Other Bacong vs Valencia

My wife and I (Filipina & Foreigner) are considering buying a lot in Bacong and building a house there. However, when we told a married couple (Foreigner & Filipina) of our plans, they warned us Bacong is difficult to deal with regarding building permits, etc. Their experience was so negative, that they eventually sold their lot in Bacong and bought a lot and built in Valencia, where their experience was much better from day one. This of course caused us to be concerned about building in Bacong, but before changing our plans, we wanted to first ask those within this forum (who have built in Bacong or Valencia) what they experience was like, to see what the consensus opinion might be.

 

i lived there for a year. nothing to do with real estate but most of what i heard was negative about the political environment

 

I built a house in bacong. It was a nightmare getting permits. I will never build in bacong again. You can get a permit in valencia in a few days. It took several weeks in bacong. Be sure to get permits before starting construction.

 

Be carefull with property in Valencia, some people think its worth 17,000 sqmtr. Also get your builder to get the permits, they know who to talk to and get it done quickly..

 

Is that the lot price? If so, then land is even more crazily expensive than I thought. They give as a reason for not allowing foreigners to own land that it would push up prices (the real reason being they don't want foreigners to have any involvement in their country other than input money) - with 10,000 already being asked in some areas (Daro) a 500 sq m lot would cost 5m pesos or about $100,000, so how much more expensive can it get to buy just the scrap of land? After all, looking around, I don't see the Kardashians, Beckhams, Middle-Eastern oil sheikhs or other wealthy Globe-trotters mooring their yachts offshore - it will take a huge change in the country to attract the really wealthy.

 

We have built or are starting to build 3 homes in Bacong. The builder was responsible to obtain the permits, with us providing “all” the proper paperwork. Takes 4-6 weeks. Just received a new permit two weeks ago.

 

We have built a 3 story house in Bacong but that was in 2003 and two years ago built a guesthouse that we rent out to supplement my measly UK state pension.
Not a problem with permits, why should they be it's bring in money to the economy.

 

"Measly"? - think of all the perks you received whilst working (including second home bought for you by the taxpayer) and your great work pension (plus lucrative jobs now in the sectors you were responsible for!), even though you might have worked only a few years AND had been allowed to have a 2nd, 3rd and 4th (etc.) job at the same time!

SORRY!!! I was thinking you had been an M.P. My mistake.

 

We built our house in Bacong and it wasn't to much hassle. This year we are extending our fence in order to put in a pool and getting the permit takes a while, 2-3 weeks. It isn't really a nightmare, they are happy to give one, they are just careful now to follow all the rules. Once the permits are obtained, work goes fairly smooth. We have also remodeled the dirty kitchen, essentially turning it into a two bedroom guest house. All with no problems. I do think they are stricter, but if you got the time to work through it, you won't be sorry.