Where would you stay?

[chris49]

19 hours ago, Ynot said:

In about 14 months I will be there, renting a house at first whilst I look for somewhere to buy and then build.  I get the feeling you get better value if you build a house yourself instead of going through a package deal.  From what I can gather what you get in a package deal is over priced considering you can buy land and build a house for less, but that's my opinion.  

But my question is, do you live in gated community or do you live amongst the locals?  Previously I built a house in Thailand amongst the locals and have never felt threatened whilst staying there.  Yet from what I've read on the posts a lot of people recommend living in a gate community as supposedly its safer! Perhaps bad news makes the papers more so than good, therefore all we read about is when the foreigner was stabbed, shot or killed.  Good news stories don't sell as well.   Nevertheless, what have you chosen to do?  Are you living amongst the locals or are you holed up in your gated community, from which some accounts is not all that safe!

I don't know what you might do. What city/province will this be in?

One major drawback of trying to own and build within a gated subdivision are the rules and regulations on construction within the subdivision. I'm thinking that without an architect and a recognized contractor you might not get planning permission to build.

When I had the money. I looked at an area in Silang, Cavite, just down from Tagaytay. The minimum lot offered was 600 sqm and I think the minimum size of a house was 2000 sqm and it had to be in Spanish motif. I figured out it would cost at least 10 M pesos to construct such a house. Yes this is an extreme example, but subdivisions do have there own rules and regs.

 

[OnMyWay]

26 minutes ago, chris49 said:

One major drawback of trying to own and build within a gated subdivision are the rules and regulations on construction within the subdivision. I'm thinking that without an architect and a recognized contractor you might not get planning permission to build.

Our Filipino friends built in a gated neighborhood and used the contractor who was building the cookie cutter standard houses to build theirs to their specs.  Probably not the most cost effective way, but they got exactly what they wanted and were able to see a lot of the contractor's work before they went that route.  The contractor had done other custom designs, not just the cookie cutter houses, and the quality looks quite good to me.

[ITGeek]

10 hours ago, chris49 said:

I don't know what you might do. What city/province will this be in?

One major drawback of trying to own and build within a gated subdivision are the rules and regulations on construction within the subdivision. I'm thinking that without an architect and a recognized contractor you might not get planning permission to build.

When I had the money. I looked at an area in Silang, Cavite, just down from Tagaytay. The minimum lot offered was 600 sqm and I think the minimum size of a house was 2000 sqm and it had to be in Spanish motif. I figured out it would cost at least 10 M pesos to construct such a house. Yes this is an extreme example, but subdivisions do have there own rules and regs.

 

That must be a typo?  My place is only 150 sqm at The North Grove in Cabanatuan and cost me just over 5 M pesos.  BTW - I saw someone in my subdivision driving a Lamborghini.  Who in their right mind would drive one of those here?  

[Jack Peterson]

1 hour ago, ITGeek said:

 BTW - I saw someone in my subdivision driving a Lamborghini.  Who in their right mind would drive one of those here?  

 Someone that can afford to, I Guess. 

Sorry sir, could not resist this

1 hour ago, ITGeek said:

 My place is only 150 sqm at The North Grove in Cabanatuan and cost me just over 5 M pesos.

But then, Who in there right mind pays 5 mil peso for 150 sq mtrs of land? (or is this another Typo)

Jack.

Morning All

[Queenie O.]

I'm curious- in your views, is choosing a gated subdivision a lifestyle preference or strictly about security? I would think that living among many fellow well-off people, local and foreigners alike, would seem to make a subdivision a magnet or desirable place to target. As with anywhere are there not often "inside jobs" of break-ins unrelated to the specific security staff? What do you think?

In our area in the province, I'm not knowing who the particular thieves  or undesirables might be. I would think though, that being an unknown faceless "rich" foreigner behind a quiet wall, or a complaining intimidating type foreigner, would be an easier and more enjoyable target to hit over a visible, more well-known resident. No guarantees of course.

 

[chris49]

16 hours ago, ITGeek said:

That must be a typo?  My place is only 150 sqm at The North Grove in Cabanatuan and cost me just over 5 M pesos.  BTW - I saw someone in my subdivision driving a Lamborghini.  Who in their right mind would drive one of those here?  

