While apartment hunting in Taiwan, we came across many interesting apartment features. I hesitate to say “weird” because it’s likely we’re just not used to the style of living here.
Pings. I had mentioned in an earlier post that Taiwan uses pings 坪 as a measurement of floor space. One ping is equivalent to about 35.6 square feet. We searched for apartments between 25-30 pings, or 890-1067 square feet, which is about the same size as our old apartment in San Francisco. Not asking for too much, right?
Well, this brings me back to the theme of “expectations vs. reality” when it comes to apartment hunting in Taiwan. An apartment listing that advertises 30 pings does not mean the actual living space is 30 pings. The 30 pings include common areas like hallways, lobby area, stairwells. So you can imagine our surprise when we showed up to an apartment thinking it was 30 pings and saw a teeny tiny apartment. Apparently, the rule of thumb is to reduce the advertised number of pings by ~30% to get the actual living space.
Old buildings. Taipei is an old city, so many of its buildings are old. We wanted to live in Da’an for its central location but many of available apartments were very dated. Aside from aesthetics, older buildings may not be up to code to withstand earthquakes or fires.
Natural light. Having a good amount of natural light in the apartment was an important factor to us. Unfortunately, this wasn’t super easy to find in Taipei. A lot of the buildings (particularly the older ones) were blocked by other taller buildings, or they had small windows that were often frosted or barred. (The bars are to protect the windows during typhoons.)
Furniture. We were pleasantly surprised that most apartments come fully furnished or at least semi-furnished. This works perfectly for temporary residents like us.
Interesting designs. American luxuries like ovens and dishwashers are not common in Taiwan and we had already accepted that. But we discovered really interesting designs in some apartments. One apartment we saw had a staircase (see picture below), but the agent said we could not go upstairs. When we asked why, he said it’s because a family lives up there! 😮 There is a locked door between the apartment and upstairs, and the family has a separate entrance/exit, but it still freaked us out a bit.
Other apartments had appliances in unexpected places, like refrigerators in the living room or balcony. Another apartment had an upstairs with a bedroom and bathroom, but the ceilings were so low that you could barely stand up straight (and I’m only 5’3″!).
At this point, we were getting a little desperate. Our choices were limited: not only do we have to find an apartment that fit our needs, but one that is within a school’s service area plus a landlord who was willing to let us use the address for school registration.
We also had to work against time. School was starting soon and we needed to find an apartment, sign the contract, and update the boys’ ARC cards with the new address so we could register for school. Then, we had to get settled in and get ready for school before it starts. We had about ~2-3 weeks to do all this. Needless to say, it was pretty nerve-racking.
Next on the blog: the conclusion of our apartment search!
Hongs Abroad 