Finance & Legal A different Real Estate question

I was thinking about long range plans and the wife hating to be 'wasting money' on renting. My position is wait to buy until we actually know where we want to be as it is too far down the road to know. The current plan is she goes to school here, gets her 4-year degree, then we go to the States for 5-10 years so she can get her US citizenship, work experience, and maybe even some retirement benefits. The citizenship is where the question comes in.

If we buy property (in her name of course) before going to the US, then she renounces her Philippine citizenship to accept US citizenship, then reaffirms Philippine citizenship and becomes a dual citizen. What happens (if anything) to the property since she (even for a short period) renounced her Philippine citizenship and became a foreign owner of Philippine property? Is that a potential problem?

 

My experience is that when you become a US citizen you are implicitly giving up your Philippine citizenship. You then have to go to an embassy and take an oath to get it back, so technically you are without it for a period of time. No idea if and how they track that you have acquired US citizenship. You could literally take the US oath in the morning and then run over to the Philippines embassy and get your Philippines citizenship back in the afternoon.

This is essentially what this is saying.
Natural born citizens of the Philippines who, after the effectivity of this Act, become citizens of a foreign country shall retain their Philippine citizenship upon taking the aforesaid oath.

The key is the that you have to take an oath to get it back.

 

I have heard this also, from many different sources. Although that may change at any time the current administration chooses to change it I would surely expect she would have time to sell the property if and when the rules changed.

So, as in all things, if you can afford to take the loss if it all goes south then go for it!

 

I would advise you to see a property lawyer, as much of what you will be told by well meaning friends is hearsay. I would think long and hard where you want to buy, as areas can alter drastically within a short time, especially within the confines of Dumaguete.

I can thoroughly recommend Attorney Rilt Dorado for any land, property purchases. He is honest and will not take advantage of you being a foreigner. I have used him on three different transactions and I was very satisfied.

His office in the same building as Alima Cafe, which is located along the road next to the new 7/11 on Aldecoa Drive opposite Silliman Medical Centre. If you walk past the Cafe to the end of the building, there is an alleyway and his office is signed: Geoscape Survey Services.
https://www.google.com.ph/maps/@9.3172883,123.3037864,18z

 

Just an experienced heads up. If you do want to buy property with a house or to build a house, selling is a long slow process with few buyers who have the cash and are willing to put the property in their spouse's/partner's name. This is particularly true for "expensive" homes both on or off the beach.

 

That is a big part of why I am not liking the idea. The other reason is after 4 more years here while she gets her degree, then going to the States for 5-10 years, how could we possibly know today where we will want to come back to, or even if we want to come back at all? And what are we supposed to do with a house here for possibly a decade 12,000 miles away. I thought of this OP as a possible another reason to wait.

 

Let her family live in it like everyone else does

 

If I could do it all over, I would have bought a smaller lot and built a smaller maybe partially local style house. Unexpectually, half the cost was in the non-build. Landfill to raise lot, concrete wall and driveway around the lot, drainage canal, landscape. So trying to sell at today's costs is difficult. I started 7 years ago this April.

 

Making it worth even less when we get back, needing everything updated, repaired, refurbished, and probably not located where we (or at least I) will want to be by then.