Best Posts in Forum: Dumaguete City

My take on the property market in the Dumaguete area:
1. First of all, this country lacks proper zoning regulations and/or the enforcement of such regulations. This means anyone who owns a bit of land anywhere can build a house there.
As a result, many (former) farmers in the area think their farm land is worth a load of money; they just need to subdivide and find buyers and they'll end up rich (which is probably why so much good farm land is laying idle). There's no LGU or state agency stopping anyone with a plan to build a house on farmland. Given that the population density in this country is about the same as in my country of origin, that seems like a strange way to go about building restrictions, especially since quite a bit of land here is mountainous and unsuited for farming.
Of course some buyers and sellers don't understand how the market works, which means you'll find sellers asking 2.5k or more per sqm out in the middle of nowhere. Likewise you'll see buyers who don't get that while the going price for a lot say 5 km inland from Bacong may be around 1.2k per sqm, you'll pay a fair bit more if you search within 2 km from downtown Dumaguete.
2. Yes the number of foreigners in the area (I read somewhere it's around 7,000) obviously has an impact on the local economy -money we spend means income for someone else-, and we also influence the real estate market somewhat. However, the impact on the real estate market is not very big I think; many foreigners either can't afford to buy or don't want to because the land will not be in their name.
In the rental market the impact is a bit bigger I think, and that has indirect effect on the real estate market obviously.
3. Don't underestimate the number of well-to-do Filipino's, whether it's well educated Filipino's living abroad looking to buy or build a nice retirement home or local business owners. Yes many people are still poor, but not all.
4. When trying to get a feel for price levels in the market or even for a single house (is it cheap or expensive) it is generally helpful to consider what monthly rent that property might realistically fetch.
If (in the Philippines) that rent represents an 8% return per year or better on the buying price, I would consider it cheap. If below 6% it's expensive.
So, for example, buying a house for 4.5M (including transfer costs) that you could rent out for maybe 15k a month (4% return) is -economically- a bad idea, whether or not you intend to live there yourself.
5. As for the current state of the market in the Dumaguete area, it will not look the same to everyone, if you're used to land/house prices in urban Europe or America then at first glance Dumaguete is still dirt cheap.
If looking from the perspective of a person from rural Canada or USA then Dumaguete must seem awfully expensive.
I would encourage everyone to forget about such comparisons.
That being said, prices have been rising pretty fast for the past few years in Dumaguete. Whether there's going to be anything like a serious price correction on the horizon remains to be seen, I am not convinced.
On the other hand, some asking prices are indeed way above what one would reasonably expect to pay. In some cases a buyer might be able to negotiate a much fairer price, in other cases the seller might not be really interested to sell.

 

Like most folks have said, everyone has different needs/wants in a place. We picked Tanjay for a few reasons; the most obvious is that the wife is from there which does make things convenient as the family is close if we need anything, I personally like the smaller towns and we are known around town so no issues with prices if I am out shopping by myself or with the lovely wife out of view. Shopping is enough unless you are making a major purchase. With having a house there and folks we know I really enjoy life.

Bais is also close by and has a nice seafood market and things to do. We usually will go to Dumaguete 2-6 times a month on average for shopping, movie theater, restaurants and/or to meet up with folks we know. Dumaguete is a bit more than I would want full time but enjoy the times when we do go there.

One place in the Philippines we really enjoyed (only 5 days or so) was Bohol. I think there is a lot to do there and the area was nice. Of the places we have visited outside of Negros this is one we will visit again. For someone looking at places to settle/visit I think Bohol is worth checking out as well.

We've been to quite a number of cool places/areas in Negros but have barely scratched the surface and think it would take years just to really explore this one island.

What a cool adventure living overseas...

Shawn

 

That sounds a little like asking what are the advantages of a steak dinner vs a pork dinner or a chicken dinner. Its all about your personal taste. You have to try them all and see what works for you OR do what most of us did and find a place you like (Dumaguete) and don't even bother to go and try living in all those other cities.

If you asked someone living in Tacloban what the advantage of living there vs Dumaguete is, what do you think they would say if they had never lived in Dumaguete?

I have been in Philippines for 9 and a half years. I have visited several of the places you mention, but I have only actually "lived in" (like for a period of more than a year) 3 different areas. The city of Cebu is too congested, spread out and expensive. The city of Naval, Biliran is too quiet without enough conveniences for me. The city of Dumaguete is right in the middle and just right, for me.

