⌛ owning land and property as a foreigner

Hopefully not at your ugly house?

 

Maybe you should consider nippa for the roof, much cooler and cheaper than tin.
especially when its only one level, (disregarding the stillts), easy maintenance

 

http://www.dumagueteinfo.com/board/expat-section/philippine-architecture-good-bad-ugly-1119.html

 

Brilliant Observation Yabs

YABs where did you come up with that brilliant observation. The Philippines will be a haven for savvy real estate investors and retiree buyers representing the 300 million or so Euopeans and 75 million or so Americans that in the next 15 years will be retiring and certainly many of them will be lookinig at countries like this as they won't be able to survive in their own countries. I have many friends here who are doing quite well in real estate. Why don't you have another pint and share more of your pearly wisdom with us.

 

Here are some facts on land aquisition and ownership

Yabs there are many ways a foreigner can own land here and has nothing to do with his wife or family. Generally through a filipino corporation you set up with trusted lawyers or administrators you have 40% they have 60% but in reality 100% is yours. Others have used charities, churches but that has more ethical consequences. The bottom line there are alternatives. You can also set up your land ownership with your wife as owner but you can have a iron clad 50 year lease on the land and house (in your name) so that way if you have a breakup/divorce you have security until you die. Yes there are some risks but extrememly minor in comparision to the reality. The Philippines will eventually turn itself around and properties in attractive markets will continue to go up in price as they have in Panama, Cost Rica, Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and so on. As for title issues and scams of course they abond but if you do your homework and employ competent attorneys , surveyors you will find that it is easy and not that expensive to ferret out the scams. Frankly you don't need clean title where a tax declaraition will do for 5 years of taxes being paid.

Here are some FACTS

Only Filipino citizens and corporations and associations at least 60% of whose capital is owned by Filipinos may acquire private lands. The other 40% can be owned by a foreigner

Foreigners are allowed to purchase a condominium unit, provided that total foreign ownership of the condominium corporation does not exceed 40 %.

Foreigners may also inherit real property from their deceased Filipino spouses or parents.

Children born to a Filipino parent, whether legitimate or illegitimate, may inherit the property of the Filipino parent, even if the child is not a Filipino citizen

 

good info

this is great info to have in the back pocket!
thanks for sharing,
smed