Living in The Philippines > Lodging: Finding A Place to Stay "for a while"

Buying Tips for a Manila Condo

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FastWalk:
Sounds like fun,   I always have a similar advice for this sort of question.   Suggest to rent for awhile in the area you want to live.  I think there are also plenty of good reasons to just buy right away also...

for me the following are why I would not buy right away (however... I did buy instead of rent to start out).

- Get to know the exact area better,  how is the traffic,  local stores,  local culture,  etc...   Most of this stuff one can not know until living day and night in an area for some time.  In my opinion this is more important if choosing to be away from other family.  I mean as annoying as the family can be they probably will not kill you.
- Avoid buyers remorse,  I mean figure out what amenities are really wanted vs watching and thinking about it from a distance.
- While renting looking for a bargain on the one to buy.


 

JoeLP:
Somewhere on this forum, there is a lot of stuff that Lee left us about condo shopping.  Everything from making sure your confident in the security setup to not buying a top floor condo due to roof leaks and how slow some condo companies are in getting those fixed and more. 

codefreeze:

--- Quote from: FastWalk on March 11, 2019, 08:31:33 AM ---Sounds like fun,   I always have a similar advice for this sort of question.   Suggest to rent for awhile in the area you want to live.  I think there are also plenty of good reasons to just buy right away also...

for me the following are why I would not buy right away (however... I did buy instead of rent to start out).

- Get to know the exact area better,  how is the traffic,  local stores,  local culture,  etc...   Most of this stuff one can not know until living day and night in an area for some time.  In my opinion this is more important if choosing to be away from other family.  I mean as annoying as the family can be they probably will not kill you.
- Avoid buyers remorse,  I mean figure out what amenities are really wanted vs watching and thinking about it from a distance.
- While renting looking for a bargain on the one to buy.

--- End quote ---

I think this is really good advice.

OP: You don't mention if after the purchase you will be living there year round, or splitting time between there and somewhere else? I think that's important to know.

Turo:
Thanks to all for your replies. Your information is very appreciated. We will actually be staying in my sister in laws condo in Bonifacio Heights during our next visit to puchase for a month or so. The eventual plan is to live in the Philippines 10 months of the year with the rest devoted to travel and visiting those remaining in the US so we need a unit that is relatively safe to lock and leave. We have spent some time in the area (McKinley, BGC, Bonifacio Heights...Taguig in general) and are comfortable with most of what is there with Manila traffic being the biggest caveat and the cigar lounge in the Manila Penninsula in Makati the biggest draw (for me). Our main requirements though are ease of airport access, a pool and a low rise unit larger that 55sqm.

I recall reading Lee's comment about penhouses and to never buy one. I actually used that advice in a real and immediate way when we nixed a unit in Bacolod during this last visit.

codefreeze:

--- Quote from: Turo on March 11, 2019, 10:39:35 PM ---<snip>The eventual plan is to live in the Philippines 10 months of the year with the rest devoted to travel and visiting those remaining in the US so we need a unit that is relatively safe to lock and leave.<snip>

--- End quote ---

In that case I would add "make it a reasonable size" to your list - ideally two bedrooms. We stayed mostly in studio type apartments and soon realised we'd get cabin fever if we lived there long term. A bedroom/study or TV room where you can shut the door and have some me time or go into "man cave mode" is a good idea. :)

I think your choice to go low-rise is possible a good thing. With high-rise you do have a feeling of being up in an eerie - this may be fine short term, but I suspect you'd feel very isolated after a while. One caveat though with low rise - make sure there are decent communal facilities. I say this as I found these places (swimming pool, gym, mini-mart, laundry) a great place to meet other expats and find out what's going on. I would also look for a place where there was a decent sized mall nearby. Great place for mallathons (exercise), but you've got doctors, church, dentists, supermarkets (Rustins etc.) restaurants etc there too.

Good luck!

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