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

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

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

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

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'm 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 FB group, if you're comfortable with it, can be a really good way to have some good options

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

Once you're finished with all of your research, once you have visited apartments

you know which neighbourhood you like

maybe you found a job and you know which area you will be working in

It's time to make a decision.

I feel like in Taiwan, usually, you can move into a new place pretty fast after you sign a contract

In Belgium, it can take a long time once you sign the contract

usually there are still one or two months at least, before you move to the new place

But here, in many cases you can sign a contract, and almost move in the next day

For me, that was the case. After my five nights in the hostel, I just moved in right away without a problem

Don't be worried about being stuck in a guesthouse or hostel for one month

before you can move in somewhere. It goes really fast here

So that's basically all I did when moving to Taipei and looking for an apartment.

I hope you had some useful information in this video

But if you have any other questions, things that I might not have covered yet

just ask me in the comments down below and I'll try my best to help as much as I can

Because I know it can be pretty scary and intimidating at first when you're moving to a new country

and you don't know anything or anyone yet, you don't speak the language, it can be really though

But it's worth it! So, don't be too scared. Ask me anything you want to know

I hope to see you soon in the next video

Don't forget to like and subscribe. Bye bye!