Find a room in Taipei as a foreigner - 타이페이의 방 - 台北房間

As several people have asked me how I managed to find my apartments in foreign countries (India, South-Korea and Taiwan), I decided to make a video about it. I hope it can be some help to you. If you have more questions about housing in Taiwan, ask me in the comments ^^

Instagram: @charmlesscharmander

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Trancript:

Part 1
Hello! Welcome on my channel.
My name is Charlotte and I recently moved to Taiwan on a working holiday.
Today I want to talk about how to find a place to live here in Taiwan as a foreigner.
It’s not that easy if you don’t talk Chinese (Mandarin)
and it’s a question that several people have asked me, people who are planning to come to Taiwan in the future
So today I would like to give you some tips on how to find a place to live in Taiwan.

Part 2
The first question people have asked me is:
should they start looking before they arrive in the country or afterwards?
To me, that’s pretty simple.
I have lived in several countries before, like India, South-Korea, Sweden and now Taiwan.
I always first go to the country and there I start looking
Pictures online can be deceiving, and you only can rely on the word of the owner, so I would be careful with that.
Especially if there is a language barrier
you should definitely check out the place physically first, before you agree on anything.
So my advice: go to the country and only there you can start looking for your apartment.

Part 3
One thing that I did before coming to Taiwan was just joining some Facebook groups
I started typing random things on FB like “Roommates in Taipei”, “Expats Taiwan”, “Housing in Taipei”
Just, all these kind of random things and I saw if there were existing groups in these categories
By joining those groups and seeing the rooms that were offered in there, neighbourhoods that were popular and prices
I could have a good idea, once I arrived in Taiwan, of what was reasonable and what was not.

Part 4
When I first arrived in Taiwan, I booked a hostel for 5 nights
That way I could research some places, visit some apartments, and also get a feel of the different neighbourhoods here
and make out for myself what neighbourhoods I would like to live in or places I would rather not live.
That was a really useful time for me to explore the city
Hostels have so many other travellers, young people
so it can be perfect if you want to explore the city and you don’t have anyone here
You can easily make some friends in the hostel.
I would really recommend it for the first week. That’s what I would do in every country.
Just staying in a hostel, get to know and get comfortable with the city and visit some apartments.
You can stay there as long as you need to find the perfect apartment.

Part 5
Something else I did here was to post in all the Facebook groups that I was following
all the ones related to housing here in Taipei
I just wrote a small paragraph about myself, who I am, where I am from, what I’m planning to do here in Taiwan
I also asked them if they had any advice or tips about where to live here in Taiwan
That way I got some suggestions, some good websites where I could find accommodation
Some people where telling me
“Oh, I have a friend who is leaving Taipei soon and her room will be free. I can get you guys in touch.”
Posting on that Facebook group, if you’re comfortable with it, can be a really good way to have some good options.

Part 6
If there’s one piece of advice I want to give you
it’s not to be pressured by landowners to sign any contract right away.
They have some tactics to make you feel some kind of pressure like:
“If you don’t do it now, somebody else will take it”, cause they had so many visitors that day
and somebody will call them back, so you just have one hour to decide and sign the contract
You know, there’s many ways they will make you feel this pressure to sign really fast.
As this is a big decision, especially if like me you’re planning to stay for at least six months, maybe one year
you should really take your time.
If the apartment is gone, so be it! There are many places here, it’s a big city.
Don’t make any fast decision just because you feel pressured into doing it!

