Is It Worth Building A House Compared To Buying One?

[Tim31]

Hi All!

 

I am planning to visit Cebu in February for the first time, it's only for 3 weeks, but that should give me a good idea of how I would be living. I'm tired of being in my home office working 12 hours a day and living my boring life that is currently non-existent. Life here is very rushed and stressful so I am ready to move as soon as possible. I'm not sure how to go about the Visa side of things, but I'm sure I'll find out more from this site or Google.

 

I've decided to leave London and this expensive life for somewhere warm, and where I can finally take the plunge and get married to a great Filipina that I met last year, we have not physically met, but we video chat every day. I also have staff from the Philippines so it only makes sense.

 

I have a budget of 250,000 GBP and am curious what I could get in terms of building a new home over there? For example this listing on the Sulit website seems reasonable but not exactly as cheap as I thought it would be. By comparison to my small 3 bedroom home in London, it's a lot better, but as I'm not in a rush to buy a home I am open to building it if the savings are adequate. What would the average cost be for building a similar home as in the sulit listing I've provided?

 

I understand I can't buy property until I'm married, so I will be renting until I make the decision to get married.

[Dave Hounddriver]

Is it 'worth it' to build rather than buy?  Great question.  With all ownership problems not considered, my opinion is that it is worth it if you are building a very low end house.  (approx 2m pesos and down).  This is because the market is usually hot for cheap housing and those houses are inflated.  The house you linked to is a higher end house.  My opinion would be to buy rather than build as good deals can be found in the high end houses.  They are harder to sell and you can ususally buy a high end house for less than it would cost you to build it.

 

Let the counter arguments commence.  :cheers:

[scott h]

We built our "dream" home here upon retirement. There are many pro and cons. We were fortunate and already owned land (wife did anyway). The nice thing about the Phil. is you can build anything you want. ALWAYS, ALWAYS expect to go over budget. I suggest you do not hire a contractor to build it for you. I almost guarantee that he will run our of money. We had an architect design the house to our specs and basically became our own contractor,,,ordered materials that the foreman said he needed for the day, handled payroll etc. We anticipated spending about 100K usd. After all the improvements WE added on final cost was about 120K. The house is 2.5 stories (don't ask long story) about 150 square meters. We are on the outskirts of metro manila so the prices might be a bit higher than in the provinces. Very complicated subject due to permits, contractors, material providers etc. Might be easier to answer specific questions. All in all I am very happy that we built.

[MikeB]

That Sulit link is to one of the most expensive gated communities in Cebu. I wouldn't draw any conclusions based on internet prices unless you're determined to pay as much as possible.

[sjp52]

We built our "dream" home here upon retirement. There are many pro and cons. We were fortunate and already owned land (wife did anyway). The nice thing about the Phil. is you can build anything you want. ALWAYS, ALWAYS expect to go over budget. I suggest you do not hire a contractor to build it for you. I almost guarantee that he will run our of money. We had an architect design the house to our specs and basically became our own contractor,,,ordered materials that the foreman said he needed for the day, handled payroll etc. We anticipated spending about 100K usd. After all the improvements WE added on final cost was about 120K. The house is 2.5 stories (don't ask long story) about 150 square meters. We are on the outskirts of metro manila so the prices might be a bit higher than in the provinces. Very complicated subject due to permits, contractors, material providers etc. Might be easier to answer specific questions. All in all I am very happy that we built.

Do you have any pictures of your house. would love to see what 120k gets ya

[Markham]

Is it 'worth it' to build rather than buy?  Great question.  With all ownership problems not considered, my opinion is that it is worth it if you are building a very low end house.  (approx 2m pesos and down).  This is because the market is usually hot for cheap housing and those houses are inflated.  The house you linked to is a higher end house.  My opinion would be to buy rather than build as good deals can be found in the high end houses.  They are harder to sell and you can ususally buy a high end house for less than it would cost you to build it.

 

Let the counter arguments commence.  :cheers:

Come and meet my owner, Dave. A month ago, before we moved-in, he had this house on the market for 10 million. He has now revalued it at 16 million; this despite the fact that no maintenance has been done over the 14 years since it was built. Owners often have unrealistic expectations regarding the value of their property and believe that it automatically rises in value without them needing to do anything - including repainting.

 

However, the real value of this house and lot is just 4.5 million - being the value of the 1500 square metre plot. His problem is that he used to own a 2000 square metre plot on which he built his quite large house. He then sold 500 square metres but forgot to grant himself easements for his drains, electricity and water supplies and his roof - which now overhangs the neighbouring property. His neighbour has told us that he will grant easements to a new owner in exchange for 5 million otherwise he will sue any new owner. It will come to a head fairly soon because the owner has a large (>6 million) bank loan secured by the property which he is unable to service.

[Papa Carl]

All good advice, and I am sure you will get much more. Most of all wait until you are here and look around. Certainly with 250K GBP, you can build a very nice house on some very nice property. But we all have our own ideas of what is nice etc. so as I say wait until yo are here, make no commitments as yet.

 

I don't believe that 3 weeks here on vacation will give you a very accurate idea of things, based on my own experience and others. 

 

So I believe rent for 6 months to a year before deciding to build or buy.

 

Whether you are married or not, you can not own your own place, well you can own the house, (depending on the size) but you can not own the land whether you are married or not. It will go in your wives name, or who ever, but they will be a natural born Filipino. There are ways legally, but not easily or quickly, for example you can inherit property being a foreigner etc.

 

You will also want to be here during construction if you are building, believe me no matter how much you think you trust some one, whether a realative etc. or not, YOU WILL WANT TO BE HERE TO SUPERVISE EVERYTHING.

[brock]

Hi Tim, Welcome to the forum.

Going to another country for 3 weeks holiday will not give you any idea of how life living there is.

And even thinking about building or buying a house is very foolish, You need to be in the Philippines for a lot longer than that, Actually living there full time before you even think about those things.You can own the house but not the land its sitting on, So you have to be 1000% sure of your partner, Do yourself a favor and tell your partner that you will not buy a house there, Rent for a couple of years, Its easy to move house if you rent should you ever need too, Not so easy if you buy.

Go and live and rent for 2 years, That would be my advice. And that is the best advice you will get.

[billygoat993]

I have been here for 5 yrs I am from Canada. Just finished building our house. I prefer to build fro quality reason and cheaper cost but better to just get an Engr to check twice a week during structural part. And get crew to do it but better have a good established relationship with your wife before building. Our Architect ran away with our money and we finished building the house. Construction here is all Concrete different from North America. I agree better to build small house unless you are decided for good to stay here. I built the house at Sta Rosa 20 mins away from Makati and pretty close to everything. Its gated community. 680sqm house in 450 lot area.

[Kiwi-Alan]

Invest the money and you will be able to rent a nice place for the ammount of interest you receive.    Then when things turn to custard you still have your nest egg tucked away offshore.