Seal Co-living
Written for people who live here. What a month costs, where to spend a Saturday and how co-living works — every story lists its sources and the date it was checked.
Money & getting around
Monthly living costs in Taipei in 2026: a bed in a furnished shared room, the utilities fee, a TPASS monthly pass and National Health Insurance, plus the costs you need to prepare before moving in. Every official figure comes with a source.
8 min read
Weekend day-outs
Living in Xinyi District, you don't need to go far for the weekend. Starting from Taipei City Hall MRT Station, you can link up Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, Four Four South Village, Xiangshan Trail and the Taipei 101 Observatory on foot and by YouBike, for almost zero MRT fare in a day.
5 min read
Weekend day-outs
Living in Gongguan, you're just a few stops north on the Songshan-Xindian Line from old Taipei neighborhoods like Wanhua and Dadaocheng. Watch the ceremonial guard performance at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall in the morning, walk through Longshan Temple at midday, stroll Dihua Street in the afternoon, catch the sunset at Dadaocheng Wharf in the evening, and finish with dinner at Ningxia Night Market before heading straight home on one train.
5 min read
Weekend day-outs
Living around Houshanpi in Nangang, you can head south into the hills on weekends and north to the night market in the evening. Visit the zoo in the morning, take the Maokong Gondola up for tea at midday, come back down to Songshan Ciyou Temple and Raohe Night Market in the evening, then cross the Rainbow Bridge and walk home to Houshanpi.
5 min read
Weekend day-outs
Starting from Kunyang Station at the eastern end of the Bannan Line, you only need to transfer once at Taipei Main Station to reach Shilin. Spend the morning at the National Palace Museum, the afternoon at the Shilin Official Residence, and the evening at Shilin Night Market — it's mostly indoors, so it still works on a rainy weekend.
5 min read
Weekend day-outs
Starting from Songshan Station at the end of the Green Line, fit both Beitou and Tamsui into one day: spend the morning at Beitou Library, the Hot Spring Museum and Thermal Valley, the afternoon on Tamsui Old Street and at Fort San Domingo, then catch the sunset at Fisherman's Wharf in the evening.
5 min read
Co-living guides By Seal Co-living
Short-term rentals in Taipei start at 30 days, but what do one, three or six months actually cost? This guide sets out Seal Co-living's monthly rent by lease length with worked-out totals, compares 591, Airbnb, long-stay hotel plans and co-living, and points to the official sources on the Rental Housing Act, hotel registration and visa-free stays.
18 min read
Co-living guides By Seal Co-living
From contracts, fees, deposits, room types to viewings, here are the 10 things you should clarify before choosing a share house in Taipei, with a point-by-point look at how Seal Co-living currently handles each one.
5 min read
Co-living guides By Seal Co-living
Using official definitions and actual price registration data, we compare common types of housing in Taipei: rooms with shared bathroom in a shared flat, en-suite rooms in a shared flat, self-contained studios, co-living and monthly rental apartments. We also explain why dorm beds for travellers are not suited to living long term, and help you choose by budget, privacy and lease length.
6 min read
Co-living guides By Seal Co-living
A round-up of the issues foreigners most often get stuck on when renting in Taipei: agent's fees, deposits, lease language, the address on your ARC (Alien Resident Certificate), ending a lease early and your protection when you rent a sublet. With sources for the official rules, what Seal Co-living can confirm for now, and the questions to ask at a viewing.
7 min read
Co-living guides By Seal Co-living
Seal Co-living has 7 houses in Taipei's Xinyi, Nangang, and Zhongzheng districts. Using the pricing and amenities published on our website, this article explains how our fees are calculated, the minimum lease length, what's in each room, the activities housemates have organized, and honestly, who we might not be a good fit for.
5 min read
Co-living guides By Seal Co-living
Living with housemates for the first time? Here's a first-week checklist covering what to pack when you move, the three things to do on day one, how to get along with housemates, shared-space etiquette, and a reminder for foreign residents about registering your residence address.
5 min read
Settling in
Most people get from Taoyuan Airport into Taipei on the Airport MRT, and the express train reaches Taipei Main Station in about 37 to 39 minutes for NT$160. This guide explains how the express and commuter trains differ, whether your EasyCard or TPASS works, how to catch a bus or a taxi, and what to do if you land late at night or early in the morning. It also shows how to change to the Taipei MRT for each of our houses.
14 min read
Settling in
Everything for your first month in Taipei, in the order you'll need it. Get a phone number and an EasyCard the day you land. On a resident visa, apply for your ARC within 30 days, counting from the day after you arrive, and update the address within 30 days of any move. Then open a bank account. Health insurance starts the day you're hired, or once you've lived here for 6 months. At the end you'll find where to follow typhoon and earthquake news, and which emergency numbers to save.
15 min read
Settling in
On a resident visa, you have 30 days from the day after you arrive to apply for an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC). If you move house in Taiwan, you have 30 days to update the address. This guide covers the documents, service centers, fees and online applications, plus the different rules for Hong Kong and Macao residents and working holiday visas, with sources from the National Immigration Agency and the Bureau of Consular Affairs.
15 min read
Settling in
Just arrived in Taiwan and need a phone number? We explain how tourist SIMs, regular prepaid SIMs and monthly plans differ, which IDs the three carriers ask for, what you can get without an ARC and what to check before choosing an eSIM. We also look at why banks and mobile payment apps need a number that can receive texts and is registered in your own name.
