Building Plans And Costs For The New Arrival

[Ynot]

A number of us have plans to settle in the Philippines, and some of us will rent whilst others will build. 

 

Now there is plenty of advice in the forum about the advantages of renting over buying, not being able to own the property in your own name, not to mention that once you have built a place, its difficult to move if the neighbours love of music is not to your liking.   Nevertheless, some of us will still choose to build a place albeit it will not be in our own name.

 

I for one intend to build a place knowing that i can not own the land.  Because when  I build it will be with the one I love.

 

So although I will be going against the good advice of others who say rent not buy, I thought it would be a good idea if those of you who have already built, passed on your building plans and costs so that those of us who intend to build could posssibly benefit from choices made before with an idea of what it would cost us when we proceed to build.

 

Now there are some out there who would say,"but everyone is different" and we have different tastes and different budgets which is true, but we would all benefit from those who have gone before us and gone through the building experience.  We may see a plan and a price that falls within our budget and may choose to run with that plan, or we may choose to tweak it a little to suit our own taste.

 

For me personally my budget for a house is modest, not including the land I would be willing to spend up to 1.5 million peso. I have seen a few places that have cost around the 800,000 peso mark and thought they were good.  So if you are willing maybe post your plans and a pic or two of the house and the cost.  As I have said, we are all different and we all have different budgets, so a variety of plans and pics and cost of build would be benefical to all. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

I thought it would be a good idea if those of you who have already built, passed on your building plans and costs

 

I would not suggest that anyone do what I did, (as in buy property in my Yvonne's name).  I cannot even tell you for sure that it will work long term for me, so how could I encourage others to do it?  So plans? Whatever the wife wants because she owns the place.  Cost?  Whatever you can afford to lose.

 

Death and taxes are forever.  Love and marriage may come from heaven but its a daily struggle right here on earth.  I have no serious relationship problems at this time, but every time we have any kind of an argument I have to remind myself of all the people I have met who lost their house and property in a relationship split.  They FAR outnumber the people who made out OK in a relationship split.  It means Yvonne wins more arguments now than she won when we were renting.  :1 (103):

 

Why do I sound negative on this?  Because if you have to ask what it will cost then I see a red flag.  That flag is saying:  CAUTION, can you afford to walk away from the house and property if things go bad?  If you are concerned as to the cost then it seems like the answer to that would be no.

 

Now that I have had my little rant  :hystery: and hopefully discouraged anyone who is not as foolhardy as I am.  I spent 750,000 pesos for the cheapest, tiniest row house in a subdivision that you can get.  Its about 18 sm on each floor so only the size of 2 hotel rooms.  The cost of the building and lot was only 600K but that only bought 4 walls, concrete floor and a roof.  Its generally another 100 or 200K to make it liveable. I will probably spend another 250K before I am totally happy with it but that's a total of 1M pesos which is the same as renting for about 100 months.

 

It will hurt if I have to walk away from this, but it will hurt my pride more than anything.  I will survive just fine if I have to walk away because I owe nothing on this place.  And that's my  2 pesos worth   :tiphat:

[chris49]

You love the woman, you  make provisions for her future security. Since putting cash in her name has some negatives attached, a house of her own is an excellent provision.

 

I did it, got burned, and I did it again.

 

You live there rent free for the duration of your life, why not? YNOT?

 

There is a provision on the land title which may be added. It states that the property cannot be sold without your consent.

[stevewool]

A great idea , we have just built a place , its not mine but one day my wife may live there,

We built it for when we get out there in the Phils,

We knocked down the family house and started to build the new house between another 2 sisters, i knew it was a mistake but i had there word that they would share , but it never happened,

So the house came down to me and the wife paying for it all,

At first i was angry and i will never forget too, but with the bills at just under the 1 million and its not finnish yet i am starting to mellow,

Emma my wife works very hard here in England and she has paid more then have of this herself in savings,

We still plan to live there some time , the ground floor is for her dad and the first floor is all ours, thats the bit that needs everything doing, then there is a roof deck,

Here are some pictures,

[Old55]

Ynot, I respect you are open eyed and acknowledge the risk but still plan on building. For sure that risk is not for everyone. :tiphat:

I don't have architectural plans of a home in your budget to share. Maybe someone here will be able to help.

My family went through the building permit office to choose a trusted architect with a proven track record. A family member spent every minute on the job site during construction and was the one who bought any supplies used. The construction came in budget without any major surprises. 

