Ideal place where to buy lot in the Philippines?

[Crispy]

1 hour ago, Freebie said:

The traffic from Manila to Tagaytay starts at about 7am and just continues non stop. Perhaps even worse on public holidays.

Took me and some friends 2 hours from Nuvali the last public holiday.

We wont do it again. Was just a long slow frustrating crawl. for all of the 20kms that it is. ...100s of cars wasting gas... " Arent we  all having a lovely time.. are we there yet "

Mactan to Mandaue City (just over the bridge) is 6 to 8klms, depending where you start and is supposed to take 20 minutes as the crow flies, but in reality it too is a 2 hour journey. They've opened the super bridge to Cordova in the south now, which has a toll on it, however you have to weave your way through narrow crowded streets to get to the new bridge entry point, making that in itself a time adder to your journey. With a fourth bridge on its way to Mactan on the northern part that will only make the island much more crowded and an urban jungle than it already is. To me, it's not a tropical paradise and there are a limited number of public beaches, they are virtually all private these days. I gave up on Mactan and walked away from my house there years ago for these very reasons.

[Old55]

1 hour ago, Crispy said:

Mactan to Mandaue City (just over the bridge) is 6 to 8klms, depending where you start and is supposed to take 20 minutes as the crow flies, but in reality it too is a 2 hour journey. They've opened the super bridge to Cordova in the south now, which has a toll on it, however you have to weave your way through narrow crowded streets to get to the new bridge entry point, making that in itself a time adder to your journey. With a fourth bridge on its way to Mactan on the northern part that will only make the island much more crowded and an urban jungle than it already is. To me, it's not a tropical paradise and there are a limited number of public beaches, they are virtually all private these days. I gave up on Mactan and walked away from my house there years ago for these very reasons.

I completely agree Crispy. I would not chose to live there.

The extremely narrow congested lanes on Lapu Lapu going to the Cordova bridge make it's usefulness questionable. The 90 Peso fee doesn't help and the onramp leading to SRP is only northbound!  We see few vehicles using it.

[Crispy]

On 7/26/2022 at 6:14 PM, BrettGC said:

I agree, to by an established 3 bedroom house less than 5 years old in Cairns, Australia, which is a city in the remote tropical north, but a major regional centre (great barrier reef arear) of about 150,000 people, you're not going to get any change out of $AUD600,000 or about PHP23 million.  I lived my last 5 years in Australia in Cairns before moving here.  You can get a lot more than that in a regional area, even a provincial capital easily here.  I guess it depends on your needs and preferences.  One of my neighbours in Sto. Rosario Subd,  Bngy. Junob in Dumaguete (no I didn't know the murdered nurse or her estranged husband) is selling his 4 bedroom house on a double lot with the house taking half the property and a well established garden and lawn on the other half.. And well maintained and far enough back from the Duma - Valencia  Rd you can't hear the traffic.  He's an Aussie so it's fitted to a western standard and he wants  PHP7.2 million.  It was built just on 5 years ago and to big now for him and his wife to look after as they're getting older.  It's 4-5 mins from Hypermart, 7-9 mins to Robinsons and 10 mins from the city by car depending on traffic.  When I last spoke to him last week he hadn't had an offer in the month it's been on the market so probably over-priced.  

They're out there, but as you said Crispy, you just have to look hard and an element of luck can be involved.  Compromise is another factor, it's rare in any country to find something that ticks all the boxes but for myself and MfFaW (Minister for Finance and War - wife) if something comes up that ticks most, we'd seriously consider it.  In the meantime, we're renovating the place we do own, and living in it at the same time... Fun times!!

Just to let you know about the current property market in Aus Brett, it's still going through the roof  and will soon be cheaper to live in New York, or Manhattan than here!

I currently live to the north of Brisbane, opposite side of the M1 to North Lakes. I've only been there for 18 months after purchasing my old two story weatherboard house with a pool on a 600 metre lot for $415K, it's now worth anywhere between $600 to 700K. That's a raid increase in just 18 months! Despite rising interest rates and the press saying property prices are going to fall, I still stand to gain immensely no matter which way you look at it. We spent almost $100K on it renovating downstairs, before we gor hit by the February floods. Thankfully it was only minor and our insurance is covering the $100K rebuild. It's our intention to modify the place so upstairs is rentable, seperate from the downstairs, which is also rentable. We plan to rent out both areas to seperate tennants and build a tiny house, or granny flat in the back yard to stay in when we're there. We've also got a motor home, so we tend to go away on long trips around Aus. I hope to see the entire country before I eventually leave. My MfFAW does not want to sell the house here, keeps saying it's our nest egg.