 

Dear Governor, Mayor, LTO Chief, given it is election time, I will offer my suggestions for fixing the traffic congestion in the town and highway. You can go ahead and take credit for the solutions I offer. I imagine a few of my frustrated colleagues can add a few as well.
1. Establish fixed locations where Ceres buses, Jeepneys, Pedicabs, and idiots are allowed to stop and ENFORCE it.
2. Establish alternate days where pedicabs are allowed to operate in the city and ENFORCE it.
3. Replace the lazy useless traffic officers hiding in the shade with cute young chicks, train them and issue smart properly phones with music and ear phones so they can dance while working.
4. Take all the bikes, trikes, cars without working lights, mirrors, breaks, regulation mufflers and current registration off the road.
5. Give top priority and funding (without the money disappearing) to complete the Bacong-Sibulan bypass road.
6. Until the road complete, Keep the sugar cane trucks off the boulevard by routing them through Valencia - I'm sure the foreigners living there would take one for the team.
7. Keep the container haulers off the boulevard - find a way, that one's on you.
8. Turn Santa Catalina street into a Ceres bus, pedicab route and off the boulevard.
9. Run drug tests on all Van and Easyride drivers.
10. Others may have suggestions to guide you.

 

Many years ago when I first started riding a bike in China, someone gave me a great piece of advice. He said assume everyone is going to do the most stupid thing imaginable. Assume every driver will pull out without indicating or looking in their mirror. Assume every driver is going to turn without indicating or stop for no reason. Assume every pedestrian will walk out in front of you without looking.
I followed this advice and it has saved me numerous times. Touch wood, 11 years or riding/ driving in Asia and not a scratch. Serious recommend this advice to anyone driving here.

 

Maybe I missed something somewhere with the 860$, did you get injured in combat or just on the job? For you not doing a full 20 years in the service to get retirement at anytime you could loose your benefits!!! You were put out for being medically unable to do your job? Yes? So that puts you in a very bad spot! You need to realize that you need to be in a place where you can get treatment on a regular schedule, the VA put you under 100% because they feel you can and with treatment get better whitch in turn will change your rating to 0%!!! There is a part in your separation paperwork that tells you all this in a language not many understand without a lawyer, I have seen it happen time and time again! It says that if you are not getting regular treatment for your SC condition then as far as the VA is concerned you are OK therefore you can work and live a normal life.

Now I live in Angeles City and prices here for everything are higher than they are in th states but I am married (22 years) and have rental properties and a 10 hectare fruit farm, with that I am wheelchair bound due to a training accident but I was already over my 20 year mark, so I also pull a full retirement!!! I am P&T Rated for 5 SC conditions, so once you get a P&T (permanent & total) you don’t really have much to worry about, but which ever service that put you out for whatever reason you need to understand that they are expecting to see regular doctors appointments either through the FMP program or the VA, as far as the Philipppines goes, if they don’t see you doing anything about your conditions they will in time get you for failure to get treatment and they can backdate that up to your last doctors appointment or further and then you will be in even more sh*t than you could ever imagine!!! You will be disqualified from SSA, food stamps, and could face jail time!!!

So here is my suggestion to you from my standpoint, while you are in the U.S. work on getting your SC to 100%, if there is no VA facilities within ?? Miles of you you have to call the one that manages your care and either go see them every month or if they are to far away then you are able to request to see a Dr. In your area. If it is a specialized doc you need to see and you have one in your area then request to see him and go every month and make sure he documents your ups and downs with what ever your problem is! It would help a lot to know what you are disabled for that way I could help you a little more, and if it is a combined rating then that is another ball game all together...

So for you to come here and go way down south you are still required to come to either Manila or Guam every year for a check-up, so you are looking at transportation cost and lodging if you don’t have your own transpo! And the VA here is not paying for that anymore!!! Although we are trying to fight it, you never know!!! The people that run the VA here in the Philippines are doing their best to get it closed down, because we get paid more than them and either they don’t want to be here, or whatever reason. We have already filled a number a cases with them for all kinds of things, so we will see where all that goes.

Sorry for babbling on but I just see so many young kids getting screwed for things they are not aware of and they are not coming to the right people to get the answers or even know what questions to ask....

Good luck to you, Goose out

 

SPOT on and END OF. Well said.