Next time you visit a major shopping malls in the Philippines just take a look for those ever present condo developers who would just love to sell to you that beautiful new property development. If fact, come to think of it, you can probably also find them at any Barrio Fiesta here in UK. With the fiesta period under way now this your chance. Of course the downside in UK is that they can never show you around the actual property. Funnily enough not too far away from my experience in the Philippines as well. I very nearly bought a condo in Manila (Marikina City) Seemed to be a great place and a great location. Essentially it was a very nice location actually. But....... well here's what happened to me........ I went with an agent to look around, found it was nowhere near finished enough to realistically compare to any kind of 'specification'. Here's my Experince points to note:- 1. Think about a parking space. A standard parking space would have cost me an additional P375,000 and be large enough for a "typical car". I could never get a specific size big enough for the "typical car", as is was too early to tell. 2. Think about ongoing maintenance costs. I Could never get any specific idea on the maintenance costs. Remember, these cost are obligatory, and can change from time to time. Usually after the contract is signed. I was eventually told 'in-confidence' that the projected minimum maintenance fees would be about P3000 per month but... could finally be between P4000-P6000 because no one can say until that all important contract is signed. 3. Think about insurances. I Could never get any specific idea on the cost of insurance which is obligatory. Insurance costs can vary from time to time. Usually after the contract is signed. 4. Think about deposits. I was told there was a non-refundable and also completely non-transferable deposit required. Basically this meant that If I paid a deposit for 'property A' and then later decided (for whatever reason) to purchase 'property B', I would lose all of that deposit. 5. Think about 'Hidden One time Charges'. I found out I would need to pay a P120,000 "facility entrance fee", for a one time contingency fund. Whatever that was. Couldn't get any answer I could understand. Maybe White-Guy tax? 6. Think about what you will end up with. Now, finally the condo I was being sold, was in fact a concrete room with a toilet and waste and with ONE set of hot and cold water pipes. There were no rooms, means no internal partiton walls at all. Those are extra. No electrical sockets, no other water or waste in or out. No finishes on the walls or the ceilings. ALL extras. Of course it goes without saying, no appliances, no fittings and no furnishings.... ALL EXTRAS 7. No information on the promised pool or in fact on any other facilities, other than they are usually completed before the last condo is finished (ie sold and completed to contract) Sorry if all this sounds negative, not meant to be just advice on what to be smart on. So far I have not bought into a condo. I have friends who have done it and done it well. This is what they tell me, always buy a completed condo in a completed building with completed facilities and with a parking spot (big enough). Always be sure the maintenance costs are fixed'ish' for a specific known time period. Then and only then you can really know what your costs are, and how much you will either pay in rental charges or alternatively just what you can charge for rent, then how much profit you MIGHT make. This is the Philippines. Not all that glisters is found to be gold Oh, BTW, don't forget the legal fees. I don't know if it's true or not, but I have heard say that many new condo developments these days now have a certain 'life' before needing to be re-cycled. This is in terms of materials which tend to crack, crumble look tatty, get poor repairs etc. This period has been said to be about 10 years. Now I have no idea at all if there is any truth in this, but I do wonder. This is not meant to be a guide or even a general description. Just something that happened to me one afternoon. As always no offence intended.
My lawyer explained to me that whole buildings have a 50 year life so these condo towers either have to be fully renovated after 50 years or torn down and rebuilt, so in effect purchasing a condo is a 50 year lease if you get in at the ground floor when it's built so to speak. Monthly dues in the place we used to rent were about 1500 and with increases that went up to 1800, that was I think a 26 sq metre apartment. The condos were selling at the time for around 1.8 million which back then was about 17,000 quid but I never took the plunge just could not afford it at the time. The general idea of the condos was that if you got in early you would get a discount as you were effectively providing capital for the developer to complete the construction, that of course implied that the developer might run out of money and never complete the property. I've visited a couple of show apartments at a couple of big developments and they looked not bad, plus the place we rented was kept in generally good repair and wasn't exactly tatty. But yes what you end up with is an expensive box that you won't be able to sell easily at any kind of profit as they will be building brand new never used ones and offering folk a discount if they buy in early. I think would only ever consider buying one if I planned to live in it and for a long time at that. However having lived in a rented one, for almost a year over there, I must say I enjoyed it and kind of missed it once we left, the location was great in P. Ocompo Sr and the pool and gym were good although I never used the gym (to lazy) The view was smashing looking out over Manila Bay, the security and facilities, shops, internet cafe, hairdressers and so on in the building were great, we even had a dentist on the ground floor and a travel agent. Oh and experiencing a very small earthquake while living on the 20th floor is not something to be missed Only reason we left was that there just wasn't enough room for two kids plus the rest of our entourage once Janna was on the way.
As always a very interesting and informative reply oss. Thanks for that. When we lived in Yokohama we lived in a small apartment and loved in. Our first place in UK during 2002 was also a brand new town centre apartment on floor 8 with great views. Loved it. So I too would feel OK in an apartment. In principle (depends also on neighbours) Anyways, thanks for the good input.
Ah now that is one thing I forgot, yeah the building standards can be shoddy sometimes but those concrete boxes have really good sound insulation, I never heard a peep out of a neighbour in all the time we were there. We did have a really nice neighbour whose son was a great playmate for James but we also ended up being the bank on slightly too many occasions for comfort. As ever living in a tower block can give you some anonymity if that is what one wants and although we really did not know many of our immediate neighbours, we did know a lot of people in our tower and some from the other connected tower. Of course one could always be unlucky and get a really bad neighbour but that can be true anywhere, indeed the girl next door to our place right now is a nightmare and winds Ana up something terrible.
It's kind of very hairy to buy from "abroad" , but that applies anywhere (i.e. Spain or Florida). In General Condo Developers on NEW condos sometimes don't even start building before they have enough tenants signed up. Then some start and stop (for years) in the middle. my advise would be to buy an existing Condo or someone who needs money. general rule of thumb (by a Real estate broker friend of mine) is that at least 20% "jump" off and take the huge losses involved. Then another 25 % "thought" of an "investment" and got smarter later, so they also sell below. Currently, and the trend won't change in the near future, there are lots of condos empty and get cheaper by the day. They build too many. One more thing to consider : "The Builder/contractor legal warranty" expires after 15 years ! i have seen a few (3 only out of 50 plus in Cebu !) Condo towers where this is very visible, they seem to fall apart STRUCTURALLY. (Those are very cheap now , LOL ) The contractor btw is out of business due to lots of courtcases, so its not a general thing, just something to observe. The 50 year rule is also quite normal in the tropics, seldom one sees older buildings. But thats mainly due to the US influence. Build, sell and forget. One can even see that in the Cities in the USA. but even the homes of traditional CONTRACTOR families themselves seldom get older than a generation, then they tear them down and rebuild. The seem to get bored a bit to live in the same house...At least that is what they told me when i asked, why the tear down their often beautiful homes.
