Just A Little Place To Hang My Hat.

[Fred & Mimi]

My personal opinion would be just to rent for a while. Why buy or lease a cheap house only to realise you can't sleep from the endless crowing from the neighbours breeding roosters for cockfighting and the others playing gangnam style all night long. Not to mention those home KTV stars. Rents are far cheaper in Phils than they are in Australia and like in Aussie, buying a cheap residence means that you're in an affordable housing area with bogans galore.

Only fools rush in hehehe

Edited October 27, 2013 by Fred & Mimi

[BrettGC]

My personal opinion would be just to rent for a while. Why buy or lease a cheap house only to realise you can't sleep from the endless crowing from the neighbours breeding roosters for cockfighting and the others playing gangnam style all night long. Not to mention those home KTV stars. Rents are far cheaper in Phils than they are in Australia and like in Aussie, buying a cheap residence means that you're in an affordable housing area with bogans galore.

Only fools rush in hehehe

 Good point on the bogans!  Best house in the worst street, or worst house in the best?

[Classic Dry]

buying a cheap residence means that you're in an affordable housing area with bogans galore.

Good point on the bogans! Best house in the worst street, or worst house in the best?

 

Hey ! What you got against us bogans ???... :dance:

[Dave Hounddriver]

In the province where I live you can buy a small lot (100 sq m) in an out of the way area for 50K pesos.  Or you can buy a small lot (100 sq m) with highway access for 120K pesos.  You can then construct a building of the type mentioned in the opening post for a further 40 to 80K pesos.  It will not be the most secure of places but these are not high crime areas either.  Thus for 90K to 200K pesos you can construct what you want, but as soon as people build such a structure they believe it is worth triple what they paid for it.  (Thus I say you can build it but not buy it already made)

 

As to ownership, the usual caveats apply but there would be no problem in buying the land and putting on paper that it is a 25 year lease.  Thus you pay for it, but technically are the lessee not the owner.

 

FYI.  If you want pictures of what you can build for 40K pesos I can send them but imagine a nice size tool shed in your home country and you get the picture.

Edited October 28, 2013 by Dave Hounddriver

[Classic Dry]

In the province where I live you can buy a small lot (100 sq m) in an out of the way area for 50K pesos.  Or you can buy a small lot (100 sq m) with highway access for 120K pesos.  You can then construct a building of the type mentioned in the opening post for a further 40 to 80K pesos.  It will not be the most secure of places but these are not high crime areas either.  Thus for 90K to 200K pesos you can construct what you want, but as soon as people build such a structure they believe it is worth triple what they paid for it.  (Thus I say you can build it but not buy it already made)

 

As to ownership, the usual caveats apply but there would be no problem in buying the land and putting on paper that it is a 25 year lease.  Thus you pay for it, but technically are the lessee not the owner.

 

FYI.  If you want pictures of what you can build for 40K pesos I can send them but imagine a nice size tool shed in your home country and you get the picture.

Truly interesting Dave. For a lot at 120k and a building at 200 pesos thats only about $8000 aud.

Where is your province ?

Remembering what Fred and Mimi and BrettGC have said, I'd have to go and spend time there. Make sure it's bogan free !

I'm fairly handy so could make it as secure as it could be. ( Of course, wouldn't stop a dedicated a$$hole. )

All this is for the near future.

The place I was looking at in the OP I would have improved and extended over time. That would be fun !

Right now I have to sell my house so I can pay off my mortgages. Then I can retire. Then I can spend some extended time in the Phils.

Whilst there I can look around and find a good woman ( say 2 or three weeks ) hahaha. Then I can start to live a little. :cheersty:

Edited October 28, 2013 by Classic Dry

[Dave Hounddriver]

Truly interesting Dave. For a lot at 120k and a building at 200 pesos thats only about $8000 aud. Where is your province ?

 

Biliran province.  But I am sure there are others where you can get 100 sq meter lots at 1,000 per sq meter.  Its just that for many of us that is a very small lot.  Yet it is a normal size here and it is all you need for a building such as you describe.

 

For $8,000 Aud you could have a structure built, including the land, that would be rudimentary but secure enough.  Its the finishing that will cost you.  Start putting in plumbing and electric and paint and putty etc and the price will skyrocket.  Remember the structure I was quoting on is similar to what I had for a tool shed back home . . BUT . . for $8,000 AUD it would be something I could exist in until I had money and ambition to improve on it.  Note that many foreigners here have obtained similar places and just decided to live like that.  I have thought about it and decided against it as I can rent much much better for $100 to $250 AUD per month.

[Thomas]

In the province where I live you can buy a small lot (100 sq m) in an out of the way area for 50K pesos. Or you can buy a small lot (100 sq m) with highway access for 120K pesos.

