The mission of this section of British-Filipino.com is to help and advise those would be British male spouses of Filipino Citizens living in the UK and elsewhere in the world, as there is so little information available to the foreigner property investor in the Philippines

Very often buyers are at the mercy of unscrupulous developers, who have no qualms whatesover of taking advantage of your lack of knowledge, they continue to cheat their kababayans whenever the opportunity presents itself, make no mistake about it, they have no problem whatsoever with cheating the would be foreigner investor, hence this is the reason for reproducing some of the material that has come to the attention of British-Filipino.com

Most of the material has been obtained by consulting a leading local Filipino expert in property acquisition and guide to buying and investing in real estate including lots only, and residential property, the aim of this association between the two organizations is to provide valuable and cost saving information to those interested British readers who at some stage now or in the future may be comtemplating purchasing real estate, and to provide a link in the Philippines to someone who is of the same nationality and background who is there to assist anyone reading this material who is looking for a real estate broker and is considering a future purchase.

We have consulted our partners Asian Homes Realty Services who have assisted us in writing this very comprehensive guide and hopefully, it will help to save some heartaches for our interested readers, however whilst we are poviding this guide, British-Filipino can accept no liability in terms of the advice given, it is we stress a rough guide, and it does not replace any legal advice that can be obtained by consulting a real estate law practice in the Philippines, it is as we have said, a guide, the guide has many valuable tips and trap avoiders, however, as will be mentioned throughout this section of the website, obtaining a Filipino real estate property lawyer is always the key to having the right protection.

Armando Ang (2003) Tips and Traps when buying or Building a Home (For Philippine Application) A1 publshing.

For many of us, owning a home is the cornerstone of our dreams, if we live in UK its likely that we will either be renting a property, or paying a mortgage on a property, in reality there isnt much difference, apart from the fact, when paying a mortgage we are hoping at the end that we end up owning the fruits of our labour, very often our home is part of our retirement plan

It can also be one of the most stressful endeavours anyone one of us can undertake, it normally involves a substancial cash injection from your savings, when you add on top of that the complexities of legal fees, and the mine field of amortizations ( mortgages) especially when you are reliant on this, due to lack of adequate cash flow.

I am spending long hours at night here and during my spare time, writing these pages, in the hope that it will help my fellow kababyans ( Countrymen) to make intelligent decisions without falling prey to a fortune seeker, which we will discuss at some stage in this thread, for those that are not sure what fortune seekers are, I will give you a hint, sometimes they are your Filipina spouse or fiancee, or Girlfriend who is looking for a get rich quick scheme, normally at your expense, through aquisition of a lot, or real estate property, (may I say at this point, that I am in no way suggesting your WAG's are going to cheat you out of your investment, in the majority of cases, the WAG's are genuine life time partners, and are only too happy to work with you to achieve a good investment property, and to live with you in the Philippines when the time is right for you to do so, I am simply referring to the occasional bad Filipina WAG's who have no intention of doing this) if its not them you have to watch out for, its also unscrupulous sellers and developers, which seem to follow this type of transaction in the Philippines, if you are frightened by all of this, I'm glad, as it really will sober you up, and get you to be very careful what you do, when it comes to your life savings, or your hard earned income, interested ? read on !

Non-Filipinos don't have the right to acquire real estate properties in the Philippines. The easiest way for a foreigner to acquire real estate properties is to have a Filipino spouse purchase the property. Having a Filipino partner (business) is also another alternative when acquiring a property. Either both share the property with equal rights, or the partner owns 51% or more and the remainder is owned by the foreigner. Special visas are available for foreigners who want complete and total control of a property.

