After another circumnavigation of this wonderful world we find ourselves back in Taipei, Taiwan. This time we even signed a lease.
The neighborhood is great. There is a small park next door, and we are within a 10 minute bike ride of the 2 biggest parks in the city. We are a 5 minute walk to the subway station, and 2 of the big transport corridors for bus / taxi / Uber transit are close by. A weekly public market and a grocery store are just next door, and 100s of restaurants are within 10 minutes by foot. Despite the proximity to everything, it is calm and quiet and our street is lightly trafficked.
What we really liked though was the interior.
And exterior. The attention to detail is top notch, with great air flow and lighting throughout.
View from the park
Food is a not so secret pleasure of ours which means a versatile kitchen is desirable. With a dish washer, of course.
Oven, Nuker, Etc…
Dining Table, Range, Beaucoup Storage Space
The kitchen flows into the living space for convenient hosting and entertaining.
Living Room w/ 4K TV
Now please follow me upstairs… careful not to bump your knee on the massage chair.
This way please…
After 2.5 years of co-sleeping most nights, Jr was ready for his own space. Or we were. He now has his own room for Totoro and his dinosaurs & cars.
Jr’s Room
Across the hall is the room where my new bike and (old) guitar sleep. This week I’ll morph this space into an IRS compliant tax-deductible home office. This monitor is great for spreadsheets, which means I’ll probably finally get around to some of those more mathematically intense topics I’ve been thinking about.
Office
Let’s head back downstairs and checkout the master suite:
Master Bedroom
Need to buy more clothes (Hi Totoro!)
Master Bath
After 5 weeks in Japan, we are pretty happy to also have one of those non-iron thrones at home.
Not shown is the 3/4 bath off the living room (w/ shower) and the covered outdoor terrace with washer/dryer and storage. The basement also includes a small gym (tread mill, bike machine, etc…) and a small bike storage area.
Rent totals 73,000 TWD / month (~$2,400) (minus home office deduction) which includes all furnishings and management fee. The door guy is great, and takes care of all the common areas, package receipt, etc… He has even lent me a screwdriver a couple times already. We negotiated a week of “free rent” for a move-in window, but also paid a 1/2 month agent fee.
We’ve been here less than a month so far but it has been great. Jr is enjoying the park and regular bike rides, and we’ve all been enjoying a bit of Recharge time.
For perspective, we’ve previously rented apartments in Taipei for $1,000 and $1,400.
It looks nice but seems expensive. My mortgage plus taxes and insurance is the same amount for a 2500 soft house in Chicago
yup
Haha. I had the opposite reaction. I live In LA and I don’t think you can get even a crappy three bedroom for that price.
Also, yup :)
It just depends what you are comparing to.
Sweet! Enjoy your new place, GCC!
Thanks!
I’m curious – if you rented for $1k and $1.4k before, what was the main attraction for the up in price to $2.4k? Location or amenities? Is it really that much better?
Not better, different. Neither of those 2 apartments had space for both a bedroom for Jr and an office.
We could have paid less for older buildings or outside the city center.
It looks amazing! Enjoy
The apartment is beautiful! Having space for your son and the office looks amazing. How long is the lease for?
We did a year and a half. We will be here for awhile except summer when I’ll have to escape the heat
I can certainly appreciate leaving for the heat of the summer. We live just outside of Hong Kong in mainland China and it is unbearably hot during the summer. It is definitely time to leave for cooler temps when summer strikes!
Wow. Those wood floors are spiffy! Great find, good sir!
I like the wood too. Super spiffy.
Looks pretty swank! Don’t tell me you’re putting down some roots :)
For a little while anyway, we want to recharge and work on a couple projects. Stop by for a visit :)
Financial question – home office deductions are a favorite for the IRS Audit bots. Does the home office have separate public entrance or is that no longer a requirement ? Can you talk about the deduction and do you itemize enough you make it worth while or is it a business expense vs tax deduction ?
https://gocurrycracker.com/home-office-tax-deduction/
My long-term girlfriend is Taiwanese and lives in Taipei, but as a small-town “boy” from the US, I’ve always been nervous about the idea of moving there with her, so she has been visiting me twice a year for over a decade. So, I like to follow your FI blog in particular. Would you be willing to give a little more specific info about the location? It would give her and I something to talk about, and me something to think about. Thanks! Oh, and that place looks very nice.
We are in the Zhongshan neighborhood, but there are modern style buildings all over the city. We looked at several that were quite nice.
I also grew up in a small town. Things are nice out there.
Pretty good deal with that you get. Many of the kitchens I’ve seen that aren’t spacious enough to have a dishwasher often have heated dish drying racks! ;-) Think about the multitude of cheap and tasty eats around makes me salivate!
