🇹🇼 Taipei · Housing
Finding somewhere to live in Taipei
A cheap, safe, well-connected city whose rental market is conducted almost entirely in Chinese, on one dominant portal and through neighbourhood agents.
The thing people get wrongRoughly the whole market sits on Chinese-language platforms — 591 above all — and photographs there are taken to flatter. The windowless interior bedroom of a subdivided flat is the specific thing to check for, every time.
Where the listings actually are
591 房屋交易 carries the overwhelming majority of rental stock, with Yungching, Sinyi and neighbourhood agencies covering the rest and a surprising amount still advertised on paper in a shop window or on a lamp post. English-language listing sites exist and show a small, expensive slice of the market, priced for people who cannot see the rest of it. Facebook groups for foreigners are useful for sublets and flatshares and thin for whole units.
- 591 is the market; almost everything else is a subset of it.
- Neighbourhood agents know stock that never gets posted.
- English-only sites show a narrow, marked-up selection.
- Landlords negotiate by LINE, not email or phone.
What to check in the flat
Two structural issues recur. Subdivided units carve a large flat into several small ones, which is legal within limits but frequently produces bedrooms with no exterior window, poor sound insulation and improvised wiring. Separately, rooftop additions are common, unpermitted more often than not, and unbearable in August. Taipei is humid, so look for mould at the base of walls and behind furniture in any unit.
- Ask directly whether the unit is 隔套 (subdivided) and which walls have exterior windows.
- Check the electricity supply in a subdivided flat — capacity is often marginal.
- Rooftop additions: ask whether the structure is permitted.
- Look for mould low on walls, behind wardrobes and around window frames.
The contract and the deposit
Taiwan caps the residential deposit at two months' rent, and standard lease templates issued by the interior ministry are widely used. Leases normally run one year. Notarisation is optional and occasionally requested for longer or higher-value tenancies. Read whether the landlord intends to register the lease for tax purposes — some prefer not to, and that preference occasionally shows up as pressure on the tenant not to claim a rent deduction.
- Deposit is capped at two months by law.
- One-year terms are standard; the government's model lease is commonly used.
- Agree how utilities are billed, especially summer air-conditioning.
- Photograph everything and attach the record to the contract.
Agents and fees
Where an agent is involved, fee practice is regulated and typically splits between the parties, with the tenant's share commonly around half a month's rent. Establish who is paying what before viewings rather than after you have chosen a flat, and be clear whether the person showing you round represents the landlord or you.
- Agent fees are regulated; ask for the split in writing up front.
- The person showing the flat usually acts for the landlord.
- A local speaker on your side changes both the price and the answer on foreign tenants.
In order
- Choose your MRT line and station before you choose a district.
- Search 591 with a Chinese speaker, and walk into two neighbourhood agencies.
- Ask of every unit whether it is subdivided and where the windows are.
- View in person or by live video — never from photographs alone.
- Check for mould and ask about summer heat, particularly on a top floor.
- Agree the utility arrangement and the management fee before negotiating rent.
- Keep the deposit to two months and get the contract in writing.
- Photograph the unit on move-in day and share the record with the landlord.
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