Apartment and Scooter Information  (home)

The following are the statistics from five teachers we placed here summer 2001 (July and Aug.).  We continually update our statistics so that they accurately reflect the cost of living and the quality of our service (for today's exchange rate click here.)

* Teacher 1 met up with 2 teachers who were looking for a third roommate, and chose to share their apartment without looking at other places.

**  Most landlords we worked with this summer were asking for 2 months rent as refundable damage deposit.  All landlords allowed our teachers to stagger their payment of this large deposit over two months.

***This teacher chose an apartment in downtown Kaohsiung, and commutes 30 minutes by train to the school in a smaller town outside Kaohsiung.

^  We found a great rental agent this summer who charges no fee, and finds decent furnished apartments in Kaohsiung proper.  Most teachers chose these apartments.  We occasionally use another agent who charges 2000 nt finders fee.

^^ The cost of scooters has been on the rise as teachers want better scooters now then they did a couple of years ago.  (A lot of teachers want a 125cc scooter so that they can drive out of town on the bike). We have a long relationship with a used scooter shop on Chung Shan Rd. near our office.  We have bought more than 20 scooters from this small shop, because the service is excellent:  repairs are fast and very reasonable, licensing paperwork is prompt and accurate, the selection is good, and the prices are good for great, reliable bikes.

Analysis

In our experience teachers who choose to live with roommates save more money.  The average rent paid by folks without roommates is around twice as much as those who have roommates, also roommates split the cost of the damage deposit, utilities and the cost of furniture and/or appliances.  The cost for a large, furnished three bedroom apartment is usually around 20,000 nt or around $330 Cnd. / $220  USD per person. 

More and more teachers are using rental agents to find apartments.  This is mostly because Taiwan Teachers has found  agents that are cheap (0 - 2000 nt.) and have many apartments, some of which can be viewed on-line.  We still show our teachers apartments which come available from teachers who are finishing their contracts, and through our other contacts, but you will probably also see a few with our agents.  In the end the choice is yours. 

No matter what arrangements we make for you, there are start-up costs when moving to another country.  These costs can be made easier to manage by getting an advance from the school you pick (we guarantee you can get an advance, and sometimes act as your guarantor).  Usually our teachers arrange to pay the money back over a couple of months.  Taiwan-Teachers is about getting you set up quickly so that you can cover your moving costs and get at least ten months of bankable income out of your year here. As you can see in the teachers income section, once you have covered your costs you can begin to save substantial money.

Copyright 2001 Taiwan-Teachers; by Joshua Lawrence

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