Housing Laws

[Mike_56]

 

There are many properties such as apartments, detached homes, luxurious houses, ect that are being rented out to foreign tourists all over the country. Are they real estate objests of philippines citizens that they have in excess, so they use them to earn money, or who do they belong to? What kind of housing laws exist in the country and where  do nationals get houses, apartments, lots from:  inherit from parents, purchase, being granted free by the goverment, take/occupy informally? There are many homeless/illegal squatters; I was wondering who these people are, what their status is; whether they voluntarily abandoned their homes and whether they are owed any help by the government.

[Jack Peterson]

 

 

There are many properties such as apartments, detached homes, luxurious houses, ect that are being rented out to foreign tourists all over the country. Are they real estate objests of philippines citizens that they have in excess, so they use them to earn money, or who do they belong to? What kind of housing laws exist in the country and where  do nationals get houses, apartments, lots from:  inherit from parents, purchase, being granted free by the goverment, take/occupy informally? There are many homeless/illegal squatters; I was wondering who these people are, what their status is; whether they voluntarily abandoned their homes and whether they are owed any help by the government.

 

Phew My Friend a Minefield of a Topic :thumbsup: . Can't answer it all in one go but for now, The PI Government do naff all for it's people, apart from what they call affordable Housing but one has to ask Affordable to who? Many House that are rented by Foreigners are the Homes of OFW's or Absent Foreigners  and is a cash earner for them but Normally these House are Lived in by family members and usually for no rent but they are there as Caretakers.

One thing for sure here, Land is money and if it has a House on it can be Profitable if you can get the rents paid but to answer you just now. All land will be owned by Someone and is usually causing a problem somewhere.

BTW land Disputes, it is said, is the Number One Motive for murder in a Family.

 

Just my Bit, No doubt others will chip in with their bit.

 

Jack :)

[scott h]

Hi mike, welcome the forum. In my experience and observation this is what I think

 

inherit from parents--#1 and the most common I believe. You will also notice multi generational families in one property. it is also very common to see many (small) houses on one lot belonging to uncles, nephews and such. My wife refers to them as "compounds"

 

purchase-- I think is #2. the current fad seems to be OFW's buying condos near where their families live for when they visit or for investments.

 

 being granted free by the government--usually only after natural disasters, or in the case of Metro Manila they try to clear out the squatters you refer to and try to move the "informal settlers" out of the city.

 

 take/occupy informally---I don't see this often in my area, if you are referring to someone sees an empty building and just moves in. 

 

There are many homeless/illegal squatters----Seen all over in my area. (metro manila) along rivers, under bridges etc.

 

Can I ask why you are interested in the subject?

[chris49]

There are many homeless/illegal squatters; I was wondering who these people are, what their status is; whether they voluntarily abandoned their homes and whether they are owed any help by the government.

 

 

This has been off and on a hot topic in the Metro Manila area since I arrived here 10 years ago.

 

There is contract work available around Manila and QC.  Or low paid work, under minimum wage, like laborer, work in small shops, carinderia's,  work in Malls under short contract.  Just roughly Manila and QC has a population of around 20 million. It is rumored that there are 8 million squatters and that most of them are not included in the 20 million. Some of these squatters were born into poverty, and some came from remote provinces looking for work. In most cases they have some family base in the province, but perhaps not able to go there, maybe once every few years. They have left the family, even newborn kids behind, seeking employment and will typically remit a small amount monthly back home. This would not work if they paid any form of rent, so they migrate to squatter areas, usually joining with people from the same province who speak the same language, other than Tagalog.

 

My take is that there is low paying work available and this is the attraction, however exploitative that is, is a national human tragedy. And it's addressed in another post today.

 

EDIT: there are resettlement projects offered by the govt, even offering small pieces of land or very rudimentary row houses. These have been offered out of the Metro area, and quite frequently there has been rioting over squatters forced to move. Moved to areas where there's no employment, so perhaps they will try to move to other squatter areas as the problem is just shifted to other areas.

Edited December 8, 2015 by chris49

[chris49]

There are many properties such as apartments, detached homes, luxurious houses, ect that are being rented out to foreign tourists all over the country. Are they real estate objests of philippines citizens that they have in excess, so they use them to earn money, or who do they belong to?

 

Big corporations or ultra wealthy Filipiino's. As you noted there is a lot of poverty, but there is wealth here also.

 

OFW built homes, which I see a lot of here in Nth Luzon, are not rented out. Usually occupied by family appointed custodians. Properties are almost never left vacant anywhere in the country.

[Jack Peterson]

Properties are almost never left vacant anywhere in the country.

 

 

Not even unfinished ones, My wife told me on Saturday that the build where her nephew works, they are building 4 Apartments,

 2 of them have squatters already from the river Bank, No windows no Doors not anything

 

I guess needs must. 

[scott h]

Properties are almost never left vacant anywhere in the country.

 

We are going to have to disagree slightly on this one Chris. Bearing in mind there are HUGE regional differences. My BIL moved to the states to be with his daughters and left his home in a middle class sub-division vacant. Now they are short of money but when I suggested that we rent it, hire a guy to keep an eye on it and send them the money.........NO WAY was the reply.

 

On our little street (I live very urban) there is a house vacant, owners are OFW's the bother lives next door and only check on it every so often. My other BIL works for the DFA and is deployed for 6 years at a time, he leaves his house vacant, doesn't rent it out. There is a very large nice house (dirty and unkempt) just down the main street that's been vacant the whole 3 years I have been here. Add to that the HUGE mansions (I mean really big, they would be country manor houses in our home countries) that (from what I have been told) the kids all moved overseas and once the folks died none of them came back, they are all abandoned and in poor shape. Believe it or not, there is even a huge house that Marcos use to take a boat from Malacanang, motor along Manila bay and stay at all the time, now vacant and in ruins. I bet these large places are all tied up in inheritance disputes, but there they sit.

 

Now these are just my observations in my little corner on one of the 7000 plus islands :hystery:  :tiphat:  :cheersty:

[chris49]

Believe it or not, there is even a huge house that Marcos use to take a boat from Malacanang, motor along Manila bay and stay at all the time, now vacant and in ruins. I bet these large places are all tied up in inheritance disputes, but there they sit.

The Marcos place has been in the news previously.

Copy on the vacant properties Scott. I was going to say in sub divisions it might be possible.

I have also seen abandoned properties with sign "This Property is Under Litigation", citing the case number. And I have looked at such places and seen occupants...squatters?

[Dave Hounddriver]

where  do nationals get houses, apartments, lots from:

 

A first house is generally purchased with a loan from pagibig which almost any filipino with a half decent job can qualify for.  When that is paid for they can sell that house and use the money for a down payment on a house with conventional bank financing.

[Thomas]

There are many properties such as apartments, detached homes, luxurious houses, ect that are being rented out to foreign tourists all over the country.

I suppouse not in "hot" areas, but some can rent out, because they want to sell but have problem finding buyer.