It's good to hear from someone who lives in Dumaguete itself. A mate of mine went there to live 18 months ago at the height of Covid, I don't know how they let him leave the country as they did ban entries and exits at some stage? He lives in East or West Balibag in Valencia and was lucky to buy a completely steel framed house, with tiled roof on 400 sqm from an American for between PHP 5 to 5m. It was a good time for him to buy, he actually signed the contract 2 years ago,  before prices started to go up and up. For me though, I'm an offgrid type person, so I want to build my own house, hence looking for a vacant lot. I see quite a few lots for sale around Valencia and other places to the west of Duma, which are subdivided and have supposed access roads. BUT, the access roads are not surveyed and they are certainly unmade. This is where you can come unstuck. Who's going to pay for the access road to be levelled, with drainage and gravel going all the way to the nearest main road? You, if you don't want to drive through a quagmire in the rainy season. Similarly, who's going to pay for the electric poles and cables to your lot, if it's far away? You. The same with town water supplies to your lot, you. I have been stuck trying to sell my property in mActan for 5-6 years now, all because there's no made access roads, no town water (I have a deep well which will dry up eventually as many other wells are being dug all over Mactan and the ecoli level from septic tanks is way above WHO standards) and no electril poles and cables from the village to my house. I own the existing poles and cables, but the villagers charge me rent money to place the poles in their yard, even if they tap into the current and shabu addicts keep stealing the cable for copper scrap ( over a dozen times so far).

I have some Expat friends in Mactan, who live in townhouses, which could be an option to buy short term, then long term use it as an investment, as long as you didn't have rowdy neighbours. I haven't seen too many townhouse deveLopments in Duma, or Valencia to think of.

 

[Freebie]

23 minutes ago, Crispy said:

I haven't seen too many townhouse deveLopments in Duma, or Valencia to think of.

Was in Valencia a couple weeks back. Saw one town house development , cant remember the name but it was awful...could see it was cheaply built and only one townhouse seemed to be occupied.  Approx , going up the hill, turn left near the cluster of govt offices and about 2 kms down that road, then the road went up a few hundred metres. There were signs for it but was awful form external appearance.  I also saw the Camelia homes which is off Jose Romero road by Junob school, about and a few kms down that road. Small box houses. .

[Guy F.]

TL:DR

Just want to mention the the snorkeling and scuba diving in the Dauin region is fantastic. Look up The Critter Hunter on YouTube.

[Crispy]

5 minutes ago, Guy F. said:

TL:DR

Just want to mention the the snorkeling and scuba diving in the Dauin region is fantastic. Look up The Critter Hunter on YouTube.

I agree with you on that one. I have been there several times with my inlaws. There's great visibility and loads of little fish, even close to the shore.

I'll check out the YouTube link you mention above.

My inlaws live in Bais, which is near to the great big white sand bar, I didn't have an opportunity to snorkel whilst I was there.

[BrettGC]

51 minutes ago, Crispy said:

Just to let you know about the current property market in Aus Brett, it's still going through the roof  and will soon be cheaper to live in New York, or Manhattan than here!

I currently live to the north of Brisbane, opposite side of the M1 to North Lakes. I've only been there for 18 months after purchasing my old two story weatherboard house with a pool on a 600 metre lot for $415K, it's now worth anywhere between $600 to 700K. That's a raid increase in just 18 months! Despite rising interest rates and the press saying property prices are going to fall, I still stand to gain immensely no matter which way you look at it. We spent almost $100K on it renovating downstairs, before we gor hit by the February floods. Thankfully it was only minor and our insurance is covering the $100K rebuild. It's our intention to modify the place so upstairs is rentable, seperate from the downstairs, which is also rentable. We plan to rent out both areas to seperate tennants and build a tiny house, or granny flat in the back yard to stay in when we're there. We've also got a motor home, so we tend to go away on long trips around Aus. I hope to see the entire country before I eventually leave. My MfFAW does not want to sell the house here, keeps saying it's our nest egg.