Only Filipino citizens and corporations (at least 60% Philippine-owned) are entitled to acquire land in the Philippines. As an exception to this rule, a foreign acquisition of a Philippine real estate is allowed in the following cases:

1. Acquisition before the 1935 constitution.
2. Acquisition thru hereditary succession if the foreign acquire is a legal or natural heir.
3. This simply means that when your married to a Filipino citizen and your husband/wife dies, you as the natural heir will become the legal owner of his/her property.
4. The same is true for the children. Every natural child (legitimate or illegitimate) can inherit the property of his/her Filipino father/mother even if he/she does not any Filipino citizenship.
5. Purchase of not more than 40% interest in a condominium project.
6. Purchase by a former natural-born Filipino citizen subject to the limitations prescribed by law.
7. Filipinos who are married to aliens who retain their Filipino citizenship, unless by their act or omission they have renounced their Filipino citizenship.
8. Owning of houses or buildings is possible as long as the foreigner does not own the land on which the house is build. The land can be leased by the foreigner on a long term contract, and the house can be legally his. (More information on foreign leasing later).

The idea for me writing this part of my website, was really thought up, when I was comteplating buying my first plot of land in the Philippines, what I find is, there is so much lack of information and when you do get information, its either misleading or poor, and most of the information is provided by sellers, or developers, what sellers also tend to do, is withhold information that is negative about a paticular lot or property you might be interested in.

Prevention of a headache is better than the cure, if you are parting with your hard earned foreign currency in the Philippines, be sure to take with you a good supply of aspirin as you might need it especially when you fall into the hidden traps that always seem to be part of any business transaction in the Philippines.

The main goal herewith is to give you some confidence especially for those first timers in country, even seasoned travellers to the Philippines get duped into purchasing a home wiithout giving any thought to protecting their hard earned money, so lets start and give you some confidence by giving you knowledge of your given subject, remember knowledge is power, and is a protection from being taken for a fool, with the knowledge you are now about to acquire, you should be able to negotiate so much better in the Philippines from a position of strength knowledge protects you more than anything else, I dont care how many professional experts you employ, there is no substitute for your own research.

Do not rely on Philippine Government legislation nor try to rely on Government officials to protect your interests, either they are too busy to help with your paticular problem, or they are corrupt in the first place, or they are on the take from unscrupulous developers, all it can take is 1 corrupt official to get wind of your gripe, and they will ignore your grievance.

If you want to lay your hands on Philippine Government code of ethics and conduct in real estate transactions you may wish to obtain from the HLURB ( Revised editions for implementing rules and regulations for BP 957 and BP220 these can be purchased from the office of HLURB, also you may wish to obtain the 1996 Revised rules of procedure of HLURB , anyone who encounters problems with developers has a right to seek advice from the authorities. The HLURB is a regulatory body, set up by the Republic of Philippines Government to regulate the whole Real Estate industry, things such as not showing proper documents to a would be purchaser these include the contract to sell, the master deed, and the deed of restrictions, many of these provisions are often one sided, and serve to increase the power of the developer over the buyers fro years to come, the HLURB is there to help if this is the case.

The Philippines property market is different from the United Kingdom property market, so try not to make a comparison, they are not the same, ideas you have about the Philippines cannot be translated from property investment ideas you have in the UK, profit in the Philippines only comes in so far as when you bought your house inititally at the right price, if it is located in a good sub division, has good facilities, and and any other features that can bring added value to your home, market forces in the UK are totally different and supply and demand in the Philippines will not work the same way as it does in the UK - so forget any notions you have about rising values, it takes a bit more, than a demand problem to make money out of Filipino property.

Investing in real estate in the Philippines is considered a medium to long term investment be prepared to hold on to your property for many years, there is some income to be had from renting out such an investment, however like in UK, this is frought with its own set of problems, such as tennants who refuse to move out, wear and tear on your investment, this normally involves you spending more money to bring it back up to standard, however having said that, with the cost of real estate and materials rising faster than inflation in the Philippines acquiring property at the right price is a good way to plan for your future retirement in the Philippines if that is what is driving your interest in this area.

There are many legitimate real estate and building contractors in the Philippines, but many also want to exploit the vulnerability of investors and first-time buyers, much more so with the foreigner investor, do be careful, developers can run away with your hard earned money without you having the slightest notion, that this would be happening, and remember you are over 6000 miles away, they must be rubbing their hands at the thought !, there is no substitute for good preparation, preparation prevents you from being cheated, knowledge and expertise are your safeguards against being scammed cheated or defrauded in the Philippines real estate industry.

