Cost of Living in Taipei

Why is milk so expensive? $11+ for a gallon of milk?

@Anonymous: Either you are completely blind or completely moronic. I'm inclined to say both. In the document it CLEARLY states that the average household in Taipei has 1.29 working adults. 2.2 = the figure for the number of adults, period.

Anyway I'm done arguing here. Now the average salary in Taipei is 36k? Lmao. This site is laughable.

if you do a 591 search under 1 bedroom they show a lot of Studios which are not 1 bedroom, its a cheaper studio. There are 1 bedroom apartments in Taipei and they are usually newer buildings like the one I rent in Songshan. Ive lived in both most of my time in Studios now I have a 1 bedroom apartment. Almost every true 1 bedroom apartment I found in Taipei is above 22k some go as high as 40k but most of them are around 22k-29k. Studios can be found cheaply anywhere but then you don't have a seperate bedroom with a door.

I can rent a Studio for 14-18k but a single bedroom costs over 22k in center of Taipei I just checked rent 591.

MONTHLY income is not the same as Household Income. The statistic for Household income include 1-multiple family members. They are not averaged (Not divided by the number in household) That means when you have a Household income of 60-70k in some cases its 2 people's salaries combined to reach 70k.

This website is joke!
Average income in Taipei is around 55K - 60K
40K is probably Taichung.
Nobody is controlling the fake abroad contributions here?

@Administrator

So you are not going to look into the fact that the contribution has dramatically altered the figures within a few months? Comparing the mid-year statistics and the statistics NOW, the rent has sored by 50% and the salary dropped by 50%. Isn't there something fishy there? Have you not received waves of "contribution" that have manipulated the figures?

As for the sources I provided, if the household income is 1.6 million in a city, how on earth can the average salary be only 40k? Even if you take the percentage of female workforce and other incomes into account, that is still ridiculous. 40k*12 is not even a third of that number. Btw the average working population within a household is 1.34 in Taipei City. Not 3.

Finally, according to official statistics, average salary in all of Taiwan is around 50k. Source: https://tradingeconomics.com/taiwan/wages (It's hard to find something in English as you obviously wouldn't be able to read Chinese).

Now a one bedroom costs 26k in Taipei city center? Is this a joke? It's not even 15k.

And again the salary is way higher than 40k in Taipei city. This site is turning into a joke.

#Jack Barnes, It's safer than western countries
People are well educated and well behaved than most Asian countries.
MRT system is very clean and efficient, you have to buy a transit card - 悠遊卡
Their transit card can also use at shops like 7-11 or coffee shops.
I really like this city more than Canada, it's my 7th year in here.

Average income in Taipei is way higher than this number.
About 55K a month.
Some people use different IP to type the fake number try to lower the average, we all know it isn't real!

No the average has been given as 40k to 50k NTD per month for Taipei city only (including bonuses).

Outside the average drops except for Hsinchu.

Average household income is all members of the household and all assets, that's a different thing!

Btw the average annual household income in Taipei City in 2017 was 1.65 million ... 45k my ass.

47,000 Sounds about right for Taipei. Would be great if the average and median Salary could be Higher for Taiwan so people can have a living wage.

IAmFromTaipei you are completely correct. Even the governments own Treasury Dept statistics published in 2018 show Taipei (The Wealthiest City) before TAX to have an Average Income of 48,600. After tax would be slightly lower.

Extreme Bubble in Taiwan= Bad for current buyers or first time home owners.
Soaring house prices only benefits people like me who are selling at this time, I agree its horrible if you're looking to buy in a 2018 market that is overpriced like Taipei.

Taipei, New Taipei City housing prices falling rapidly in last 2 yrs LOL.
Good luck Taiwan Real Estate Bubble investors...Losing so much money sucks.
Meanwhile I'm making a killing in the US, Singapore on my properties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBTUc2xvxeg

80k isnt anything to brag about...its not much although sadly by local standards its a lot. It won't even allow you to buy a house or save for retirement...what a sad state of affairs Taiwan has come to....Once the Top of the Asian Tigers now the LAST. Its pay used to be on par with Singapore only as far back as 1990....Now its effectively Half of Singapore

I'm a supervisor at Zara Taichung, my salary is higher than 80K.

