3-8-13 6:38am Fri. (1)
We went
to see three more condominium units yesterday, brought there by my new Tuesday
evening student, Williams. Actually he was one of our real estate agents who
asked me to tutor him and I invited to join the class at the Beverly. The first
place was on the eleventh floor of a new building along the Han River where it
curves west at the little temple on Shu-Jing Street, 8.8 million for 29 private
ping, another 32 public ping. You have to buy both when you buy a condo unit in
Taiwan! The views were nice, just at the slink of the Han, and the interior
decorating of closets and built in cabinets was part of the deal. We both felt
it was too small. The second place we saw was on the fourteenth floor of a 22
year-old building on the other side of the Taiwan railroad tracks on Tai-Yuan
Road. For 6.8 million, the size was 38 ping with a interior decorated built
Japanese-style dining room. It was noisier than our Beverly unit on the same
road but even worse; right where the cars and cycles come out from the
underpass, across the street from the construction of the new overhead train,
and soon to be started demolition of the underpass to create a flat four lane
continuation of Tai-Yuan Road up and passed the Beverly with Sze-Chi ambulance
sirens and big-shot Taiwanese men on their noisy motorcycles and broken
scooters.
The third
place was the best of three. It was a 32 ping unit on the 11th floor
of another 22 year-old building up Beitun Road passed Song-Zhu Road on the
other side of the tracks. It was in a quiet neighborhood with no open stores
for a few blocks. The entrance was onto a narrow balcony in the building
courtyard. You re-enter the building into a narrow 20’x10’ living room/dining
area. The kitchen, north-facing 10’x6’, has a space for a refrigerator that can
fit nowhere else. The balcony off the kitchen is only 2’x6’; enough for only a
washer and little clothes hanging space. There is a 10’x10’ room to the right
of the kitchen which could be an office. Halfway through the living room, to
the right as you walk in, are two windowless bathrooms, one supposedly a
private bathroom for the 12’x12’ master bedroom beyond it on the north-face in
line with the office and kitchen. The other bathroom, supposedly public, is
before the courtyard facing guest room which is almost the same size as the
master bedroom. The asking price is 6.2 million.
For the
sake of computation of conversion, 3 million NT is about $100,000us.
Of the
seven units we have seen so far, our favorite is still the 5.8 million 32 ping
unit on the third floor off Dong-Shan Road passed Shu-Jing Road. We heard that
there is another interested party. We will probably lose the apartment to them
if they want it because Leona is not ready to put money down. I am deferring to
her.
Even if I think the unit is good, I can’t
force a buy without Leona into it. She has passed on a few good chances in the
past five years including the Beverly in which we now rent. She may blame me
for not buying when the prices were lower then but she has no one to blame but
herself.
Today we are
going to be shown two more units on this side of the river near Dong-Shan road;
we rode past them last evening on our way back from the night market. One is on
the eleventh floor, one is on the fourth. Both are within a block or two of
Dong-Shan Road’s shopping area not far from the 3rd floor unit we
like.
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