Buying a house in the Philippines for the future?

My wife says this is how it becomes when she meets up with other Filipinos and they all talk about what they own and start telling her that she should buy a house in the Philippines.

The they all start getting houses there so they can talk to each other about their house in The Philippines.

She says she just thinks 'oh shut up' when they start off. (Actually it wasn't 'shut up', but you get the general idea. She's such a potty mouth).

It does seem to be very much a keep up with the Jones's thing.

Yes, seems the norm. Sadly a lot bring such attitudes to the UK with them too, which is a bit of a bore... especially to 'minimalist' peasants like me.

The only circumstances I would build a property would be if you intend to start a business and rent it out. Building a free house for relatives to live in isn't a good idea.

This "keeping up with the Jones's" is something that has to be stopped at once.
Your wife has the right idea, Maharg.
I think this one-upmanship must be on Facebook also as my wife has no Filipina friends locally!

Say a child steals a lot from the parents over many years. Why should the child make claims on the parents' property if the parents don't want it to happen? Seems nuts to me, Jim.

Thanks for all of your comments, Peter.
I have told my wife that we will talk about a house in five years, and not before.
It is not always about pleasing the wife, it is about pleasing the husband too.

Yeah. I agree. There is a lot of desire to be boastful. I've lost count of the number of times that nosy relatives have instructed my wife to try and get me to buy a house in the Philippines - one of the mentioned reasons was that 'so she would be a millionaire when I get tired of her'. A number of people spend their time boasting about what sort of house they have built in the Philippines. It's a fools game.

It's one thing setting up a business to rent out a number of properties. It's quite another building a white elephant that is going to be lived in for free by a number of relatives who will be trashing the place and hassling you for upkeep costs. That's just a nightmare waiting to happen.

I suspect that this idea is disguised pressure from relatives rather than based on any sound business principle.

Sounds like you have some sort of a plan. Flooding doesn't affect us even though we are coastal (about 600m away), I'm more worried about typhoon and storm surge damage. Now that you've said about family claiming the land if anything happens to the wife now has me thinking. Obviously I'll no claim, presently we have a sister and brother along with a niece or two on the farm. I think the biggest argument will be who gets our house. To be honest I'm not that bothered thinking about it as I write this. i think our situation is quite different from most here. The family will probably continue to farm it and then sell it later to buy tuba or something.

It's quite another building a white elephant that is going to be lived in for free by a number of relatives who will be trashing the place and hassling you for upkeep costs. That's just a nightmare waiting to happen.

yep--my fiancee has left a nice house behind-----and thats exactly what ive said to her.

Traveling out there is stressful enough with out kids in tow. If you had a more permenant base that may ease things but obviously the costs don't really decrease

Its foundations are here in Europe Spain and Portugal Dom can confirm perhaps Italy?

Large Families each would inherit a share of each (perhapsd quiet small) field they then have to agrewe on the exact division In Portugal still today people own individual Chestnut trees it was a matter of survival in subsistence small holings

She actually avoids spending time with groups of Filipinos because of it and just prefers to have individual friends.

Quality, rather than quantity, is definitely the way to go.

My missus too she calls them Hambugera

My wife doesn't have any Filipina friends (well one that she chats to on the phone every few months).
She avoids all contact even though she really enjoyed chatting with the Filipinas at the last get-together.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the TAX cost associated to owning a house.
I was just reminded of this as, through one thing or another, we didn't pay the Real Property Tax (RPT) on the house in Marikina

Seems if we don't pay up pretty soon we'll be considered tax-delinquent and the property could get auctioned-off by the local government unit (LGU)

The annual tax cost within Metro-Manila 2% of the Assessment Level.
One reason why most folks have two deeds of sale

So, cooking the books happens everywhere!

I think we're paying around p20,000 in some sort of tax (off the top of my head).

The land has also been surveyed and marked out with concrete posts by the town surveyor. All searches being done and correct paperwork is being processed. Yes, vitally important.

So there is an upside to the terrible typhoon for you then. I think you're wise to play the waiting game a little longer.