58,000 NTD After Taxes is definitely skewed due to super rich. It goes totally against statistic from the Taiwan Directorage General for 2017

"About 31 percent of all workers in Taiwan earned less than NT$30,000 per month this year, falling for the eighth consecutive year, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS). The data also showed that 18.94 percent of employees earned more than NT$50,000 a month this year,"
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2017/12/03/2003683359

JIN Clearly you're the big idiot who will lose money on real estate Speculation. I'm making money on Real Estate on rising markets and strong profitable rentals.

Asia Tigers Real Estate Bubble Bursting/Cooling off

World’s Worst Property Market Confronts Taiwan’s New President 2016- Falling ever since 2016
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-26/world-s-worst-property-market-confronts-taiwan-s-new-president

Bejing, Shanghai, Shenzhen Prices falling -2018
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-hot-housing-market-begins-to-cool-1516098600

Bangkok Property falling 2018
https://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Asia/Thailand/Price-History

Seoul Property Cooling down
https://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Asia/South-Korea/Price-History

Hong Kong’s home prices may fall by half in next 10 years, Deutsche Bank says
http://www.scmp.com/property/hong-kong-china/article/2097546/hong-kongs-home-prices-may-fall-half-next-10-years-deutsche

Like I said, I personally own Property in Bangkok, Singapore and my family has properties in Taipei. Buying in Taipei now is a BAD INVESTMENT.
When trying to profit off real estate you have to check your ego and pride for your country at the door. Its all business and Taipei and much of Taiwan is a bad investment in 2018 to buy in.

I can clearly tell don't understand the Hongkong, Bangkok or Singapore markets. Singapore and Hongkong have increasing populations and extremely limited land. Bangkok is over valued like Taipei which is why their real estate is dropping fast recently and I see Taipei eventually going the way of Bangkok.

As for Singapore and HK They are also financial centers of the world, a lot of money and trading goes through here. There is also a sizable population with a very high income that can sustain it.. HK is mainly due to Wealthy main land buyers the past 20 yrs. Taipei is not it does not have a population that is open to world trade markets having been more open to Mainland trade alone. Yes Taipei is also a small city but that doesn't account for why New Taipei City is incredibly expensive.

Taipei real estate prices are dropping, I will pick them up cheaper when people like you sell them at a loss. Taiwan needs to do more to boost its local economy and raise wages across the board. Taiwans Rent vs Property price is the highest disparity on the world. Seoul is also in a Bubble currently as well as Beijing. The property is only worth what someone will pay for it.

Yea its pretty clear theres a couple property owners in Taipei trying hard to convince everyone their overinflated apartments are worth more than the long term market, rental prices, and city average wages will dictate. Since Im a dual citizen of US/Taiwan I had the option of buying a house here or US, I definitely chose the US after closely studying the value and profitablilty of both markets. Anyone considering Taipei's prices now is about to lose money.

Anonymous is just some Mainland Chinese who has probably made a bad investment in Taiwan property and regrets it while the PRC and HK keep pumping their markets.

Then hilariously states Taipei has higher wages than Beijing but is poor Taipei.

Taipei ain't poor it's a good city not some polluted overpriced hellhole like a lot of the mainland.

Me I'm enjoying the cheap rent :).

#Katya Tkacisky
Try to apply some foreign exchange student programs in Taipei.
You might get some opportunities after graduated.
I really like here.

Don't listen to the bulkshut real estate speculators posting here tHere is absolutely no lack of apartments in Taiwan and there is not going to be millions immigrants anytime soon.
The housing is too expensive already for many people.

I work 60 hours a week in Moscow, where the salary is the highest in Russia
But my monthly wage is just $600 ( $18K TWD )
My cousin work as Russian/ Mandarin translator in Kaohsiung, she makes 90k TWD there.
How can I move to Taiwan ?

Taipei salary so low, this why I found job in Singapore

Anonymous- The Vacany rate in Taipei is 20%. Its not an opinion its a fact. These tend to be higher end buildings and Luxury apartments. The type of apartments you're talking about are studios or 1-2 bedroom for workers and office people...those do get rented quickly.

