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Hello! Welcome on my channel
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My name is Charlotte and I recently moved to Taiwan on a working holiday
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Today I want to talk about how to find a place to live here in Taiwan as a foreigner
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It's not that easy if you don't talk Chinese (Mandarin)
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and it's a question that several people have asked me, people who are planning to come to Taiwan in the future
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So today I would like to give you some tips on how to find a place to live in Taiwan
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The first question people have asked me is:
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should they start looking before they arrive in the country or afterwards?
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To me, that's pretty simple
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I have lived in several countries before, like India, South-Korea, Sweden and now Taiwan
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I always first go to the country and there I start looking
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Pictures online can be deceiving, and you only can rely on the word of the owner, so I would be careful with that
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Especially if there is a language barrier
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you should definitely check out the place physically first, before you agree on anything
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So my advice: go to the country and only there you can start looking for your apartment
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One thing that I did before coming to Taiwan was just joining some Facebook groups
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I started typing random things on FB like “Roommates in Taipei”, “Expats Taiwan”, “Housing in Taipei”
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Just, all these kind of random things and I saw if there were existing groups in these categories
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by joining those groups and seeing the rooms that were offered in there, neighbourhoods that were popular
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and prices, I could have a good idea, once I arrived in Taiwan, of what was reasonable and what was not
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When I first arrived in Taiwan, I booked a hostel for 5 nights
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That way I could research some places, visit some apartments
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and also get a feel of the different neighbourhoods here
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and make out for myself what neighbourhoods I would like to live in or places I would rather not live
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That was a really useful time for me to explore the city
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hostels have so many other travellers, young people
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so it can be perfect if you want to explore the city and you don't have anyone here
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you can easily make some friends in the hostel
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I would really recommend it for the first week. That's what I would do in every country
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Just staying in a hostel, get to know and get comfortable with the city and visit some apartments
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You can stay there as long as you need to find the perfect apartment
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Something else I did here was to post in all the Facebook groups that I was following
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all the ones related to housing here in Taipei
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I just wrote a small paragraph about myself, who I am, where I'm from, what I'm planning to do here in Taiwan
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I also asked them if they had any advice or tips about where to live here in Taiwan
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That way I got some suggestions, some good websites where I could find accommodation
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Some people where telling me
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“Oh, I have a friend who is leaving Taipei soon and her room will be free. I can get you guys in touch.”
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Posting on that FB group, if you're comfortable with it, can be a really good way to have some good options
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If there's one piece of advice I want to give you
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it's not to be pressured by landowners to sign any contract right away
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They have some tactics to make you feel some kind of pressure like:
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“If you don't do it now, somebody else will take it”, cause they had so many visitors that day
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and somebody will call them back, so you just have one hour to decide and sign the contract
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You know, there's many ways they will make you feel this pressure to sign really fast
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As this is a big decision, especially if like me you're planning to stay for at least six months, maybe one year
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you should really take your time
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If the apartment is gone, so be it! There are many places here, it's a big city
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Don't make any fast decision just because you feel pressured into doing it
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Once you're finished with all of your research, once you have visited apartments
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you know which neighbourhood you like
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maybe you found a job and you know which area you will be working in
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It's time to make a decision.
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I feel like in Taiwan, usually, you can move into a new place pretty fast after you sign a contract
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In Belgium, it can take a long time once you sign the contract
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usually there are still one or two months at least, before you move to the new place
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But here, in many cases you can sign a contract, and almost move in the next day
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For me, that was the case. After my five nights in the hostel, I just moved in right away without a problem
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Don't be worried about being stuck in a guesthouse or hostel for one month
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before you can move in somewhere. It goes really fast here
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So that's basically all I did when moving to Taipei and looking for an apartment.
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I hope you had some useful information in this video
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But if you have any other questions, things that I might not have covered yet
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just ask me in the comments down below and I'll try my best to help as much as I can
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Because I know it can be pretty scary and intimidating at first when you're moving to a new country
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and you don't know anything or anyone yet, you don't speak the language, it can be really though
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But it's worth it! So, don't be too scared. Ask me anything you want to know
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I hope to see you soon in the next video
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Don't forget to like and subscribe. Bye bye!