Exchange rate

It's a lot if you are supporting people there too!

Not such a long time ago that purchasing peso would get you less than 60 for a pound in the UK, it looked grim then and make no mistake those days could return.

It is also important to note that whether those days do return or not is another matter and highly unlikely (edit: I mean unlikely as in not likely to get better) as there are two major factors in play, the exchange rate is the obvious one but local inflation also changes the value of our foreign currency.

An example, a quality rice like Jasmine was about 16 peso a kilo just over 10 years ago, today Jasmine is over 40 peso maybe even over 50 or 60 I am out of date these days, at the same time 10 years back the exchange rate was pretty much what it is today so the relative purchasing power of the pound is considerably less than it was simply as a result of local inflation.

I should add that like everywhere many items have reduced in price gadgets and electronics have effectively fallen in price by quite a bit in the last 10 years so not everything is directly affected by inflation, indeed my rent in the Phils has only gone up 1000 peso a month that was last November after 9 years, it is now 10,000 peso a month for a terraced 2 bedroom house with a huge living area.

I've posted this picture before, but this is the home that I have rented for my family for the last 10 years, 9000 peso a month for 10 years, up till a few months ago when it went up.



It is the food inflation that is bringing food prices closer to western prices these days, property is still cheaper, but we can't own it, cars are still much more expensive in the second hand market, electronics are slightly more expensive than in the UK, power is similar in price to the UK, water probably a lot cheaper, it is still cheaper to go out for a night out in a restaurant or to go see a live band, a lot cheaper to go to the cinema but a lot of other things are very similar in price to here.

It is no longer the incredibly cheap destination that it was 20 years ago.

Thanks chaps.

It's not quite as big as the picture appears as the door to left of the pillar with the electric meters is the next door neighbours house, same landlord and manager, the landlord lives the USA but his manager is a local policeman who lives in the same subdivision.

Nanay keeps the front and the verge in really nice condition, she grows vegetables on that verge

The manager had just repainted the house that year and the neighbours house, couple of years back, the overall condition is a bit poor though, when other neighbours have looked to sell a similar one they are asking about 3 million, but really I would only pay 1.5 as it needs a lot of work to the roof and various other bits, still it is very nice I would be quite upset if we had to move particularly as we have been there a long time.

We spent a whole day searching for a place back when Ana was pregnant with Janna and looked at a lot of places that were nowhere near as nice and some of them a lot more expensive, this one was instantly just right.

Yeah Mike the terrace is nice, we dry the washing up there and there is a covered bit as well, we have had many small parties sitting up there watching the sun go down and surprisingly being able to watch the stars which are often quite clear in Manila, you wouldn't expect that given the pollution, I do a bit of plane spotting from the terrace as well as we can see the flights coming in to land and I get my binoculars out to watch them coming in.

Ana used to make barbecue up there and it's a good spot to watch the kids from when they are out playing, the community is quite nice apart from two of the neighbours that Ana hates.

You won't get a ground floor property, indeed any property really, that does not have bars on the windows, in the richer subdivisions people have car ports built into the house with bars all around.

A dedicated burglar like anywhere in the world would gain access if they wanted.

Theft is unheard of in our subdivision I think it is more an attitude of mind really that makes them build this way, every shop will have shutters of if a smaller shop will have bars on the front same as any shop here.

You should also note that that the electric meters are outside the house in the street and that implies that Meralco don't trust the residents, actually we are quite lucky our meter is at ground level they stick some of them twenty or thirty feet up in the air, I have a picture somewhere of a big block of meters stuck on the top end of a very tall pole

Actually I am pretty sure that quite a lot of people even in our subdivision are jumpered as they say

Anyway a higher exchange rate makes it all the more palatable