Regardless of all these crazy bonuses you're talking about...they are a thing of Taiwan's Past not present. Taiwan used to give crazy bonuses in Stocks etc for Tech companies like Hong Hai, TSMC, Renbao, HTC etc. 20-30 years ago that was common. Now a days and in 2008-2012 you were lucky to get 1 month, some very few people got 3-4 I have a few friends in middle and upper management in these companies so I know and also friends in HR.
The very fact is the Finance Ministry last week just announce that the Average Wage in Taiwan Including ALL BONUSES + Benefits and Salary is only 49,894 NTD. Taipei's is roughly 51,000 NTD Gross when including bonuses etc. They said the median Salary is closer to 34,000 NTD for Taipei.. aruge all you want against the last Facts and Statistics.

Lucia Simpson- Whose starving to death in US and Canada? Are you friggin kidding me lol thats idiotic
Taiwans real estate isn't going to Skyrocket unless you're a Realtor and live in your own dillusional world outside of statistical reality. I know many Realtors or people's whose investments and livelihoods want it to Skyrocket but unless Wages increase its not going to happen.

Beijing's 2nd and 3rd Ring Road are more expensive than Taipei. China has now the manufacturing to back it up. Let me ask you this...whose going to be buying these houses if youre making 30-60K NTD a month? Even if you make 100k NTD a month thats PEANUTS!!! You shouldn't be buying a house worth 15 million NTD to financials dont add up unless your financial future is based solely off a single GAMBLE that property prices will rise and you Wont be under water on your mortage LOL.

I've met lots of high income Taiwanese in Taipei.
You guys should just work harder and stop being like cry baby.
If you don't have a particular skill or certificate, you're income is the same shit even you're in US, Canada or other countries.
At least Taiwan government did great job not letting their people starve to death.
We have so many young homeless people in Canada here, Taiwan seeks a lot better than my country.

#Jeff Hong Kongs real estate price increase has everything to do with no land and huge influx of mainlanders the Ultra wealthy and the poor.
Singapore is due to much higher wages than Taiwan. Taiwans wages are by far the lowest of the 4 Tigers and declining even more. Unless Taiwan does something including the businesses soon Malaysia will catch up in coming years.

Taiwan Real estate currently is WAY over valued. Serious real estate investors know Rental markets are directly tied to the wages of the city/country.
Taiwans wages are so low compared to Singapore, Korea and Hong Kong. Lets not begin comparing to the West or Japan. Taiwan pays peanuts slave wages to its work force sadly. There is already a 20% vacancy rate of houses in Taipei all empty. The current Millenial generation will not be buying more houses as there is a huge population decline so there will be a huge abundance of available property and not enough people living in them. Its not a problem 20 years from now, it will be very obvious in 10 years before anyones Mortgage who buys now runs out. Taipei is a very bad investment to see a return on money in 2018-2030. Taipei was a VERY GOOD investment in 1990s-2004.

Taipei Investment for Real Estate
1990s-2004- Excellent
2004-2008 - Ok
2009-2012- Bad
2013-2018- Extremely Poor Investment- Kiss you money goodbye.
2019-2028. Huge Bubble Crash potential.

members among the four asian tigers. The rent would also catch up along with the property price catching up its asian tigers members such as Hong Kong, Singapore.
So Taipei/New Taipei is a tremendous opportunity available now to invest in property which would sooner or later return with tremendous profit just like what happened in Hong Kong and Singapore in recent few years. Grab while opportunity available or it would be too late

Anonymous is right Basically for my house I just bought in L.A. I rent it out for 89,000 NTD a month + renter pays all utilities or about 3000 USD a month for a house that cost about 18million NTD to buy or 600k USD. In Taipei the houses "supposedly" worth 18million can only rent for 29,000 NTD. Taiwan has one of the worst return on investment for housing real estate in the first world according to many investment stats I follow. On top of that you own no land just concrete. The housing price in Taipei Daan and Dazhi in 2013-2016 exceeded Londons Westminster (Where Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Cathedral are). Now its cooling off to be slightly lower. TPE real estate is entirely an artificial bubble that will pop

According to all the DATA there is no way in hell Taipei NET Salary (after Tax) is 58,700 NTD a month.
News reports today say only 10% of the people in Taiwan earn over NT$61,000 per month.