It's good to hear from someone who lives in Dumaguete itself. A mate of mine went there to live 18 months ago at the height of Covid, I don't know how they let him leave the country as they did ban entries and exits at some stage? He lives in East or West Balibag in Valencia and was lucky to buy a completely steel framed house, with tiled roof on 400 sqm from an American for between PHP 5 to 5m. It was a good time for him to buy, he actually signed the contract 2 years ago,  before prices started to go up and up. For me though, I'm an offgrid type person, so I want to build my own house, hence looking for a vacant lot. I see quite a few lots for sale around Valencia and other places to the west of Duma, which are subdivided and have supposed access roads. BUT, the access roads are not surveyed and they are certainly unmade. This is where you can come unstuck. Who's going to pay for the access road to be levelled, with drainage and gravel going all the way to the nearest main road? You, if you don't want to drive through a quagmire in the rainy season. Similarly, who's going to pay for the electric poles and cables to your lot, if it's far away? You. The same with town water supplies to your lot, you. I have been stuck trying to sell my property in mActan for 5-6 years now, all because there's no made access roads, no town water (I have a deep well which will dry up eventually as many other wells are being dug all over Mactan and the ecoli level from septic tanks is way above WHO standards) and no electril poles and cables from the village to my house. I own the existing poles and cables, but the villagers charge me rent money to place the poles in their yard, even if they tap into the current and shabu addicts keep stealing the cable for copper scrap ( over a dozen times so far).

I have some Expat friends in Mactan, who live in townhouses, which could be an option to buy short term, then long term use it as an investment, as long as you didn't have rowdy neighbours. I haven't seen too many townhouse deveLopments in Duma, or Valencia to think of.

 

Understandable that you want to build your own mate, and as you probably already know, you NEED to be there to supervise.  We're re-renovating right now after it was done whilst I was still back in Aust a few years back and now I'm here to look at it closely it's nothing short of shoddy.  So we left Duma to go about 3 hours north to Guihulgnan; it's about 1 hour south of San Carlos in Occidental.  Moved less than a week ago so I'll keep everyone updated on the progress.  Duma is just becoming way to busy for my liking.  

As for the property market in Australia.  I had a windfall in about 2000 so bought a 2 bedroom apartment with a 50% deposit in North Sydney; you know, one of those old brown brick buildings that were built in the 60's.  I renovated it and it paid itself off by 2010, you can only negative gear so much...  I pay tax on the income but that works for me, it's not for everyone and honestly, I don't have the patience to worry about more than one rental.  I've had the same tenants for 12 years now, Tamil asylum seekers as it turns out, we kicked the property manager into touch after 4 years.  They're both university graduate professionals, and I'll give them first option when I sell it. Like you, MfFaW doesn't want to sell it either, it's our nest egg.   My sister looks after the day-to-day for us.

I should've bought the apartment I was renting in Cairns when they offered it to me 18 months ago.  It was listed at $150k AUD and now worth $220k.  Modern 2 bedroom at the back of a resort at Trinity Beach that overlooked a rainforest setting out my back door.  Full resort facilities.  The crunch was $7k body corporate, mainly in cyclone insurance I'm told, over and above individual home inusurance.  Granted the grounds were beautiful and the facilities well kept, but still... That level of fee is not uncommon in that neck of the woods.  Opportunity missed perhaps.  

I'm had the good fortune to be able to retire at 52 (I'm 53 now) due in part to the above rental income and military pensions, would've been aged 51 but that annoying virus struck so  the wife and I were separated for just on 2 years - great moments in bad timing.  I finally moved here full-time in January so the hospital thing isn't really an issue just yet, but I'm sure it will be in the future.  I'm one of those oddballs that actually likes driving in the more out of the way areas here, so fortnightly trips to San Carlos and monthly to Duma doesn't worry me.  Airports aren't a real requirement just yet either.  We all have different wants and requirements. 

[BrettGC]

1 hour ago, Freebie said:

Was in Valencia a couple weeks back. Saw one town house development , cant remember the name but it was awful...could see it was cheaply built and only one townhouse seemed to be occupied.  Approx , going up the hill, turn left near the cluster of govt offices and about 2 kms down that road, then the road went up a few hundred metres. There were signs for it but was awful form external appearance.  I also saw the Camelia homes which is off Jose Romero road by Junob school, about and a few kms down that road. Small box houses. .

I know the first one you're talking about, it's rubbish. 

Camella also has a large lot/house area, it caters for 1 bedroom townhouses up to 5 bedroom stand alone houses.  Grounds are nice and well kept, security was on the ball and wouldn't let us in without an agent he knew.  We were actually quite impressed with the entire setup.  

Is this the one you're talking about?  

Edited July 27, 2022 by BrettGC

[Crispy]

13 minutes ago, BrettGC said:

Understandable that you want to build your own mate, and as you probably already know, you NEED to be there to supervise.  We're re-renovating right now after it was done whilst I was still back in Aust a few years back and now I'm here to look at it closely it's nothing short of shoddy. 