We also have one of those drying racks. It’s nice for when you just have coffee or something.
I tried both card links in the email before popping over here. Neither worked for me. I’m in the market for a new card to get cash back…I can’t really use travel right now. I have $45,000 lumber bill I want to charge….building a house! HELP? Any recommendations?
If you aren’t looking at any travel then a cash back card that earns 2% is maybe your best bet. One example is the Citi Double Cash card.
The 5% cash back cards typically have a max of ~$1500 that earn 5% and then the rest is 1%, so a large purchase like yours don’t get the full benefit.
Very nice place! Congrats! Do you have any idea how much this place would cost if you wanted to buy it? I wouldn’t be surprised if this costs $1m+. Rental yields are so low in some of the large Asian metro areas, it’s almost a no-brainer to rent.
Cheers!
ERN
Definitely more than a mil, but I can’t say how much more. The rental we had during Winnie’s pregnancy was $1.5mil+ with rent of $1400.
I bought a house and you’ve signed a long-term lease.
How the mighty have fallen! :)
roots and wings something something
You just pulled these pics down from HGTV website didn’t you….? ?
Surprised you have not had one of those trollers bringing such wisdom!!
What do your utilities run at ? Or are they included in the rental? Does the hot summer require cranking up the AC heavily or do you crank up the air miles and jet off for cooler pastures?
Looks like an amazing place (the kind of place we might get on airbnb but could never afford long term ;) ).
Are those 3!! ovens in the kitchen?
2 of them are just metal doors. They are for things like a rice cooker, where steam might damage a wooden cabinet.
Wow, beautiful place GCC! That kitchen is really nice. I’ve seen WAY worse in asia!
Can’t wait to see the outcome of those new projects you’re working on! ;)
Wow definitely a fancier place than your previous one. :)
How many total square feet in your new place?
As a swag, about 1200 sq. ft.
Oooh…swanky! We’re thinking of coming to Taiwan to escape winter at the end of next year. Can we come visit?
Of course
Let me know cuz I’ll ask nicely if you can mule some stuff over for us :)
Is the rent high partly because it’s all furnished? We go back and live for 2-3 months at a time and I’m never sure what the avg rent is and how having it furnished or having it short term changes the rent.
It varies. Generally furnished doesn’t have to cost more (although it often does) and shorter term is more than longer term.
While searching for a longer term place (this one) we had rented a 2 bedroom Airbnb that was not nearly as nice or spacious, and it was about 25% more.
Wow, it looks gorgeous! As someone that’s 6’4″, the ceilings look pretty low compared to the states (especially in the bedrooms). Is that something you’ve found looking at housing throughout Taiwan?
P.S. Isn’t having a doorman the best?
You might feel a bit like you are flying coach. The living room is maybe 12 foot ceilings, but the bedrooms are closer to 7
Junior is adorable.. Miss you guys.. Steve and Kay
Beautiful place…. So reasonable. My rent in NY.c fir a studio us $2,400!
Very nice! It’s super modern and the lighting looks great!
Yeah for Taiwan, what a place! We lived in Kaohsiung circa 2007-2009. Loved it. Taiwanese ppl were wonderful and food. all the foods!
Thanks for confirming what I thought. I had a discussion with my mom about rent versus own in Taipei and she didn’t believe me that renting is so much more affordable than owning. Does your building have 1 and 2 bedroom units too? And would you know how much those would run for?
I think just 3 bedrooms, all of them owner occupied
Hi GCC – Looks nice … rental prices are going up here too … but I think you’d pay more in the nicer areas here … the main thing here … to figure out … is closeness to a suitable school for junior and sustainability … kindergarten and local Taiwanese school’s should be affordable and you might like it … but you would need to keep up his English at home seeing the classes would be in Mandarin etc etc …. international school’s can run tuition plus fees … $30-50,000 … also the local school’s while fun are high pressure with lot of homework even in grade 1 … at least in my part of Asia … and I believe Taiwan should not be too different …. a time intensive 3rd option would be homeschooling … which I write about on my blog a bit … but if you like that …. it is easy enough to check out … P.S. Taiwan looks great – no winter … and if ever get tired of blogging you can teach the locals conversational English at one of the zillions of English language schools .. it is actually quite fun … Michael CPO – From the Far Side of the Planet :)
Do you always use an agent? is there room for negotiation/discounts on longer term rentals?
It’s possible to not have an agent. That is obviously easier if you are fluent in Chinese.
We negotiated about 10% off and a week of free rent for early move in. ymmv
GCC, love this apartment – With this new long term commitment, will you hold any meet-ups in Taiwan?