 

A great idea , we have just built a place , its not mine but one day my wife may live there,

We built it for when we get out there in the Phils,

We knocked down the family house and started to build the new house between another 2 sisters, i knew it was a mistake but i had there word that they would share , but it never happened,

So the house came down to me and the wife paying for it all,

At first i was angry and i will never forget too, but with the bills at just under the 1 million and its not finnish yet i am starting to mellow,

Emma my wife works very hard here in England and she has paid more then have of this herself in savings,

We still plan to live there some time , the ground floor is for her dad and the first floor is all ours, thats the bit that needs everything doing, then there is a roof deck,

Here are some pictures,

10394115_896401950376703_3395115515884889186_n.jpg10514644_905591252791106_425275567182606117_n.jpg10968386_10206103203726940_6015062904830151398_n8.jpg10982346_10204938673059664_5210269221829767577_n.jpg10600384_10206119530615102_1782432195571546236_n.jpg11074104_10206462108459334_8447338430915532904_n.jpg11094232_10206683679078891_803651280_n.jpg961514_10206587344790594_222310844_n.jpg11104065_10206461217397488_6634920_n.jpg

 

Steve could you please post a link to your helpful build topic?

Edited February 25, 2016 by Old55

[Dave Hounddriver]

I did it, got burned, and I did it again.

 

 

There is a provision on the land title which may be added. It states that the property cannot be sold without your consent.

 

I know 3 foreigners who had this provision and yet the wife sold the house without their consent  while they were out of the country.  Interestingly enough, at least one of them ended up marrying another filipina wife and buying a house in her name.  Too much money I guess.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Dave Hounddriver

[mogo51]

A great idea , we have just built a place , its not mine but one day my wife may live there,

We built it for when we get out there in the Phils,

We knocked down the family house and started to build the new house between another 2 sisters, i knew it was a mistake but i had there word that they would share , but it never happened,

So the house came down to me and the wife paying for it all,

At first i was angry and i will never forget too, but with the bills at just under the 1 million and its not finnish yet i am starting to mellow,

Emma my wife works very hard here in England and she has paid more then have of this herself in savings,

We still plan to live there some time , the ground floor is for her dad and the first floor is all ours, thats the bit that needs everything doing, then there is a roof deck,

Here are some pictures,

10394115_896401950376703_3395115515884889186_n.jpg10514644_905591252791106_425275567182606117_n.jpg10968386_10206103203726940_6015062904830151398_n8.jpg10982346_10204938673059664_5210269221829767577_n.jpg10600384_10206119530615102_1782432195571546236_n.jpg11074104_10206462108459334_8447338430915532904_n.jpg11094232_10206683679078891_803651280_n.jpg961514_10206587344790594_222310844_n.jpg11104065_10206461217397488_6634920_n.jpg

 

 

Well good luck, I hope that all works out.  The house looks great, you have done a good job.

[mogo51]

I think we will still be having these discussions for as long as we are all around and then some.

No matter what advice is given, it will keep happening and guys will get burned.

'Why can't we find a Filipono woman wish a sh..t load and give it a try ourselves!

[robert k]

I used to be in the building trades and I have seen a lot of different builds to gain the same effects. I say sit down with an engineer and build it the way you want. If you have an idea that is too far from reality he ought to stop you. If it's doable, he ought to be able to tell you how it will go.

 

I saw something I thought interesting in a West African apartment where the shower room was separate from the CR with lavatory which keeps the floor dry in the CR.

 

I was thinking if you had a separate shower, separate CR w/lavatory but without a shower and a full CR (master bath) with shower you ought to have enough facilities if the relative hordes fell upon you for a visit, or even worse...teenagers.

 

I would take into account that most plumbing fixtures aren't made to last in the Philippines. Some people import them from their native land. I would probably just make sure they were easy to replace.

 

Floor plan? You have not said what you are looking for, one story or two? I would prefer one story myself, especially if you have very limited sq meters as a staircase takes floor space from both floors. I like open floor plan, the more open the better because walls take up space and often stop you from making the best use of the space you have. If you need bedrooms, yours, kids/visitors, maids cubby (comfortable), build what you need. Your bedroom could be CHB but a second could be made with temporary movable partitions.

 

A second story could have an external staircase, which would be handy if you ever needed to rent it out as an apartment / boarding house. Til then it could be storage, that could also be accessed from inside via a ladder in a corner through a trap door in the ceiling for when it rains which would only cost you a meter of space on the bottom floor if that much.

 

Rationalize the building plan. If you plan on a metal roof with metal joists and there is going to be a lot of cut off waste from joists and sheet metal maybe you could get a few more sq meters of floor cheaply by planning to just trim everything to a standard length. The reverse is also true, sometimes it can be a lot cheaper to give up a little space. Be flexible. Good luck whatever you do.

Edited February 25, 2016 by robert k

[Dave Hounddriver]

keeps the floor dry in the CR.

 

So long as people are gonna sit on the toilet and wash with a ladle full of water instead of (or in addition to) using tp the floor is going to be wet.