Trades & Labor Best Posts in Thread: Update on building costs

Maybe you should meet a few more builders here before you continue to crap all over people you don't know.

In the 12 years I've been here I didn't notice collapsed building all over the place. There were some pretty severely damaged buildings from a 6.9 earthquake which is understandable.
People here listen to you and come to believe a carpenter here can't even install a door lock set. When my carpenter was making some mortice and tenon joints for a door he fit the pieces together then took them apart and started to shave away bits of wood. I asked him why he was doing that, they fit perfect. His answer; "I need room for the glue". People here have skills. He cut the cornice molding over my cupboards with a handsaw. I couldn't make that cut with a $1500 compound angle miter saw.
If there are failures due to the crappy materials available here it not right to blame the failures on the builder.

Your Sir Dave need to get out and meet more people before you crap on everyone.

 

The cost to be aware of in any sub division or condo is the association dues which pays for the security guards, street lights, swimming pool and clubhouse running and maintenance.
When we first came here we lived in a small sub division that had no pool or clubhouse so the dues were very small, a few hundred per month, one month one of the owners did not pay stating no budget which was strange as everybody knew they were business owners and had just bought a shiny new 4 wheel drive pick up, this had a domino effect on other owners and the end result was that those who were willing to pay had to pay more and more every month, if we all stopped paying then there would be no security guards or streetlights.
Regarding a condo which i have personal experience of (not in Dumaguete) the association dues were high and just kept rising and rising to the point where i was beginning to feel as if i was not an owner and was only renting it.
When Marina Spatial had a stand in Hypermarket just out of interest as i would never buy one i asked the sales lady what the cost was for the dues, she could or would not tell me and said this would be decided once you buy it

 

When you rent in a Sub-division the Tenant pays the dues in most cases, I have lived in two for the one year agreement and both times paid the SD fees and just like it has been mentioned before these fees seem to increase quite frequently, way above the normal rate of inflation, I never want to live in this situation again, they have you by the short and curly's

 

Thanks for the invite. When my second dose of vaccine is done I'll get Liverpool fan to bring me up your way.
When you mentioned you don't trust foreigner builders I thought well Darwin knows his stuff. LoL small world isn't it. He was running a job on the lot next to me. I was impressed when they brought out a transit to layout the building. When the brand new Caterpillar 426F backhoe arrived..... well what can I say.
Look forward to meeting you.

 

In my opinion there is Never a good time to buy a used house, underneath the render may be the shittiest build ever, this you can almost never tell when looked at unless there is obvious cracks appearing, one of the common faults I have seen here is; Lintels over doors, what is often done there is; they jam a bit Coconut wood up between the gap in the block work intended for the Door or Window, place one or two bits of rebar above the wood some Mortar and then build more blocks on top of that, this should either be a reinforced concrete precast beam or cast in place beam.

When you buy a finished house you will never know how the Lintels have been constructed, how deep the foundation is, the gauge of reinforcing steel when/if used. Just yesterday I heard about an unusual problem a Foreigner had in his not so old apartments, the Plumber he used does not trust the glued fitting on Plastic pipes so he decided in his wisdom to drill holes in the fitting and Pop Rivet these fittings as well as glue them, 2/3yrs on and these Rivets corroded out, now he has had to replace all these pipes attaching them to the outside walls, I have no sympathy for this man as he claimed he was a Plumber himself back in his home country of England, from your area Mr S, Haha.

These are just some of the problems with buying used, I have heard of more and some of these take years to show up?

 

Thats how we do it in Aust, each house or apartment is charged on the square meter size so the bigger ones pay more than the smaller units.

The owners pay the dues or Strata fee we call it. If you rent one the owners still pay it not the tenant.

A few of the owners in the complex make up a committee and sometimes a Strata company is used to run it.

A Levey is normally added to the dues / strata to allow for future costs.

 

They should give a figure as it will be when it is fully sold - if they are not able to do so then they need to go back to school. In the meantime, they should shoulder the difference between final dues and what they require for maintenance (certainly less than when fully sold as they have less to maintain currently). If this is not the case then dues will see-saw every time new units are being sold. One thing I would expect if buying there - rapidly increasing fees (it's how these companies make a tidy income for years to come).

 

So, with the development having many sold units they are not able to tell you the dues??? No wonder they built near the sea as this sound very fishy to me.

 

A frequent theme here, but:

Anyone had quotes for any type of house building work recently?

I am looking for 4 to 5 competent (the word that unfortunately often makes people fall over with laughter) builders - I have two in mind so far.

Does anyone have any concrete (unintended pun!) evidence of the effect of the pandemic on house building costs in the Philippines (I read that worldwide material prices are in short supply and prices are escalating)? If people are not instigating new build then supply/demand should mean builders are willing to cut their margins - but if material prices are escalating then they may have no scope to do so.

So, is this a good time to build or a better time to buy used?

Anyone who has opinions but prefer to be discreet then I am happy to correspond by PM.