13 min read
Settling in
Bank accounts and payments are where many newcomers to Taiwan get stuck. Based on notices from the Financial Supervisory Commission, the Bankers Association, the National Immigration Agency and Chunghwa Post, we cover the documents you need, what to do without an ARC, why banks ask what you're doing in Taiwan, ATM transfers and paying rent, mobile payments, the EasyCard, overseas cards and sending money abroad.
15 min read
Settling in
Before you see a doctor in Taipei as a foreigner, find out whether you can join National Health Insurance (NHI) and when it starts. ARC holders with a job are covered from their first day at work; other ARC holders wait until they've lived here for 6 months. Working holiday makers on visitor visas and visa-free visitors can't join at all. We also cover copayments, registration and picking up medicine, the ER and 119, and official help lines in English, all with sources.
17 min read
Money & getting around
No EasyCard on your first day? A credit card still gets you through the MRT gates. We cover where to buy an EasyCard, how the last train works, which rides TPASS covers, why you tap twice on the bus and how to rent a YouBike without a Taiwanese number, all the way to calling a taxi and what stops running in a typhoon. Every point comes with an official source.
18 min read
Settling in
In Taipei, household garbage doesn't go in a bin on the street. You wait for the garbage truck and hand it to the crew yourself, and general waste has to be in an official city garbage bag. We cover how to look up truck times, where to buy the bags, which days recycling is collected, why food waste now goes in a single bin, and how bulky waste pickups and fines work.
16 min read
Co-living guides By Seal Co-living
NTUST has no dorm places for exchange students, and NTU and NTNU don't guarantee a bed either, so exchange students, Mandarin learners and summer interns often have to find a room off campus. This guide covers each university's dorm rules, when to start looking, how long to sign for a semester or a summer, the documents to have ready and what to check on a video viewing, with links to each university's official pages.
15 min read
Co-living guides By Seal Co-living
Coming to Taipei on a working holiday visa? You don't have to lock in a year-long lease before you leave. We go through it in the order it happens: what you can do before you fly, your first few days after landing, move-in costs, the rental scams that 165 (Taiwan's anti-fraud hotline) warns about, and whether you need an ARC. Sources include the Bureau of Consular Affairs, the National Immigration Agency and the relevant laws.
17 min read
Co-living guides By Seal Co-living
591, Taiwan's rental listing site, is in Chinese. This guide puts its search filters and listing terms (雅房, 分租套房, 押金, 最短租期, 屋主直租) into plain-English tables, with a Chinese message you can send a landlord, what to ask at a viewing, ways to search outside 591, and the 165 anti-fraud advice to remember before you transfer money.
16 min read
Co-living guides By Seal Co-living
Taiwan's rules do not require a guarantor to rent a home, and the deposit is capped at 2 months' rent. This guide covers how to negotiate when a landlord asks for a guarantor, what to check in a Chinese lease (review period, deposit, early termination, electricity, repairs, banned clauses), where to find the official English template, and who to call in a dispute, with legal sources.
16 min read
Co-living guides By Seal Co-living
NTU's Mandarin centers state that language students must rent off campus, and the accommodation pages of NTNU's Mandarin Training Center list only off-campus places. NCCU has a few dorm beds, given out by lottery. This guide covers the terms at four centers, the dorm situation, the kinds of off-campus housing, the MRT stations for each school and what to do when a 3-month term meets a one-year lease, with links to each center's official pages.
14 min read
Co-living guides By Seal Co-living
Co-living in Taipei doesn't always mean a room of your own; many places are shared rooms with several beds. This guide compares shared and private rooms on privacy, storage, daily rhythm, noise and cost, says plainly who settles in and who doesn't, and lists what to ask at the viewing.
14 min read
Settling in
Choosing an area starts with where you have to be every day, then the MRT line, your budget and daily needs. This guide covers where the Bannan, Songshan-Xindian and Tamsui-Xinyi lines go, who Gongguan and Daan, Xinyi, Nangang, Zhongshan, Songshan, and Shilin and Tianmu suit, and how to judge night-time safety yourself from official data.
13 min read
Settling in
Moving from Japan to Taipei means getting used to the room itself all over again. The air is humid all year, there is no bathroom dryer, many studios have no kitchen, the shower and toilet share one wet space, and nobody has heating in winter. For each one you get the reason and what to do about it, with official sources for flushing toilet paper, water heater and gas safety, how electricity is billed, and voltage for Japanese appliances.
15 min read
Co-living guides By Seal Co-living
Co-living in Taipei means renting a room or a bed and sharing the living room, kitchen and bathrooms with housemates, usually with furniture and internet included and an operator in charge. This guide explains how it differs from other room types, hostels and monthly apartments, the kinds of co-living in Taipei with what operators state on their websites, what to compare, and who it suits.
12 min read
Settling in
Taiwan has no jeonse. Almost every home is rented by the month and the deposit is capped at 2 months' rent. Written for people who have rented in Korea, this covers how long leases usually run, the cap on early-termination penalties, which Korean room types Taiwanese ones are closest to, how the management fee and electricity are charged, winters without underfloor heating, damp, and how to find a room and avoid scams, with legal and official sources.
14 min read
Stories marked “Chinese” are not translated yet and open the Chinese page. Read times are estimated from the length of the text.
Seal Co-living
7 furnished shared houses. From NT$8,000 per bed per month on a 12-month lease, minimum lease 30 days.1