Choosing a place to live (expat)

[KurtVD]

37 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Much nicer than I envisioned.

It looks nice, but it’s certainly not a high value location. It’s old, and one of the buildings next to mine is empty. But no drug addicts or dealers are hanging around, just kids playing outside and people going to and coming from work. I have a local market really close (2 mins. walk) plus a Mercury drugstore, and the SM BF mall is just about a mile away.

In my case, the convenience of not having had to search counts double: I’m in early retirement because of health problems, and many days, I don’t have enough energy to do anything at all...

[earthdome]

That looks like a great deal considering the size and being furnished. Great job. Just shows that nothing beats boots on the ground.

[KurtVD]

8 hours ago, earthdome said:

That looks like a great deal considering the size and being furnished. Great job. Just shows that nothing beats boots on the ground.

Also, big thanks to all of you guys who took the time to read and post - your input made it a lot easier to choose and decide. 

[scott h]

On ‎5‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 12:58 PM, KurtVD said:

city called Muntinlupa.

Just some more info for you. Yesterday we went to the Fiesta Mall in Alabang (upper scale area next to Muntinlupa). There is a new  condo tower that they will be renting as apartments. I picked up a pamphlet and thought I would give you the info for comparison. 

15.65 sm studio 15,000 pesos, 32.56 sm 1 bedroom 30,000 pesos per month. Now these are new, in a new development area, next to one of the best hospitals in the country, 5 min walk to a brand new mall, 2 min drive to the SLEX. The pamphlet says recommended rental cost, so it might be negotiable, who knows lolol. Anyway, more info to throw into your confusion lolol.

[OnMyWay]

14 minutes ago, scott h said:

Fiesta Mall in Alabang

I think you meant Festival Mall?

Is there a new mall over there?

[scott h]

3 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

Festival Mall?

That's the one!!!  Maybe 6 months now, Landmark added on to the existing Festival with a new department store, grocery store and restaurants. Right across from Asian hospital

[Snowy79]

A 15.65 sqm apartment would give most people cabin fever. You probably sit on the toilet while cooking your food. I can see those apartments staying empty for a while

 I lived in a 24 sqm apartment for 3 months and it was like a prison cell. It had a small CR combined shower room. A kitchen about 1.5m long then the bed. To get into the bed you climbed onto it from the foot of the bed as it was up against the wall and had a dividing wall only 3ft high separating it from the kitchen.

[scott h]

56 minutes ago, Snowy79 said:

cabin fever

I agree, but if your a young couple faced with the choice of living at home with your parents, grandma, younger brothers and sisters, plus a maid, I bet it seems like heaven lolol.

There is a department store near us that actually has a display in its furniture section that is set up with walls and everything that shows the layout of the average condo with furniture in it. lol

 

[Dave Hounddriver]

2 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

A 15.65 sqm apartment would give most people cabin fever

There are so many forum members who worked in jobs where their living quarters were less than that and we are here to tell about it.

I suggest that most of us "live" in an area about that size.  I don't mean most of us have tiny houses.  I mean most of us have a favorite spot in the house that they spend the vast majority of their time in and it is not much bigger than that.

I have visited many of the members here and the spot in their houses that they spend the majority of their time is pretty small, even the ones who have huge houses.

Thus I would agree it is nice to have more than 15 sqm I would not discourage someone on a budget from buying/renting/leasing such a place.

1 hour ago, scott h said:

but if your a young couple

It does add a bit of "crampedness" when 2 are sharing that spot.  My opinion changes when I start to think of sharing 15 sqm with another person.  It would be much nicer with 20 or more sqm so there is room for each of the 2 to have their own "space".

[GeoffH]

15 metres is getting pretty small, I agree it's enough to live in but people really want to live in a space that small if they've got other options? 

The condos I recently looked at in CDO were sized at Studio 27m2, 1 Bedroom 35m2 and 2 Bedroom 46m2.

And to be honest even those sizes are smaller than I'd prefer.