Yes. But for (80 000p uncommon) 150 000p rather common (some more if titled) you can get 1 ha=10 000 sqm e g at Bohol adjustend to a baranggay road, so why buy a 100 sqm lot??  :)

I have thought about it and decided against it as I can rent much much better for $100 to $250 AUD per month.

Yes, IF building on a 100 sqm lot in between a lot of other houses, then I would rent too, in the long run too

(but in my case I will probably "have to" build, because of I want to live without neighbours and such excisting houses are often the most poor huts or huge expensive haciendas   :)   (but sometimes there are small hollow block houses for sale, of which many are placed beside the public road instead of away in other part of their land, so then people are to close for my taste anyway  :boohoo:  :)    But there are exceptions But an extra problem with ready made is I want "kano size" rooms, so I can lay straight in my bedroom  :)

[Fred & Mimi]

But there are exceptions But an extra problem with ready made is I want "kano size" rooms, so I can lay straight in my bedroom 

 

How true. The room Mimi and I stay in the family home in Lilo-an fits a double sized mattress and not much else. This is one of the biggest rooms in the house. Luckily it's only for short periods of time while we visit Cebu main. Indigenous CR's can also be an experience.

[BrettGC]

 

Truly interesting Dave. For a lot at 120k and a building at 200 pesos thats only about $8000 aud. Where is your province ?

 

Biliran province.  But I am sure there are others where you can get 100 sq meter lots at 1,000 per sq meter.  Its just that for many of us that is a very small lot.  Yet it is a normal size here and it is all you need for a building such as you describe.

 

For $8,000 Aud you could have a structure built, including the land, that would be rudimentary but secure enough.  Its the finishing that will cost you.  Start putting in plumbing and electric and paint and putty etc and the price will skyrocket.  Remember the structure I was quoting on is similar to what I had for a tool shed back home . . BUT . . for $8,000 AUD it would be something I could exist in until I had money and ambition to improve on it.  Note that many foreigners here have obtained similar places and just decided to live like that.  I have thought about it and decided against it as I can rent much much better for $100 to $250 AUD per month.

 

 

 

^^ This.

 

What Dave says makes a lot of sense.  My longest stay so far has been about 4 weeks, with a couple of 2 week stays prior to that.  Yes I love the place, yes it's my intention to give it a shot, but until I've truly lived there I won't know for sure so I have an exit plan.  I think your best bet is renting something in the price range Dave mentioned for an extended period before you make the big commitment. Yep pay your mortgages out (plural?) but keep one property.  A.  It has the potential to generate income for you, and B.  There's somewhere for you to go if it does go pear shaped.  I'm in the fortunate situation that I receive an ADF pension of about 2k AUD a month and rent from a property which I will own outright, all things being equal, around Feb next year.  I'm not sure what your income stream is going to be like, but honestly mate, even without the rental income I could live very comfortably in PH given I'm very much of the same mind as PappaCarl and Tuka Ram (still love those videos you guys posted!) with regards to what I need to be happy.  Plumbing, AC, cooking facilities and internet, oh and toilet paper, I can't get the hang of this pail thing :P .  If I didn't have SAO (Short Angry One) and her 16yo daughter to consider, I'd be more than happy in something exactly like Dave mentioned and they only get cheaper the further away from a main city you go - but the infrastructure declines in line with that.  I guess what I'm saying is, go, take the chance, but have a contingency.  I have more than one friend that went on a holiday and never came back, conversely I have a couple that lasted about 12 months. 

 

I suspect I'm preaching to the choir here, but on these forums it's never a good idea to take anything for granted. 

Edited October 28, 2013 by BrettGC

[Classic Dry]

Ok, let's step back a little and review.

In the opening post I asked if a similar property could be found for about $2500 aud. The answer was yes, but I probably wouldn't

want to live there for one reason or another. So that's out !

That was what I was prepared to risk with someone elses name on the deeds. ( A Philippine national.) That and say another $2000

to make it livable.

 

Dave's suggestion of making a one off payment for the lease of a piece of land in my own name, opens up a whole new kettle of fish.

It means I don't have to restrict myself to a couple of thousand dollars. (Thomas said something similar but I missed the implication )

 

I have spent only 4 weeks in the Phils. Just a taste really.

I need to spend more time there. Explore not only areas I might want to live but also explore ideas of how I might want to live.

A few weeks of living there and moving from one pension house to another in different parts of the country, may change any ideas

I may have had at the outset.

 

Right now I live alone in a large 4 bed 2 bath house. It's way too big, and even with a partner would be too big.

You're right, Brett. I have to keep an address here in Australia.

I'm thinking of buying a house with a granny flat. I could live in the main part of the house, or let that and live in the flat.

I've actually done that before and it worked out quite well.

 

Who knows where I'll be, or what I'll be doing one year from now.

I think, though, It's less fun in Australia !... :thumbsup:

 

Where will I find Papa Carl's and Tuka Ram's videos ?

Edited October 29, 2013 by Classic Dry