It’s Your Money > Building in the Philippines
Subdivisions or not
suzukig1:
--- Quote from: rdjlazo on January 20, 2011, 03:14:25 AM ---Why are X pats and O F W\'s prefer indvidual lot to build on compared o
buiding in subdivisons? Whats the typical reasons you don\'t like
Subdivisions?
I see a lot of subdivision lots remaining empty and wondering why
the lot owners there don\'t want to build. Investments?
Inputs are appreciated.
--- End quote ---
Cost.
We are buying a house in a Vista Land development in Tuguegarao City. P3.4M for a 98 sq. m two story house on a 150 sq. m lot. The lot cost was P9000 - P10,000 per sq. m.
We spent P2M to build a 200 sq. m one story house on a 500 sq. m lot (P100,000 for the lot) in Tuao about 1 hour away from Tuguegarao City. We could have the same house built (from the same contractor as our current house) for the same P2M in Tuguegarao City. I don\'t know the lot costs in Tuguegarao City outside of a development because we didn\'t look.
But we bought in the development mainly so we wouldn\'t have poor neighbors. Also, there will be a little commercial development in front of the housing development. I\'m hoping for some restaurants there. So when my wife is at the Tuao house and doesn\'t come home for dinner I can eat at a restaurant instead of eating mayonaise sandwiches and cracker nuts.
dylanaz:
I have lived both inside a subdivision and outside a subdivison...
Pro of living OUT a subdivision..
1. COST - You pretty much can pick ANY price as long as an owner agrees.
2. Neighbors - you ALWAYS have neighbors to talk to and have fun with
CONS of living OUT of a subdivison
1. Lower quality of life sometimes too near - yes it costs less for YOU, but what about those people shacking up 3 meters form your house in a cardboard box ? You can not get rid of them because its their land... too bad there is not a HOA to give them rules
2. You MUST be aware of neighbors or you could end up somewhere that you really do not want to live anymore
3. Getting mail, Balikbayan boxes, deliveries can be a PITA (last time I was asked to draw a sketch so delivery drivers can find me - I made a stick figure of myself - staff was laughing so hard... I had to laugh myself)
PROS of living INSIDE a subdivision
1. You pay a little - Its NOT USA but at least we can have some rules if we want to avoid dogs barking 24-7 and chickens waking you up 500 million times a night. Yes - there are dues - but guess what - if people can not afford teh HOA they can not live there - .. I think that is a POSITIVE IN MY BOOK !
2. You can tell security to ban certain people from entering - you can also get their cel phone numbers and have help onhand quicker than police can arrive if needed ! Security can hold things over until police arrive in case of a robbery, vandalism etc... live outside a subdivision... you better have a backup plan for the 2 hrs it takes for police to arrive !
CONS of living inside a subdivision. HOA DUES - that really annoys me... Why shoudl I fork over my hard earned money just to live chicken and dog free and no wandering vagrants through the night ! I have a right to my vagrants ! :P
PS my past 3 residences are all in a subdivision and the highest monthly dues were under 500 pesos ! This is for house and lotys none smaller than 120 sqm with private yards.
end of story
:
--- Quote from: suzukig1 on January 20, 2011, 01:05:26 PM ---Cost.
We are buying a house in a Vista Land development in Tuguegarao City. P3.4M for a 98 sq. m two story house on a 150 sq. m lot. The lot cost was P9000 - P10,000 per sq. m.
We spent P2M to build a 200 sq. m one story house on a 500 sq. m lot (P100,000 for the lot) in Tuao about 1 hour away from Tuguegarao City. We could have the same house built (from the same contractor as our current house) for the same P2M in Tuguegarao City. I don\'t know the lot costs in Tuguegarao City outside of a development because we didn\'t look.
But we bought in the development mainly so we wouldn\'t have poor neighbors. Also, there will be a little commercial development in front of the housing development. I\'m hoping for some restaurants there. So when my wife is at the Tuao house and doesn\'t come home for dinner I can eat at a restaurant instead of eating mayonaise sandwiches and cracker nuts.
--- End quote ---
A150sq m lot does mean that you are very close to neighbours. They may not be poor, but they could still be noisy and objectionable in some way. You can choose your friends but not your neighbours.
Personally I would like a lot more separation from my neighbours and would not consider anything under 1000sq. m which would rule out most sub divisions on cost alone.
You can also find some very nice areas to live without squeezing yourself into an expensive sub division. Where we are building, the lots are sold in multiples of 1500 or 2000 sq. m. there are only two other houses on the opposite side of the road each on 4000 sq. m, they both look good with an excellent frontage. Equally there are low end sub divisions that are little better than living in a crowded city environment. Many years ago we were taken on a tour of several newish sub divisions just outside Manila. The show houses all looked nice, but when you looked at the earlier phases you could see bare hollow block walls everywhere, rubbish in the road etc. they were heading towards becoming upper class \'shanty towns\'.
Colin
BC Boy:
If you are buying large land in the provinces you can control who lives close to you or plays Kareeokoe, has barking dogs, ect, ect, ect. I for one would love to have a big chunk of land somewhere in the \"country\"
But as it is an old subdivision only 2o% full with guards roaming 24/7 and gardeners too keep the jungle from swallowing my house works just nicely.
:
--- Quote from: Colin on January 20, 2011, 05:53:43 PM ---........... Many years ago we were taken on a tour of several newish sub divisions just outside Manila. The show houses all looked nice, but when you looked at the earlier phases you could see bare hollow block walls everywhere, rubbish in the road etc. they were heading towards becoming upper class \'shanty towns\'.
Colin
--- End quote ---
It amazes me how quickly the typical \'OFW Extensions\' can ruin the whole look of a nice estate or subdivision.
I call them OFW Extensions because the building is started with the money brought home by a returning OFW, but the money is never enough, so the project get shelved halfway through, never to be finished.
The result is rows and rows of concrete additions, with mortar hanging out all over, in the slap-happy, lazy brick laying technique we all know and love.....
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