Modern 2 bedroom at the back of a resort at Trinity Beach that overlooked a rainforest setting out my back door. 

I've been down the track before of attempting to build a house remotely from back in Aus. I did exactly that whilst building my house in Mactan, left my ex-wifes sister and mother-in-law in charge. The house was huge, 475 sqm up and down on 1,135sqm lot. I can't tell you enough about the disasters that happened and the bottomless pit of money that I burned through before I stepped in to put a halt to it to stop the money hemorrhaging. For two years the build had only progressed by 25%! I was getting requestes for money to buy another truck load of cement, when I had only bought one a few days beforehand. Same with reo bars, lumber etc. etc. I had a foreman early on who had 6 to 8 guys which did the concrete footings, beams, posts and roof framing, but it was at a snails pace without someone observing them.  The foreman left, my sister-in-law took over and we hired some direct labourers. My SIL lived in Cebu City, so didn't attend the site every day, or stay there the whole day long. Money was still burning a hole in my pocket and after 2.5 years it was only 1/3 built. So, I quit my job and went over there to finish it off myself. I found out immediately from the workers, my SIL hadn't visted the site for weeks. She invited me for drinks, paying for it with my money, so I fired her. My MIL was paying the workers with a bundle of cash from her purse, with no accountability from both of them as to where my money was being spent. I asked for a summary of the costs and expenditure so far and was told, "are you accusing us of stealing from you?" I said no, but from now on, I am in charge of my own destiny, ta ta. I saw where some of my money went to, there was no perimeter fence to provide security for the materials. My trusted worker told me the cement bags were being stolen by villagers who snuck onto the site at night time. So, I immediately built 6 feet high fence with another two feet of barbed wire. I hired the contractor to do the job, I gave him a bonus for finishining the job in half the time he promised to. I saw my septic tank holes were being dug by hammer and chisel, that had been going on for 5 months. I had three leaching septic tanks, can you imagine, it would have taken them two years to complete! I hired a compressor and two jack hammers for three days, all 3 tanks were done in record time. I bought materials from hardware stores in Mandaue, I hired contractors and I did a lot of work on site myself. Even though the villagers all thought I was a crazy foreigner. I slept in the open downstairs on a wooden bed frame with plywood as a mattress being eaten alive by mosquitoes. I lost a huge amount of weight, I was so busy that sometimes I only ate once a day. I used to get a wheel barrow and cart loads of Mactan stones to fill up and level my front and backyard. More of the crazy foreigner antics. To cut a long story short, I finished off my house in around 9 months after spending only $60K. I had a mansion, one of the biggest and grandest in the area, unltil a German built one fancier, but at least I ended up stopping the cash from bleeding and i got the house that I wanted back then. My ex came to live there eventually, but didn't like living there and went to stay with her family in Cebu. After a couple of months and our money reserves were depleted, she announced she was returning to Aus and left me there. I was like a kid in a candly shop after that and completely went off the rails drinking and chasing you know what, but that's another story.

If I'm going to build me next house, it will be done by me, with me there and no help from others. I've had a fascination with container homes for 10 years, even before they became more popular recently. However, used shipping containers in the Phil's are trash and are double the price of here. Another form of building is called aircrete, which I am very interested to pursue over there. It's like you build your house by puring in situ slabs, which you then erect as walls, only you don't use half as much concrete because it has holes in it like honeycomb, but still has loads of strength and is cyclone proof. 

I love Trinity Beach! If I had to make a list of places I would retire in Aus, that would be one of them and Darwin the other.

 

 

[manofthecoldland]

On 7/25/2022 at 3:55 AM, Crispy said:

I'm fairly new to this group, so I'm not sure how to PM you, but I'd be interested if you can PM me regarding the above.

I have previously been to Kalibo, Roxas City, Estancia and Illoillo City. I can honestly say, I was in those places as a young 20 something, so I'd say they've changed a lot over the years? I was however very impressed with the beaches and the seafood in the area. I am not a big fan of Borocay and never have been, but I knew of a guy from Melbourne, who retired in Malay, only I lost contact with him over time.

I did notice the development in Illoillo City which looks nice and well planned, not ugly and garish development out of control like in Mactan, where I previously lived.

Crispy, click on the envelope/letter icon, to the right of the bell icon for notifications at the page top near your forum name.

I sent you a short PM just now.