哈囉！歡迎來到我的頻道。

我的名字是夏洛特，我最近來到台灣打工度假。

今天我要聊聊外國人如何在台灣找到住處。

因為如果你不會說中文，這是不容易的。

這是幾個人曾經問過我的問題，那些人未來計劃到台灣。

所以今天我想給你們一些如何在台灣找到住處的訣竅。

第一個有人問過我的問題是：找房子應該在抵達該國家之前還是之後？

對我來說，答案很簡單。

我曾住過好幾個國家，像是印度、南韓、瑞典，現在則是台灣。

我總是先到該國家，接著才開始找。

因為網路上的照片有時很不真實。

你只能相信房東的片面之詞。

所以對此我會很小心，尤其語言不通的時候。

在你答應任何事之前，一定要先看過實際的環境。

因為我的建議是：先到該國家，到了才能開始找尋你的住處。

我來到台灣前唯一有先做的事，就是加入一些臉書群組。

我開始在臉書上隨意輸入一些東西，像是「台北找室友」「台灣的外國人」「台北的住處」。

就是這種隨意的東西，看看這些分類中有沒有已經存在的群組。

如此一來，藉由加入那些群組，看看裡面有怎樣的房間，有哪些熱門的居住地區，以及價格如何…

我在抵達台灣前就能先了解什麼合理、什麼不合理。

我剛抵達台灣時，在一間青年旅館訂了五晚。

這樣我就能研究一些地方，看一些住處。

也能感受一下這裡不同的居住地區。

思考看看哪些地區自己想住，哪些不想。

所以對我來說，那是探索這個城市很有用的一段時間。

另外，青年旅館有很多其他的旅客和年輕人。

如果你想探索這個城市，但在當地沒有認識的人，這種情況就很完美。

你很容易就能在青年旅館交到一些朋友。

因此第一週我會很建議這麼做。

那是我在每個國家都會做的事。

待在青年旅館，多去了解，適應這個城市，看一些住處。

你可以一直待在那裡，直到你找到完美的住處。

我在這裡做的另一件事情是…在我追蹤的所有臉書群組裡發文，那些和台北住處有關的。

我就寫一小段介紹我自己，我是誰、我來自哪裡、我打算在台灣做什麼。

我也會問他們關於台灣找房有沒有任何建議或訣竅。

藉此我得到了一些建議，一些很棒的網站，讓我能找到住處。

此外，有些人跟我說：「噢，我有個朋友快離開台北了。」

「她的房間會空出來，我可以給妳們彼此的聯絡方式。」

所以，如果你不介意，在臉書群組上發文會是很棒的方式，能獲得一些不錯的選擇。

如果叫我給你一個建議的話，那就是別被房東逼著立刻簽下任何租約。

因為他們有一些策略，你知道的，會讓你感到莫名的壓力。

像是：「如果你現在不決定，別人就會搶走。」

因為他們那天有好多看房的人，其中有人會回電。

所以你只有一小時決定，並簽下租約。

你懂的，他們有好多種方式對你施壓，讓你很快就簽約。

然而，由於這是很大的決定…

尤其你如果像我一樣打算待至少六個月，也許到一年。

你真的應該慢慢來。

萬一那間住處被搶走了，那就認了。

這裡有很多住處。這是個大城市。

不要做任何匆促的決定，只因為你感到有壓力。

一旦你做完所有的研究…

一旦你看過幾間住處，曉得自己喜歡哪一區…

也許你找到工作，知道你會在哪一區工作。

是時候做出決定了。

我覺得在台灣，通常你簽下租約後很快就能搬進新的住處。

因為我知道在比利時，這會花很長的時間。

一旦你簽下租約，通常還需要至少一到兩個月，你才能搬進新的住處。

但是在這裡，很多時候你簽下租約的隔天就能搬進去了。

像我就是這樣。

我在青年旅館住了五晚後，就立刻成功地搬進去。

所以別擔心在你搬到別的地方前，必須在旅舍或青年旅館待到一個月。

這裡的速度是很快的。

基本上這就是我搬到台北時找住處所做的事。

我希望你們從這部影片得到一些有用的資訊。

但你們如果有任何其他的問題，我可能還沒提到的，就在下方的留言問我。

我會盡我所能幫助你們。

因為我知道剛來到一個陌生的國家，是很可怕且嚇人的。

你還不知道任何事或任何人，也不會講該國的語言。

這真的很難，但一切都值得。

因此，別過度害怕。問我任何你們想知道的事。

我希望很快能在下一部影片見到你們。

別忘了按讚和訂閱。再見！