I own a small house in my hometown. About 4 years ago I decided to move to a larger town closer to relatives. I rented out my house at that time. The new apartment was nice but the promised ammenities were never delivered and every 6 months the rent went up by $25 per month. I eventually decided it wasn't worth it and notified my renters giving them 3 months to find other accomodations. I am very happy to be back in my house.
any FIRE renters here?
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Teacher Terry
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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I like to be able to decorate etc the way I want so I prefer to own.
I think that owning real estate was one of my biggest investment mistakes. I really feel like home ownership should be looked at as somewhat of a luxury good.
A lot of buy versus rent comes down to personality type and personality preferences. I FIREd 8 years ago and have not owned any property my entire life.
I live in the Philippines, and I technically can't own property here, and the legal ways around that are neither air tight nor ideal. Luckily, I have the renter personality/preference so that doesn't bother me at all. But I have warned people wanting advice about potentially living here that if you are the want-to-own type, you should take that into consideration before settling here.
I live in the Philippines, and I technically can't own property here, and the legal ways around that are neither air tight nor ideal. Luckily, I have the renter personality/preference so that doesn't bother me at all. But I have warned people wanting advice about potentially living here that if you are the want-to-own type, you should take that into consideration before settling here.
brett
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After seven months of travel we found that housing requirements/preferences changed. We need and want less room. We also found that the switch to rental was a welcome change from the duties of home ownership in a cold climate.
Being empty nesters made all the difference. Plus no more corporate moves where what items you move make no difference. Now that we are travelling more often and for longer periods we find ourselves placing more emphasis on experiences vs possessions/real estate. We may buy again at some point...but it will have to make financial sense as well as emotional sense. Otherwise we remain happy renters.
Being empty nesters made all the difference. Plus no more corporate moves where what items you move make no difference. Now that we are travelling more often and for longer periods we find ourselves placing more emphasis on experiences vs possessions/real estate. We may buy again at some point...but it will have to make financial sense as well as emotional sense. Otherwise we remain happy renters.
Wasn't the restriction foreigners can't own land or something? Condos are fine, I think, but not single-family unless a Filipino citizen holds majority share of the property. At least that's what I seem to recall from our Civics class.
I considered renting in my last move and looked at a number of places. Rents here are sky high and climbing. That's for anything of a decent size and in a good location (I'm in an urban setting, can walk or bike to work, and that's how I want it, Moving elsewhere like the suburbs would no doubt yield more choice). I was completely discouraged based on what I saw and the list of "unknowns," including the rapidly rising rent cost. All in all I think ownership in this area and this market vs. renting is a better financial decision.
Yes, foreigners cannot own land. A corporation can own land and a foreigner can own up to 40% of a corporation. Technically, only a valid corporation with income can own land. If it is perceived to be strictly a workaround to ownership, then it can be invalidated. With regards to a condo, a corporation runs the condo association and owns the land, the condo unit owners just own the structure and I think the contract is valid for 50 years, at which point, the land owner can retake everything (or something like that). Unlike Thailand, there is no requirement that 50% of the condos be owned by citizens. Many of my friends have bought condos here.
I have two friends that own "mansions" here, for lack of a better term. One has the land in a very trusted Filipino friend's name (that he met back when he was living in the USA) and he leases the land back for 25 years with option to extend to 50, I believe. The other friend has the land in his wife's name and I presume he is also leasing the land back from her. There is risk no matter how you do it. Another friend was going to buy the land in between my two friends' houses and build a house there, but he decided not to proceed strictly for property ownership legal reasons.
Ah, the 50-year contract I didn't know about. That's certainly something to consider as I had been thinking of buying a condo unit for vacations and perhaps to live in upon retirement. I'm Filipino so owning land is an option available to me.
That's good, you have many more options. Although your long term tax situation may be more complicated.
I find it ironic that, when so many Filipinos go abroad, it is almost impossible to for a foreigner to become a Filipino citizen. It literally takes an Act of Congress. There was one foreigner who has lived here for decades, is famous around the world and the Philippines, speaks the language fluently, has a Filipino family and has fully adopted the culture, and yet he has not been allowed to become a Filipino citizen. There was an editorial in a Manila paper a couple of years ago saying, in effect, if we won't make this guy a citizen, then we are really saying that we won't make anyone a citizen.