My wife and I will both be in Taipei (I work in the US, she’s working in TPE, sound kinda familiar?) this December and it’d be awesome if we get to meet you and others with like minds. We’re at the last 1-2 years of accumulation stage (39 and 33) and your work here has done wonderful things to our relationship for the past few years. A big thanks you for that!
I’ve met with a lot of people in Taipei 1:1 in coffee shops. I’m always up for coffee and conversation.
I don’t think there is critical mass in Taipei to have a bigger meetup, but let me know when you are in town and we can arrange to get together.
100s of restaurants within 10-minute walk? That’s paradise on earth! Having left China for decades, the thing I miss the most is the delicious and authentic Chinese food. Your apartment looks gorgeous. Enjoy the park, food, and have a great time in Taipei. – Helen
Thank you for this post and for continually sharing with us the possibilities. We are very inspired.
K & K
Lovely place. Tactical question for you guys. I’m returning to Taipei to FI I’m planning to live off of dividends earned from my equity investments in the U.S. How are you guys moving your money from the U.S. to Taiwan? Are you using a debit card and eating the cross border transaction fees? Or are you moving chunks at a time using wire transfers? Or is there another way you’ve found that works better? Thanks in advance for your response.
We just make regular ATM withdrawals. See more here.
I plan to share a post about our recent ATM withdrawal bonanza. Stay tuned.
Ya, I had no problem extracting NT from the atm, seems the 7-11’s worked the best, but don’t go into the bank to exchange money. We’ve sent money home and gotten nailed with big fees. I would like to see the post on ATM Bonanza.
cheers
Here ya go
https://www.gocurrycracker.com/international-atm-bonanza/
What a cool apartment. I always loved the iconic kitchen in the $1400/mo apartment. I really enjoy that you’re not scared to spend money. One of the stigmas of early retirement is that people often think you need to live in squalor to not run out of money. Thanks for these sweet posts.
We really liked the $1400 place too. If only it has a 2nd bedroom.
Ideally, emotions and money would be disconnected. We have our means and we spend less than that.
Wow, that’s upscale. Very cool place. $2,400/month seems pretty expensive to me. I thought the cost of living in Taipei is cheaper than that. More space is good for the kid. It took a long time for our kid to go to bed in his room. Life got a ton better once he did that. Much better sleep for everyone.
Enjoy!
Yeah, more expensive than some place, less than others.
What would $2400 get in your neck of the woods?
I just check Craigslist and a 3 bedroom condo in Portland cost $3,200 to $4,400. 3 bedroom units are pretty rare here. For comparison, I’m trying to find a new renter for our 1 bd condo. The rent is $1,350.
Why don’t you move to Kaohsiung? It is way cheaper than Taipei.
Yeah, lots of places less expensive than Taipei. Not so many with the wife’s friends and family
That’s also the main reason our family settled in Daan district for the last 3 years. Affordable public trans and food is excellent! My kids are going to the local “celebrity” public elementary school. They can already speak and write Chinese.
Would love to meet you guys sometime! BTW, your new place is posh!
Daan is a pretty nice area.
We are always up for a coffee. Send me an email and we can arrange something.
Love your rental. Wondering if you could help me. I need to rent a place in Taipei for about 1 or 2 month in March to take my elderly mom there for dental work and acupuncture treatments. Do you recommend an agent for finding a place for us or just use Airbnb or someone other source. My sister speaks fluent Chinese. I read your blog on dental treatment in Taiwan but the link to the dentist no longer works. Any suggestion to finding a reputable dentist in Taipei. My mom needs two root canal and a crown.
Hi Susan. For a short term rental I would just look on Airbnb or Craigslist. We booked a week of Airbnb to use as a base while we looked for this apartment. There are many options starting around ~$1k/month. If you haven’t used Airbnb before, you can get you $20-$40 off your first stay (affiliate link), depending on their current promotion.
As for dentists, I’m not sure. I’m personally looking for a dentist for a possible cap, but not sure I’ll do that until after CNY. Send me an email when you start looking and I can let you know what dentist we used and if we like them.
That is an Awesome Totoro Bath Mat! Did you get that to furnish your apartment or pick it up while in Japan?
That was a gift from a friend to Jr. He loves Totoro…
Looks good! I spent a lot of time in southern Taiwan, Tainan & Kaoshiung area. Definitely a nice country, nicer than China.
Looks amazing for the price…. says the early retiree based in Manhattan. Am about to move to Paris in 2 months where rents are materially cheaper compared to Manhattan. Hoping to beat what you have….LOL!
Which part of Paris are you moving to?