Buying A Condo In Cebu

[Mr Lee]

First let me start off with the disclaimer, :yes: I do not get even one centavo if anyone buys a condo from our friend Angelo or anyone else and what I do get is the satisfaction of helping a nice young man, a good feeling for helping the economy of the Philippines and the people of the Philippines and an addition good feeling for trying to help another non Filipino such as myself. Next, it would be up to each person exactly how much of a third world country they can deal with in regard to how building is done and if a person had never been to the Philippines, then I would highly suggest that they travel around and get a feel for how things are done and then start looking at what they wish to buy and where they wish to buy it. Next, for the price and the locations and after extensive searching, my wife and I chose Winland Towers to buy a new unit to live in and then since they did not have the size unit we wished to have and in the part of the building we wished to have it, we bought two smaller units and turned them into a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom unit and I will not go into my personal reasons for that except to say we are very happy how things turned out, yet there are many different condos in Cebu but most that we have found would be smaller units and for a higher price than Winland and many are not within walking distance to a lot of things that daily life requires for us, as Winland is.Next member Genius asked how much units cost and since we left Cebu in late May of this year, I can only answer as to what it was back then and I do not know what would be available now, so take what I say as a probability and not a guarantee.When we left there were some 53.26 square meter studio units on some of the higher floors starting at around p2,754,455 and then 2 and 3 bedroom units as follows.2 bedroom 1 bath 75.82 square meter units starting at around p3,921,1942 bedroom 1 bath 76.94 square meter units starting at around p3,979,1193 bedroom 2 bath 127.00 square meter units starting at around p6,512,557 Prices would depend on the floor and some may be at a slightly lower price on lower floors and higher on the higher floors and Winland is 26 stories high with no 13th floorFor up to date prices and availability please contact our friend Angelo Baculi on his cell phone at 09212 739 620 or in the sales office 256-2636 while in Cebu. Please understand that while he does speak English, sometimes on the phone and with our many different accents, he may have trouble understanding us if the connection is not perfect or if we speak too fast or in slang's since slang's are not taught in the Philippines. I personally think a person would do much better in person but try to make an appointment to see him because he is not in the office 7 days a week or every hour of every day.Next what I was told was the recent schemes to buy a unit were, of course cash with some cash discount, or 30% down with 24 equal no interest payments to pay off the balance with post dated checks, or I was told they may now be doing 30% down with 5 years to pay off the balance with post dated checks but I am not positive if that offer was just a special or never actually went through, and then there was rent to own and again I do not know if this is available since I heard it from a friend and not from Angelo but they said that Winland was offering rent to own with an example on the smaller unit of p30,000 for 12 months and then p40,000 for the remaining 48 months and I am pretty sure there also had to be something down or some security which would then be applied to the purchase price, so there should be lots of ways to buy a unit and the builder also offered longer terms with a substantial interest rate back when we bought ours but again that was many years ago and things change over time, so speak to Angelo and I am sure he can tell you what is available and at what deals they will be offering to people.If I left anything out or can clarify anything that I may have not written clearly, since I seem to have that problem at times, :D then please just ask and I would be happy to try to do better on specific questions.

[TheMason]

Wow! They want $138,000 for a 3 bedroom 2 bath, 1354 sq. ft. condo. With the real estate market in the US, especially in Florida where you are, you can pick up 2 houses the same size for the same price.

[Genius]

Wow! They want $138,000 for a 3 bedroom 2 bath, 1354 sq. ft. condo. With the real estate market in the US, especially in Florida where you are, you can pick up 2 houses the same size for the same price.

If it were the Uk, or Dubai or more or less anywhere else I can think of, I d say, I can afford that, why not. But something Mr Lee mentioned earlier on another thread gives me pause for the thought. In the phils, the lack of finance in general, the salaries people earn, make me wonder what sort of resale market exists, if I wanted to dispose of it ?A normal homeowner market for this product, does it exist ? I m sure it will if incomes rise for the average filipino, but for the moment, basically its expats or the very rich filipino. Is that right ? Lack of liquidity in this property market is a concern, even before we get onto the topic of value for money etc Anyone tried to sell ?How has the experience been ?