200 sqm house Jack, sorry..not 2000. Tagaytay and nearby is very upmarket.  Note that it's a 600 sqm lot minimum size in this particular subdivision.

Once you buy a 600 sqm lot, the subdivision rules kick in as I have mentioned above.

Edited March 28, 2016 by chris49

[Jack Peterson]

3 minutes ago, chris49 said:

 My place is only 150 sqm

 

3 minutes ago, chris49 said:

Note that it's a 600 sqm lot minimum size in this particular subdivision.

 So what is the actual lot size the OP bought? cos this is going to get confusing if 150 SM cost him 5 mil easy basics say that the 600 SM would be 20 Mil Now that, is just so Unrealistic.

[mogo51]

13 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Make sure to check if the pool is free.  I rented a place not knowing that the pool was p150 per use.

I am the same as you, use a pool for exercise and back issue so it is  important to me to find a clean, free pool wherever we rent or buy.  That does narrow it down to either gated community or Condos.

[Nephi]

We have a nice home but by choice decided on a run-down, poorest of the poor Mt. Pinatubo resettlement town and have been here for some 13 years now. This we did by choice and after looking at many gated subdivisions. 

My thinking all those years ago was, why move to a foreign country if all I'm going to do is wall myself in- in attempt to make it just like back home? Seemed rather pointless to me as I wanted to be among the locals and live life WITH them rather than only watching them from afar and not knowing them.

Most streets look like the ones in the inclosed photos. Not much more than a cement box for people to live in; some could even be considered a cave almost. Most are so poor they have no real idea where their next meal might come from or how to get it and most are unemployed. Yet, we are not only happy but are also safe here.

Many times my wife and I must go into the city while our kids are out or at school and we leave the house key with any of our neighbors. If we all go out to say Baguio City or Subic for an overnight, again we leave the house key with a neighbor in the event of emergency etc. Sure, some will borrow food or even cash from us once in awhile as they are really that poor. But it is always repaid and no one ever takes anything from us or our house.

So my thinking is that perhaps it makes a difference in what part of the country we as expats live and or our attitude and willingness to be with them and be a friend to others as we want them to do. But all I do know from what I have seen and with other expat friends that do live in high class gated communities, is that I/we love this resettlement town and the people in it for the most part. I know also that I would want to live nowhere else that I have seen or been over the years.

 

Nephi

 

[frosty (chris)]

1 hour ago, Queenie O. said:

I'm curious- in your views, is choosing a gated subdivision a lifestyle preference or strictly about security? I would think that living among many fellow well-off people, local and foreigners alike, would seem to make a subdivision a magnet or desirable place to target. As with anywhere are there not often "inside jobs" of break-ins unrelated to the specific security staff? What do you think?

 

 

When I first moved here a little over 2 years ago, I rented a house in a gated sub-div, I was the only expat there, it wasn't big maybe 60-80 houses. The security was I suppose as good as you would get here, the entrance was manned at all times, gates closed any outsider entering had to produce some form of ID and they were very strict, if security had any doubts they would contact you by phone just to make sure, they had installed CCTV to cover most of the sub-div and also had walking night patrols with shot guns as companions, in all the time I was there never had one ounce of trouble. Mind you I introduced myself to all my neighbours and we all became good friends and looked out for each other, chismis was alive and well there in the most positive way. I suppose I was looked on as the poor old long nose, they all had better cars than me, their houses all had better furnishings than me and I would say most had a better income than me but we all got on fabulously. In the end squatters moved onto the vacant block of land beside us and what with the loud music every other night sometimes till the early hours of the morning, the moto's starting around 4-30 am, sleep became just about impossible, funny my girl never seemed to notice, sleep through a cyclone I think.

Now we live in a Filipino Sub-Div, it's same same as the above but different, again I have introduced myself to all my immediate neighbours, my landlord lives opposite, she is my local sari-sari store owner, is well known and well liked in the area. I have to say it is quiet as a church here, absolutely no loud noises at all, sleep like a baby every night.

This is one of the reasons I am loathe to buy a house here, every thing can change so very quickly and if for what ever reason we have to move or more to the point want to move, well it's just a matter of packing the bags,hiring a truck for the furnishings and moving on to the next adventure.