Taiwan: Guide to Buying Costs and Procedures

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Last Updated: Nov 16, 2006

Buying costs are moderate in Taiwan

How high are realtors’ and lawyers’ fees in Taiwan? What about other property purchase costs?

Transaction Costs
		Who Pays?
Deed Tax	6.00%	buyer
Stamp Duty	0.10%	buyer
Registration Fees	0.10%	buyer
Notarization Fees	0.01% - 0.1%	buyer
Legal Fees	0.05% - 1%	buyer
Real Estate Agent's Fee	1% - 2% 3% - 4%	buyer seller
Costs paid by buyer	7.26% - 9.3%
Costs paid by seller	3% - 4%
ROUNDTRIP TRANSACTION COSTS	10.26% - 13.3%
See Footnotes Source: Global Property Guide

How difficult is the property purchase process in Taiwan?

Foreign individuals and companies are allowed to buy Taiwanese real estate with government approval, achievable by registering with the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), and conditional on the existence of a reciprocal arrangement allowing Taiwanese to invest in the home country of the individual, or in the place where his company has its head office. Foreigners can only purchase land for personal, investment, and social welfare purposes.

A homebuyer is expected to register with the respective Land Registration Office the change in ownership of a property. A registration certificate lists the transfer date, property size and owner of the land and building and title of the lien, if any. Registration is usually processed through a land notary and it takes one day to change the property title after filing with the Land Registration Office.

The whole process of registering property takes around five days to complete with three procedures.

Footnotes to Transaction Costs Table

The round trip transaction costs include all costs of buying and then re-selling a property – lawyers’ fees, notaries’ fees, registration fees, taxes, agents’ fees, etc.

Currency:
Taiwan uses Taiwan Dollar. Exchange rate is at US$1=TW$33.22551 as of 27th October 2006.

Deed Tax:
Deed tax is levied on the transfer of title of the real estate through sale, except where land value increment tax is in effect. As a result, the deed tax is levied only on buildings and not on land. Deed tax is payable by the buyer at the time of transfer.

Stamp Duty:
Stamp duties are imposed on the sale, exchange, donation, or subdivision of real property executed within the territory of Taiwan at 0.1% of the contract value.

Registration fee:
Transfer of ownership of registered land and contructional improvement is imposed on the registration fee of 0.1% of the official value of the land.

Legal fee:
Transfer of ownership of registered land and contructional improvement is imposed on the registration fee of 0.1% of the official value of the land.

Legal fee:
Negotiable, generally around TWD5,000.

Agent's fee:
According to the “Real Estate Broking Management Act” prepared by Department of Land Administration, Ministry of Interior, the agency fees payable by either the seller or purchaser, or both, cannot exceed 6% of the transacted price for any single property transaction. In practice, the purchaser and seller pay 1% to 2% and 3% to 4% of the transacted price respectively.

Notorization Fees:
Notarization is a certification issued by court. The notarization fees are based on a mandatory sliding scale as follows:

NOTARIZATION FEE
CONSIDERATION (TWD)	FEE
Up to 200,000	1,000
200,001 - 500,000	2,000
500,001 - 1 million	3,000
1,000,001 - 2 million	4,000
2,000,001 - 5 million	5,000
5,000,001 - 10 million	6,000
10,000,001 - 20 million	8,000
20,000,001 - 30 million	10,000
30,000,001 - 40 million	12,000
40,000,001 - 50 million	14,000
50,000,001 - 60 million	15,000
60,000,001 - 70 million	16,000
70,000,001 - 80 million	17,000
80,000,001 - 90 million	18,000
90,000,001 - 100 million	19,000
100,000,001 and above	1,000 for every 10 million

Taiwan - more data and information

How landlord-friendly is the law in Taiwan?