Here https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3424171 1 it is saying the average salary is around 51k (Before Tax), and here it says https://international.thenewslens.com/article/91779 the median salary is somewhere around 35k, hence it seems to support that only 10% make over 61.

#Anonymous
This is cost of living data, not crying wall.
Stop crying shit and be a man.

The rest of the Asian Tigers are leaving Taiwan Pay in the dust. The Greed of the corporations other than TSMC which pays well is destroying the economy and this generation

Hey, I've received a scholarship to study in Tiawain but they are offering 12k monthly is that okay for the standard of living there although, I'll be based on campus. What are some of the challenges I may face or is that amount manageable since I will only be a student there?

There are actually quite a few dive shops in Taiwan both north and south. @jessica h. That’s good to know! Sounds like they maybe wouldn’t mind having an fluent English speaker (let’s hope). I’ve done a little bit of research and it sounds like they would need to fill out some paperwork on there end. Again, if anyone has any other information about moving to Taiwan that would be appreciated.

Where are you going to teach diving in Taiwan? Not exactly an ideal place for that....perhaps SE Asia is better.

Hello, I’m thinking about moving to Taiwan for a dive instructor job. Would anyone have a guesstamite of the average pay? Any other information about procedures of moving to Taiwan (of course I’ll use google or something too). Any information would be much appreciated.

The tax of stock trading in Taiwan is 0.3 percent which is pretty expensive. There were no tax during president Chen, but burdensome tax was added to the stock exchange during ignorant president Ma which resulted his party, Kuomintang KMT being rejected by Taiwanese through the vote. Hope president Tsai from the democratic party learn from the KMT doom and instantly rectify and remove the mistake of KMT regarding the unnecessary stock trading tax.
Hope president Tsai also remove service fee collected from the trading center for all making of losing stock trading, even paying higher fee for making of winning stock trading is not an issue.
Please remember that government should serve people so government should not add burden to the people in the first place.

I think is many rich people in Taipei make the number higher. Most people dont make 70k.

Btw, in the comment section of every city there are people claming that the salary is too high. I saw quite a few for Paris. Their proof? Personal anecdotes. "EVERYONE I KNOW MAKES 1.2K - 1.5K IN PARIS!!!!!!!".

You are basically one of them.

There are a lot of people in Taiwan get high paid jobs, they just pretend to be poor.
I’ve seen more fancy cars around Taipei city than Canada.
My Taiwanese husband make 75k as high school teacher.
Same issue in my city VANCOUVER, many people just make $2,000 CAD a month ( about 44k TWD ).
Basically the living quality of $2,000 CAD salary in Vancouver is worst than 17K TWD in Taipei.

Personally I make about 220k a month working for an American company but like I said most the people commenting aren't going to be your locals making 30-50k. Been living here nearly 8 years and also see a wide range of salaries and read extensive reports about this.

Lol @ the meaningless arguments below.

First of all, the figures are mostly correct. According to official figures the salary in Taipei is something like 60-70k per month, and the national average is like 50k.

And for those who keep arguing that it should be lower, you do realise that numbeo's figures come from contributors? Contribute away then, it's not like anyone's keeping you from doing so. The webpage clearly states these data are based on 1824 entries from 247 different contributers over the past 18 months, if you disagree with them so much, just submit your own entries.

Anonymous Actually a lot of the pay listed below is lower if you account for the hours they work in Taiwan.
Min Wage is 21k.
Nurses work a lot of OT to make 50k as do office workers.
For a Flight attendant to make 100k its rare and must be putting crazy hours or not located in Taipei. Some choose Macau or HK and get paid more.
Their actually salary based off 40hr week would be worse than what Anonymous writes lol..sadly

No visa waiver has been granted to Taiwan Since president Tsai Ing-wen has been in the office in 2016.

