Philippines Retirement

So You Want To Live In The Philippines…

October 17, 2009 - Posted in Philippines Help

If you have found this site then we can safely assume you are thinking of retiring to live in the Philippines on a permanent or part-yearly basis. If that is the case then you have your reasons. There is little point in us posting a long list of reasons why we chose the Philippines, it would only read like a sales pitch and that is not our objective with this site.

Our objective is to provide some timely and valuable advice and information, to pass on what we have learned either first hand or because someone who went before us kindly passed it on just like we are doing. Yes, we do have families to feed and this site is part of our income stream. We offer viewers the chance to visit advertisers and we also sell our own range of highly popular and very well reviewed eBooks. Other than that all of the information collated here is free and without any obligation.

Our philosophy is that you know what you are doing and you have enough common sense to research the matter as thoroughly as possible. That is the tone we will take as we build this site into a valuable and valued resource.

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You Can Own Land He Said

June 22, 2010 - Posted in Philippines Help

Well, he did say that but as he was selling land I took it all with a bit of caution. The law as far as I knwo it is that a non-citizen can not own land. You can own a condo and you can own the building on a block of land (called a ‘Lot’) but not the dirt it stands on.

With any condo development you can only have 40% of the units owned by foreigners but I have never heard of what happens if that is exceeded. Do they draw straws for who has to sell up and leave of just the last one to buy is kicked out?

The rumor is that non-citizen’s can own small holdings of land. I know for a fact ‘former’ Filipino citizens can return (known as Balikbayan) and regain their citizenship if they denounced it while overseas, then own land restricted in size for urban and rural properties. But died in the wool foreigners?

Maybe, things change all the time but I won’t be handing over my hard earned pesos just yet. I need to do more research and find out a more definitive answer before I report it here or anywhere for that matter. Anyway, stay tuned and you might just here the good news here first.

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Take Over The Payments?

January 15, 2010 - Posted in Condos

The other day on one of the Forums I operate someone posted that they had a condo in Manila for sale. “Take over the payments and make P1M” it claimed. Form the poorly written composition it appeared that all you had to do was take over the repayments and you would be rich because the condo had already gone up 25% in value since the seller had purchased it!

Further investigation revealed that in 2007 the “Off The Plan” price was P4M and he paid P500K as a deposit. He wants that money back and you just take over the repayments. The big profit is because nowadays the same units are being sold for P5M. Well, they are asking P5M, nobody is saying how many they are selling for that.

This is a very common occurrence in the Philippines. The OFW returns on leave, flush with cash and signs up for some business or property, but then the reality sinks in and the heady rush of admiration from family and friends disappears.

The reality is these condos still don;t exist yet, the building is still being built. It has been known for projects to stall for many years, even die altogether because the developer ran out of money. This is why they sell off the plan. Often it is the only way they can fund the build. If they fold, the buyers can lose everything paid to date.

Not only that, you can ask anything you want but it is only when someone pays you a number that you can say it is ‘worth’ that amount. You’ll find a lot of Filipinos seem to think their properties are worth far more than they ever get for them simply because their neighbour got X for theirs. Forget the fact the two properties are not identical or even similar, it is a pride thing.

Take care taking over someone else’s folly. Take care buying off the plan, unless the plan is owned by Ayala Land and even the biggest can fall, as we saw in October 2008!

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Transportation In The Philippines

October 17, 2009 - Posted in Getting Around, Philippines Help

What is the best way to get around.   Well this depends where you live and what is available….

We offer a FREE Travel Safe Report that covers all modes of transportation in detail. This report is available by clicking on the hyperlinked text above.

In a nutshell, my favourite mode of travel is my own car with me at the wheel. I have driven all over the country and while some places are more notorious than others for their bad drivers, I am always aware and ready for anything!

Failing that, flying is still the safest for long journeys, jeepneys are fun for cheap urban transport and probably the most potentially lethal yet also one of the most independent modes would be a motorbike.

Get the FREE Travel Safe Report, read it and decide for yourself.

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Retirement Destinations

October 17, 2009 - Posted in Location, Philippines Help

What is important when selecting where you will retire to in the Philippines?

Again, another ‘how long is a piece of string’ question. What is important to you in your retirement? Have you taken the time to write out a list? Maybe draw a line down the center of the page and on the left put what you want and on the right what you don’t want from a retirement location. Number these.

Then draw up another list of places in the Philippines and check off how many good and how many bad points each location has. Again draw a line to make two columns and put the number of good in the left column and the bad in the right. At a glance you will see how any particular location stacks up against your own criteria.

You set the criteria and you have applied it according to your knowledge of the destinations. What if you don’t know much about the destination, perhaps you’ve never been there? That is why we offer a free Retirement Report with some suggested destinations included. You can also use this fabulous resource we call the internet, something none of us had to fall back on a decade or two ago but here it is now for us to use.

Learn What You Will Need To Know To Make Your Retirement To The Philippines A Success The First Time Around!

Click on the link to get your FREE copy of the StreetWise Publications ‘Philippines Retirement Report’ NOW.

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