Always take your time when deciding to buy a property, any oral promises made by an agent, broker, or representative of any developer, must be put in writing, agents in the Philippines are not like agents in the UK, many of them are what I term " Freelance agents' Filipino developers, have this habit of relying on any tom dick and Maria..to conduct real estate tours in the Philippines, very often its a part time commission based job they have, they could be a house help or doing something else in the daytime, in other words, they are not experts at what they do, they might take a commission for introducing you to the developer, always beware of Tito xxxx or Tita xxxx will arrange this for you, or that for you, very often, promises they make about a certain property, are not backed up in writing, so never decide on a first meeting to buy a property, in case of any doubt, do not hesitate to approach the proper authorities having any jurisdiction over the subdivision, lots, condominium, or townhouse, if they are a reputable developer they will be registered by the Housing and Land use Regulatory Board (HLURB), the latter authority has exclusive jurisdiction over all transactions.

This is one of my favourites, the pre-selling scam - this is how it works, a certain developer will lure you to invest with the promise of a huge return through the purchase and sale of real estate homes, they will promise to start construction within a reasonable time, and if not done, promise you a high interest return repayment on your deposit, before long the developer has ran away with your deposit, and left you with worthless documents.

Always keep all promotional materials given out by a developer, any promises made in writing are considered part of any project, take note of what a broker says, always check out the oral promises made and see whether they are included in the plans, if not, make sure they are included in the contract of sale, and watch out for any clause in the contract of sale that overrides any promises made by a broker, better yet, be smart and make the approved specification part of any contract to sell.

Some contracts are often vague, they might include the specifications of certain parts of the property, but never enough to protect the buyer, the contract to sell often includes the floor and wall finish but is rather vague about the size of floor tiles, or the brand names used, the same should be noted about plumbing and hardware, electrical materials etc, the cost of these items often end up being half the cost of the sale of the property, watch out, it might be more under the realms of an unscrupulous developer.

Developers also can lure an investor into investing in a paticular project using well known personalities during a promotion phase, this is paticularly prevalent in condominium building projects, ensure that if you are in the pre-selling phase, in other words, they are not built yet, so make sure you obtain an agreed timetable of start and completion of your condominium with the reservation built into your agreement and contract to sell that if the developer fails to meet the deadline, he is contractually bound to give a refund with interest, that will get them to think twice before taking you on as a purchaser.

Condominium sales are frought with complex dangers, most of the time, the owner of the lot the condominium is built on, is not the same as the developer, purchasers never seem to be provided with the right documentation with a clear and english written deed of title, even after all financial obligations have been settled, this oversight has caused many buyers to be swindled out of their property that should be theirs, sometimes developers will abandon a project if they have difficulty in completing it, they might offer something from another project, always at a loss to the buyer of course, in the case of condominium sales, the would be buyer must in all cases, obtain the services of an English speaking real estate lawyer, and pay good fees to get the best protection possible.

This scam is effectively a real estate fraud - Developers will seek to sell the same lot ( for foreigners this is a peice of designated land on which you may build a future house) to several different buyers, with the pretext that some of them if not all will fail to complete the instalment plan. Under Filipino lot purchase rules, if the buyer fails to complete the instalment plan, they forfeit the title to the peice of land, and any money they have paid. If a buyer then religiously completes the agreed instalment plan, say over 60 months they then get to find out, that someone else owns title the land offered for sale, they are then given the Royal run around of all time, or offered another Lot of land somewhere else but not neccessarily in the sub division they thought they had bought it in.

The Double selling of lots of land by developers is such a common problem in the Philippines, that the Philippine congress has sort to pass an article no 1544 in the civil code of the Philippines which states that " When one or more parties have purchased a plot of land, the one who has first registered the plot in the register of Deeds, is the considered owner, In the absence of any registration by any party(ies) the one who takes possession is deemed the owner", any grievance regarding this scam can only be recoursed to the vendor or seller therefore:-