⌛ Renting... How to find a place?

Hi

Im now here in this forum. Im married to a Pinoy and we are considdering to live in Phil. I want to rent for a period of time to see if this is for me. Im not new to the phils but i will not invest in a house before i find THE city and spot :-)


So how to find a nice place to rent while figuring out what the future will bring?

Btw im 36 and from Norway. My wife is 30. I will soon be in a position where i can move and become a permanent resident. Im not retired, but due to helth i cant work so ill get a "pension" witch i can live poorly on in Norway ore good on in Philipines. Ouer mony is worth about 7 times moore in Phil if we buy local food and so on then here in Norway. But we wold need a place to stay and im not going to live in a small apartment. If ever possible it wold be a good sized house outside the city with a good sized lot. House 100m2+ and lot at least 500m2++. Valencia is a nice place to :-)

So what will sutch a place cost. What standards are you guys living under? Btw this is not a ad, just a search for information for now.

RC

 

Depends.

Hi RCS, Jack P. here saying hello and Welcome. Intro says quite a bit, so we have some insight. Renting can be Good and Bad, like anywhere else in the world. Try booking into a Hotel first, for at least 2 weeks, have a Look around, find your feet a little. There are plenty of sign Boards around Advertising rentals. Have a look at the site posted, It really does depend on what YOU need or REQUIRE. One thing I will say is, Check out the Health care and medicine costs, you say you have ill health and the PI is not renowned for Good Health Care. Just a thought, That's all. Valencia is brilliant and as you probably aware is cooler and can be a little cheaper to live day by day, not too sure about housing costs BUT check out the site, Good Luck.

Dumaguete Properties (DumagueteProperties.com) - Real Estate Properties in Negros Oriental, Philippines


Jack P.

 

Hi and thanks Jack P.

I have already experiance the helth care in Philippines. I got Dengue Fever now on my last trip and had to stay at the hospital for 5 days. Paid extra for a private room (1600 pesos) and the room was like the advertisments they have on travle insurances. The room u might get if you DONT have the insurance is what i got...hehe. But the doctor, Phillip Limsy, was professional and had knowledge it seem. And the end result was good so all in all im still alive. Thats most important. And yes. Medecin is crazy expensive. I feel verry sad for all those locals who buy 2 of 10 antibioticas because thats what they can afford.

Ill try to keep all my questions in this thread so i dont have many roalling.

Stay in hotel... I guess we have to until we find something to rent. But i wold prefer to live outside town and lets say max rent is 15.000 pesos. That shuld result in a nicer place? In Dipolog, witch seem to me to be a moore expensive place on real estate, you can get a small apartment for 3000pesos pr month. Minimalistic, but clean and cosy :-). But since i have my son also with me when time comes its important that he likes it... So im willing to pay moore to make him happy, and the wife of corse :-)

I never talked any with the McDonalds clientel, but i overheard some and espesialy one guy seem to know realestate well.....and i feel sorry for him because to me it sounded like he needed a bit moore time in phils to understand the consept of forigner prices :-). From experiance its always smart to send ur wife and never show face until price is settled. If a forigner drops in the price doubbles ore moore.... Is this the same in Dumaguete?

I apresiate all the good answers. When we come back it wold be nice to meet some of you for a coffee and to learn from "locals" :-)

 

Dumaguete City

Hei, hallo RCS. Og velkommen til Dumaguete. The city of gentle people.:D
Nice to see another Norwegian planning to settle in town.
I have been coming and going to Philippines, Dumaguete for almost 24 years now. You can ask me if you need some advice about the town. I (We)
Got a house north of DGTE, which I buildt in 1988. Would love to rent it out.
But again, where would my big loving family live then. Hmm, joke sorry.
Bare ta kontakt hvis du lurer på noe. Feel free to use my Email:
magne_v@soon.com

Ok lykke til, ha en god dag.

 

Welcome to the forum!
Answering on your question "How to find a place" - the cheapest way is to rent room in a guesthouse or hotel for some time, then find some transport like hired tricycle or a car with a driver, but the best option is renting a motorcycle if you know how to drive it.
Then you can just go anywhere you like - there are a lot of signs and ads everywhere about houses for rent.
Prices across Philippines start from 3000 pesos monthly for the cheapest unfurnished studio apartment. Unfurnished local house will cost you from 5000 pesos in some local subdivision with a lot of neighbors around, but with a small private lot. Furniture will add about 2-3k pesos monthly or about $500-1000 once for a simplest bamboo set of 8 pieces, two beds, mattresses, kitchen stuff and refrigerator.
European style houses with furniture start from 12000, really best house for me is 16000 with everything inside, not the cheapest materials, big private lot without curious eyes around.
You can see a post in my and my girlfriend's blog about how we've searched for house for rent in Dumaguete, but it is in Russian language. You can find a translator in the bottom of the left sidebar, but it translates not accurate. At least I hope you will see the pictures and approximate prices.

