MatureDJ wrote:http://finance.yahoo.com/news/taipei-ho ... 56975.html
High school teacher I-Chung Huang said he's hunted in vain for a home in Taipei's soaring market for four years, convinced that owning an apartment could help him find a wife.
"Taiwan's young people have learned one thing recently: If we fight, there's a chance of things changing," said Huang, who is still looking for a bride. "But I'm going to try to persuade my next girlfriend to accept that I may rent and not buy an apartment for now."
I think if you make decent money, like say NT$75,000-90,000+ (US$2,500-3,000+) with no debt or other obligations, you will be considered reasonable catch financially by majority of Taipeians. Apartments in Taipei are extremely expensive, like pushing US$1 mn for a crappy old 3 bed / 2 bath (standard size) apartment in decent location. But first time home buyers can avail of very low interest mortgages with just a 10-20% downpayment. These are not permanently fixed but interest rates in Taiwan have been very low for a long time already.
If you go out to New Taipei City, there is more new stuff and still a few pockets with lower prices. And if you go down to say Taoyuan less than 50 minutes south and fairly near the international airport, property is still a lot cheaper.
If you date and propose to a sweet down to earth type of girl who is flexible and has common sense (they still exist), I think you could convince her to accept renting. Renting in Taipei is really quite cheap. An apartment which would cost US$1 million to buy can be rented indefinitely for around US$700 per month of it's bare (no furnishings).
The reality is, many young people just do not earn that much and cannot afford to by a place on their own. If they are lucky (and they often are), their folks help out with cost or even give them a place though.