Mactan Island Units

[Medic Mike]

Anybody have any pros or cons for living on Mactan Island. I have found some very nice properties that I may be interested in renting. Cheers.

[Bigdog]

 Traffic over the bridges can be terrible at times...and of course the rerouting at festival times...so no all normal for there lol

[Old55]

Endemic methamphetamine use around Lapu Lapu. 

The two bridges are often gridlocked.

Occasional aircraft noise.

[Medic Mike]

This is one of the units I am looking at in Mactan.

 

http://cebu.en.craigslist.com.ph/apa/4103874269.html

[Dougbert]

My fiancee lives on Mactan (except for a few years on Pangangan, Bohol, and a couple of years in Cebu City she's lived there most of her life).  When I first met her she was renting a tiny room (8sq m?) in an apartment house in Gun-Ob for 2500php + power.  No kitchen and shared CR.  The bad things there were: narrow dirt road access 200m from paved road, near a squatter area, poorly lit at night, thin walls, lots of roaches and some mice.  The good things were that it was not far from groceries, markets, and Gaisano Mall.  But she had been burgled once and since she often works the night shift at a call center, I worried about her walking down that dirt road in the dark every night.

 

Now she lives in a townhouse in a new development down in Babag.  Her ~45sq m place costs ~7500php/mo and it was furnished.  She first moved into an unfurnished unit there, but her neighbors were kind of loud.  She found out that a unit a few doors down was for rent by a woman who was pregnant and had gone to live with her family during her maternity.  So she got that for the same price.  It's two stories, two decent sized bedrooms upstairs and a combo living room/kitchen/dining area downstairs.  It has a CR and a little outdoor "service area" off the kitchen.  Small front yard/parking area.  Guard house and gate.  Paved roads.  Good street lights.  Jeepney stop just across from the gate.  But Babag is a little further away from everything so that gets to be a pain sometimes.

 

I've been out on the east side of Mactan a couple of times.  The road network in Lapu-Lapu City is not good.  There are a few stretches of OK roads, but most are narrow, poorly maintained, and crowded.  It takes a long time to get anywhere, especially over to the bridges.  Even from Babag it takes 30-45 minutes to get to SM City Mall or Ayala Mall.  One time we went to the port to catch a ferry and left a little late.  It took one hour to go maybe 6-8 miles.  The bridges are pretty bad and traffic at the main intersections on either end of them is worse.  Most of the airport noise is near the airport and on the flight path directly south of the runway.

 

If I had to live on Mactan I would actually choose Cordova (technically not a part of Lapu-Lapu city and its own island).  It seemed much calmer and peaceful there.  There's a new Gaisano Mall there now, so less travel for common needs.

[Medic Mike]

My fiancee lives on Mactan (except for a few years on Pangangan, Bohol, and a couple of years in Cebu City she's lived there most of her life).  When I first met her she was renting a tiny room (8sq m?) in an apartment house in Gun-Ob for 2500php + power.  No kitchen and shared CR.  The bad things there were: narrow dirt road access 200m from paved road, near a squatter area, poorly lit at night, thin walls, lots of roaches and some mice.  The good things were that it was not far from groceries, markets, and Gaisano Mall.  But she had been burgled once and since she often works the night shift at a call center, I worried about her walking down that dirt road in the dark every night.

 

Now she lives in a townhouse in a new development down in Babag.  Her ~45sq m place costs ~7500php/mo and it was furnished.  She first moved into an unfurnished unit there, but her neighbors were kind of loud.  She found out that a unit a few doors down was for rent by a woman who was pregnant and had gone to live with her family during her maternity.  So she got that for the same price.  It's two stories, two decent sized bedrooms upstairs and a combo living room/kitchen/dining area downstairs.  It has a CR and a little outdoor "service area" off the kitchen.  Small front yard/parking area.  Guard house and gate.  Paved roads.  Good street lights.  Jeepney stop just across from the gate.  But Babag is a little further away from everything so that gets to be a pain sometimes.

 

I've been out on the east side of Mactan a couple of times.  The road network in Lapu-Lapu City is not good.  There are a few stretches of OK roads, but most are narrow, poorly maintained, and crowded.  It takes a long time to get anywhere, especially over to the bridges.  Even from Babag it takes 30-45 minutes to get to SM City Mall or Ayala Mall.  One time we went to the port to catch a ferry and left a little late.  It took one hour to go maybe 6-8 miles.  The bridges are pretty bad and traffic at the main intersections on either end of them is worse.  Most of the airport noise is near the airport and on the flight path directly south of the runway.

 

If I had to live on Mactan I would actually choose Cordova (technically not a part of Lapu-Lapu city and its own island).  It seemed much calmer and peaceful there.  There's a new Gaisano Mall there now, so less travel for common needs.

Cheers, great info.