 

Fallenviking: Thanks for your kind reply. I will send you an email soon :-)

ajayver: Thanks for letting me learn from your experiance. I looked at the link and translated it...As you mentioned the translation wasent that good, but i understood most of it :-). My plan was to find a cheap place while renting a bike to get around so we can look at houses and apartments. I love riding the 100cc bikes in phil... The way trafic is there is crazy, but we just have to be a bit crazy to :-).

Im not yet shure when this will happen, but we will move to philippines. My only consern is the helthcare there... Not all medecin is available either? Im using some painkiller bandaids called Fentanyl, but i have asked a few places without any results. But maby the solution is to manage on less there... Life there is less stressfull so maby that wold work including some weekly trips to a pro massage place.

What is your opinion of crime and prostitution there in the city? I honestly havent seen mutch prostitutes anywhere in philippines, but maby they dont nessaserely dress like in Amsterdams red light districteither :-). Im just asking to make a picture of the place where i might let my son grow up in :-). I guess there must be many forign kids also going to school there? I guess there is English talking schools there for forign kids?

 

Sorry, I don't now anything about health care, because I'm still new in town.
Basically I was traveling last 4 years across Asia to find a good place for raising my future kids and until now, I think Dumaguete is perfect for this. May be not the best, but better then other places I've tried to live in.
Philippine people know English language very good because in schools almost all the books are in English. That means, that mostly all education is given in English language and your kid will have no need to visit some schools for foreigners. But it is only my thought, I don't have any experience proving that. And consider that comparing to other Asian countries they have a very good pronunciation!

I saw some prostitutes here, but very rare. I think they appear only late at night on the boulevard near couple of specific bars, so I don't think kids will notice them. As for the crime, I think it is safer here than in Manila, Cebu or most European cities, because it is still a small town. Serious criminals prefer to go to bigger cities and Cebu is like a magnet for them in our case - it is just 5 hours ride from here. Just keep your head on your shoulders as you do in your country and everything should be fine.

 

I asked some ppl we met about prostitution and they said that they mostly hang around the bulevard. I guess we have some prost. also here in my city, but it isent so obvius as many other places. Im shure its not a big deal... :-)

So what is the downside about living in Philippines? I have a canadian friend living in Cebu and he thinks that Philippinos dont like forigners and that they always rise the prices if a white man shows up. I know many will try, but i also understand why. Like this kid in Manila who tried to get us to follow the bike he drove ppl with...100 pesos only :-). I just smiled and and went on...Im to tall for those cabs anyway :-)

One thing that i know sometimes might be frustrating is the "comman sense" issue. We have learned how things work in ouer own contrys, but when u come to Philippines they often have a completly diffrent wiew on things...Like the use of front breaks on a bike. Thats your MAIN break and is crusial to effective breaking.... In Philippines most bikes and cabs dont have a working front break because they use the one in the back instead. Try explaining why they shuld use the one in front... I urged my "papang" in Dipolog to fix his front break on the motorcab. Its diffrent on a cab, but in a imergancy you need to use the front one if u dont want to crash.....

Also the corrupt police there. Have any of you had any experiance with the police (I assume you all are good law abiding ppl). I have been stopped many times, but i also always have everything in order. But what if i dont have and they deside i need to pay? Do i pay ore do i argue the law? Same with so many other things in philippines.... Like importing things from home. I hear they are werry corrupt at the toll office to? Not all im shure, but many. Will it work to be hard headded and ask them to follow the written law ore is it best to make a deal and move on?

I guess we all learn over time how things work. Im not the guy that accept everything right away...Like the tax they wanted my wife to pay when going back home to Norway. I asked for a clear explenation why this tax exist and why we have to pay it.... Just buy asking a explenation they said its ok, no need to pay?? I guess sometimes wheels have to bee greaced to work, but why give moore then absolutly needed.

 

word of warning...the most provocatively dressed girls walking the streets in the PI tend to be boys...

 

Haha, i know. Whorst is that some looks realy good to...until they speak :-)

Anyway im not looking for any companionship with any of them. Im werry happy with my wife :D. I might look at the menue, but always eat at home :p