[Genius]

Just seeing if there is an investment case. For the 2 bed apartment listed at 3.9, *(lets say 4 after closing costs).So 2 bed at 4m peso, what rent can you reasonably expect, to achieve yearly occupancy without continual voids ?What is filipino tax for rentals set at ?

[johnb]

my wife and I bought a house in labangon about five years ago for 750,000 php it was a shabby little concrete house with two bedrooms, we did a small extension adding a room to the lower level and a third bedroom above, plus an external stair case [steel] and a verander, then a complete re paint in and out the cost for the work approx 175,000- 200,000 php, we sold the house for just over 1.5 million we only used the classified adds in Cebu classified newspaper, took about 3 months to sell.John

[Mr Lee]

Wow! They want $138,000 for a 3 bedroom 2 bath, 1354 sq. ft. condo. With the real estate market in the US, especially in Florida where you are, you can pick up 2 houses the same size for the same price.

Yes it does seem expensive but it is also an island and properties on an island with an international airport seem to be in demand. Back when we bought ours those units were going for about 50 to 60% of that so they have gone up in value based on that, yet I have never tried to sell and only bought as a long term thing.

If it were the Uk, or Dubai or more or less anywhere else I can think of, I d say, I can afford that, why not. But something Mr Lee mentioned earlier on another thread gives me pause for the thought. In the phils, the lack of finance in general, the salaries people earn, make me wonder what sort of resale market exists, if I wanted to dispose of it ?A normal homeowner market for this product, does it exist ? I m sure it will if incomes rise for the average filipino, but for the moment, basically its expats or the very rich filipino. Is that right ? Lack of liquidity in this property market is a concern, even before we get onto the topic of value for money etc Anyone tried to sell ?How has the experience been ?

Richer Filipinos have no where else to put their money, so they always seem to put it into condos or land since banks only insure up to p500,000. Also I am over cautious when I warn people because some people think they can buy and then make a profit in a matter of a year or so and I do not feel that is a reasonable assessment of new condos or even new homes but as the price of a new unit goes up, then it would also be easier IMO to sell the second hand unit. The one major problem I see is that as long as there are still new units available in a building then the builders offer in house financing and if we do not wish to do the same then we would have to make it worth while by selling at a lower price. The few people I know who did sell did not lose money but also did not make a lot of money when they sold. I have found that there is always a market at the right price and one friend offered us his and we snapped it up because he was reasonable on his price. I have heard of others that also sold for reasonable prices and I have two friends who are now looking to buy in our building to use for when they retire. Lower price is the key IMO and the 2/1 units would be easier to sell IMO down the road than the 3/2 units because more people are able to afford the lower price in cash.

Just seeing if there is an investment case. For the 2 bed apartment listed at 3.9, *(lets say 4 after closing costs).So 2 bed at 4m peso, what rent can you reasonably expect, to achieve yearly occupancy without continual voids ?What is filipino tax for rentals set at ?

I am probably the wrong one to ask because that is not why we bought ours and I only bought smaller units because that seems that they would be much easier to sell later on for my wife or rent out. Now please do not quote me but I think a 2/1 would rent for around p30,000 or more depending on what you put in it (furnished, kitchen cabinets, A/C, water heater, sliding glass doors, etc) (also used and new furniture is usually pretty cheap) or for less if rented empty. I think it would be best to ask these questions of Angelo to get more exact answers and I think the 50 square meter unit might be easier to rent since it would cost less and therefore rent for less but that is JMHO. Anyway, the way I look at it is that the rental agent and company would get one months rent on a 12 month lease, so if you do it yourself you save that amount, then there is probably one month for taxes and repaint or whatever else expenses and that would leave 10 months or around p300,000. Rental income tax can be quite high and quite complicated to compute Tax chart so I find those things best left to a local accountant and then you can figure out your net which should end up over 5% and the benefit of the property gaining value over time and in todays uncertain times, sometime almost certain income can be a good thing.

[Mr Lee]

I have found in the past that prices are often not up to date and there is no truth in advertising in the Philippines so most pictures will not look like the actual project. link to other new condos no longer works so deleted by me Below is a youtube to show you what Winland looks like. 

Edited June 22, 2010 by Mr. Lee
update link