese.

[coralia]

Sorry, I meant Hualian. Can't find my glasses...

[whitetiger]

I think you could easily get something for well under 2 million in Hualian. Many older places(over 20-25 years) will never appreciate in value. So if you buy a place for 1.5 million, that is probably the most if will ever be worth, it may depreciate though. You may want to get something newer for a little more, just in case you do want to unload it someday. A home should cost roughly the relative amount of rent x 20 years. This equation does not work for Taiwan.

[coralia]

What about other cities?

[Pingdong]

cant speak for the north, but down here if you buy outside the city a little bit and choose smaller roads with no schools/mcdonalds type things on them, they are cheaper.

Does anyone know if foreigners can buy land? My wife tells me know, but I know she has not asked anyone but her parents...who had not even seen a foreigner until i came around

around outskirts of pingdong you can get a 2-4 floor house (the townhouse style) for 600,000 (fixer upper) up to 6,000,000 or so for a nice looking new one. my inlaws just bought one (check court sales for cheap housing) for 720,000 and put another 1 million into it and its a lovely little house totally redone right down to the brick work.

[pqkdzrwt]

My understanding is that property works like the visa exempt entry arrangements, aka reciprocity. If your home country allows Taiwanese to own property in your home country, then Taiwan will likely allow you to own property in Taiwan.

Although if you are allowed, there are a whole pile of loop holes you need to jump through, and the real estate agent staff, their boss, and everyone else will believe you are not allowed until you teach them otherwise (: We had to make them dig out a little unused book out of their desk and wait for them to read through it and discuss it for 15 minutes before they decided it was ok (: