To buy a condo or not to buy!

I've know someone who bought a unit in a high rise in Makati. It took 3 years to finish, but he made some money when he sold it after completion. It's a speculative business, so if you don't have the money to make a long term investment with, renting is the way to go, plus it gives you the freedom to just pack up and move. In the rent versus buy equation, it takes years for the buy decision to pay off. Like Dave said, the rents are not in proportion to the buy price. If you got money burning a hole in pockets or you come across someone desperate to sell, have at it. In general, I find the prices there seriously inflated. I wonder what keeps them propped up.

 

Ah yes him, the man that diagnoses bladder stones in a 5 y.o. male Rottweiler and says it's necessary to castrate the dog at the same time, for me, no thanks, I'd rather go to our other local animal butcher, Baro(Capital area), or the two lady vets in town(Cani & Gatti in Bantayan or Paws & Claws, Bagacay).

 

I had a condo in Makati, which was 87.5 Filipino and 12.5 English owned ( me ). It was an 8 unit building, and as such the residents not only owned the units, but also the land. My only problem there, was that I paid my dues upfront at the beginning of the year and the rest paid as and when they felt like it. As such, maintenance was only done when something broke. As I only bought it as an investment, I sold after six years. So far as I know, they are now having trouble with back taxes on the common areas which the condo sits on, parking area and driveway. If you decide to buy into a multi storey condominium, you need to find out if there is a pool, gym, parking etc etc, as all these have to be paid for in your condo fees as well as security, lobby staff + property tax. A condo may seem a good idea, but the reality is that you cannot control the running costs, you may well be better off renting a house long term.

 

For many years, my wife and I served as buyer's agents. During this time, we bought and sold 85 properties. We learned many lessons and insights the hard way. As to the poster's question about what keeps prices so propped up:

The number #1 reason is there are no listing service where buyers and sellers can find the going price of a similar property. Sellers do not know what the lot or condo next door sold for because the selling price is often deflated to save on closing cost. The only measure a seller has is the asking price of his neighbor. This means that if one condo owner is asking an "over the moon" price, other condo owners will jack up their price. This is a tough situation to come up against as a buyer. We have found that many times an area gets way overpriced and there is nothing to do but walk away. It sometimes takes 3-4 years for a condo building or a neighborhood to return to reasonable prices. It is also very difficult for a foreigner to negotiate with a Filipino. Our tough-buyer tactics are usually taken as rude.

 

I'll just mention one experience I'm familiar with from an old foreigner friend (Tom) that passed away in Cagayan de Oro when I loved there years back. My friend (foreigner) and his wife owned a house and happily married, house and land was of course in the wife's name. The wife got very sick and ended up in Cebu with her husband and eventually died in the hospital. The man after arranging all the affairs and to have his wife's body sent back home for burial returned home to CDO. What he found was the wife's family had taken up residence in his house and was refusing to leave. They cited how he was just her husband while they were blood so they should get the house not him as it was their blood relatives house. The police wouldn't do anything and told him he had to take it to court. He spent 2 years in and out of court often with the family not showing or requesting a change of date at the last second. The first court ruled against him as the foreigner citing how a foreigner can't own land. He appealed and challenged that by the law that a foreigner CAN own land when its inherited such as from his deceased wife. That court case was dragged on and on because at first the family said they should have an equal share in an inheritance split from their blood relative and citing how their relative never said the house should go to him should she die (well she was 40ish and he was 71). They dragged this out for 2 years with some of the weakest arguments one can think of and refused to leave the house. Eventually after 2 years fighting this my friend died which pretty much ended that case.

Before he died plenty of suggestions were made that he settle it a *different* way to *take care of* said family squatters. Sadly he didn't take that advice to get rid of a few cockroaches calling themselves family.

Point is here in the Philippines no matter what the one thing you can be certain of is as a foreigner your never safe and secure especially where your money and investments are concerned. Laws don't work in our favor even when they are spelled out clearly to support us in certain issues. Someone should always take that to mind when considering putting down any serious investment here.