Asean nations don't see sincerity in the new southbound policy initiated by Tsai Ing-wen because unlike other respectable nations which act diplomatically and proficiently to achieve the reciprocal permanent visa waivers, Tsai Ing-wen instead offered a 1 year visa waiver to asean nations and even demanded the receiver nations to offer the reciprocal visa in return brazenly which asean nations took her request as an insult instead and abhorrently ignored her request in response. With this 1 year visa waiver by Tsai Ing-wen, asean nations would understand how bad her deplomatic tactic, kind of no brainer it is, unlike never seen before among all of her predecessors who have secured permanent visa waivers for Taiwan from among the greatest nations of this world so Taiwanese can visit pretty much places in europe and america visa free which I believe Tsai Ing-wen also enjoys herself of her predecessors' effort before, without thinking to continue her predecessors's effort at all, it is absolutely regrettable.

South Korea is a level player of Taiwan in term of economics. South Korea was always behind Taiwan until 2008, thanks to the effort of Tsai Ing-wen's boss as well as her predecessor Chen Shui-bian who took the president office from 2000-2008 who left Taiwan with no energy to push forward in greater economics fight with the then sole competitor South Korea because he created division, corruption and wasting among Taiwan society which has been dragging Taiwan since then until now so Taiwan is far left behind South Korea in term of economics. Taiwan seems to have no way to overtake South Korea anymore since the division, corruption and wasting have been continuing under the present president term.

South Korea is a people nation, meaning the South Korea government have been fighting for the right and privilege of its people, especially in area of visa waive access. So people of the South Korea have the privilege of visa waiver access almost covering to the whole asean nation as well as all of the visa waiver privileges which Taiwan people enjoy in europe and america.
South Korea have reciprocal 3-months visa waivers with these nations, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, etc but Taiwan have no visa waiver with any of these mentioned nations at all which the people of South Korea currently enjoys, how sad it is for the people of Taiwan because the Taiwan government is sleeping instead of fighting for its people for the visa waiver privilege unlike the people-oriented South Korea government.

People of Taiwan is NOT hoping and expecting the government of Tsai Ing-wen to create a miracle of better economics upon the current worsen economics left behind by Chen Shui-bian because of people of Taiwan don't have trust in her sincerity unless she break her tie clean with the rich gang of the accomplices of the corrupt leader Chen Shui-bian and proves as an uncorruptedable leader of Taiwan government.
But at least for the people of Taiwan, Taiwan people have only one expectation and it is also their greatest expectation from the government of Tsai Ing-wen which is to secure and recover the privilege of visa waivers as much as the visa waiver privileges the people of South Korea enjoys nowadays. Or else could Tsai Ing-wen please explain what you can achieve in your president term or drag down Taiwan any further to a corner when your president term is up, worse than the situation of Taiwan during your predecessor Chen Shui-bian was in the office. if you couldn't fulfill even one wish of the people of Taiwan, what the meaning of your existence as a president to the people of Taiwan would be. One achievement of this expectation, the people of Taiwan would remember you forever, but not whatever you're doing now would get Taiwan to nowhere which you shall certainly realize after many years of retirement from your president office.

Creation of visa waiver must be worked out between nations in sincere manner in permanent basis indeed so to secure permanent visa waiver Tsai Ing-wen must send her capable delegations to nations where she would like to establish reciprocal permanent visa waivers with, not kind of using her spokesman from her office broadcasting her message which was insincere and would never be accepted by other nations which Taiwan would like to establish reciprocal permanent visa waivers with.
So Taiwan must be sincere in both cooperation and actions to achieve securing the permanent visa waiver with many nations the soonest possible which the South Korea government have already long secured for its people.

Anonymous is mostly right, 20 years resident of Taipei here.

Min wage is 22k /mth now.
Flight attendants make around 60 or 70k average.

Nurses prob 50k if they can hack the bad hours.

Most of the other figures about right as averages. Hsinchu city has the highest salaried earners in Taiwan due to electronic engineers in huge electronics companies .

The earnings in Taipei are skewed higher partly because of highly paid governnent workers

@Anonymous
Minimum wage is 21,009 so the premise of your figures are wrong.

The figures here in no way factor in how much millionaires and billionaires make. Which billionaire would come up here and contribute the statistics with their monthly income? Don't be silly.