Subdivisions or not

[rdjlazo@yahoo.com]

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.

[c_a_p_t_a_i_n_r_o_n]

For me......

1. Overpriced
2. Most have NO personality/ambience
3. Overpriced
4. Pete Seeger said it
\"Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes
Little boxes
Little boxes all the same
There\'s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they\'re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
And the people in the houses all go to the university
And they all get put in boxes, little boxes all the same
And there\'s doctors and there\'s lawyers
And business executives
And they\'re all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same
And they all play on the golf course and drink their martini dry
And they all have pretty children and the children go to school
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university
And they all get put in boxes, and they all come out the same
And the boys go into business and marry and raise a family
And they all get put in boxes, little boxes all the same
There\'s a green one, and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they\'re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same\"


oh yeah and OVERPRICED

[halibaitor]

 \"Subdivisions\" often have association fees and restrictions on them.  A lot of people don\'t like having a bunch of rules and regulations involved with their private property.  It\'s too easy to find a lot that you can build on, and not have to put up with all that.

We rented in Ayala Alabang for a year and never saw the neighbours, just maids sweeping the road and drivers washing cars. No atmosphere, everyone living independently inside their own homes. While the security looked good, it would not have been difficult for anyone to break into houses, especially as there were always groups of outside builders around. Our maids, and others, got involved with them and could have easily let them into the house while we were out. Also the lots were small and OVERPRICED  We prefer living in the real Philippines.

Colin

I LIKE not seeing the neighbours. I LIKE privacy and quiet. I have no interest in a bunch of neighbours swinging by every few hours to gas bag and disturb the peace. I don\'t want to hear their dogs bark, their cockerels crow, their karaoke ripping into my ears.

If I had my way I\'d buy an acre of rice paddy halfway up a mountain, build a walled castle, with a huge workshop, and live in peace and quiet. When I wanted company, I\'d drive out and visit people. 

But, I am out voted by the family, so we do live in a sub div, we do have neighbours, we do hear their cockerels and dogs and music and horns at 4am etc etc... 

We just bought land in a sub division too, so there isn\'t going to be a castle on a mountain any time soon.

[suzukig1]

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.

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 !  

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

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.

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.

........... 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

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.....

[rdjlazo@yahoo.com]

I am seeing this in Subdivisions a lot.
Peopel are buying into it and some buyers just
put whatever their money can handle to build
causing fast decline of the project. Therby
stopping lot owners to go ahead and build
and the value declines as fast too.

Now it is clearer to  me that as lot owners
we dont have much control on what will
happen to our subd lot and the whole project.
Can developer put restrictions on what can be
built in the subd project? Is it  customary here?
Problem is many developers are just interested
in selling vacant lots at substantial profit and dont care
much what happen after all the lots are sold.
The reason many subdv are remaining empty
or very very few houses built are over pricing or
run down projects both reasons prevent buyers
to own subd lots. My 2 cents

[mikek1]

We have built a house in a subdivision in Mangaldan,Pangasinan. The land cost us 6000peso/sq mtr which is expensive compared with non subdivision land. The advantages for us are that eventhough there are rules they are deffinitely to the advantage of the owners. For example, no rooosters, no clothes lines, no Jeepneys, admittance by invite,etc .One of the more intresting rules are that no two houses should be the same, and no house should be over two stories high (to keep the Chinese out).This works very well as all the houses that are built have to be designed and built by \'professionals\' thus most houses cost upwards of P4m, indeed there are some very large lots and houses worth in excess of P8M.

There are 102 plots in the subdivision, all of which are sold, however only about 40 are built on.The houses that are built are 90% owned by foreigners, from UK, Guam.USA, Canada, and the remainder are Pinnoy business owners or professionals. We bought the land next to our Lot from a Filipino based in Kuwait who decided to sell probably because they could not afford to have a house built.

The subdivision has been existence for about 7years now, and we are 100% sure that if the site is ever fully developed (the owners have 6 plots for their siblings) all the properties will be of a similar status ,so there is no fear of it becoming a \'sink estate\'.

What we really like about the subdivision is its well lit with street lighting, there is mains water, cables for TV/internet are in place, well cleaned roadways, beautifully kept gardens, children\'s play area and most important 24hr security. This is most important because we only use the house for holidays.There are fees of about 11k per year,but these are small when you feel your property is safe when your not there

Where we are, in Timog Park, there are regulations and rules, but since Pinatubo blew, and Angeles was pretty much abandoned, there has been an element of squatters and house sitters where the real owners moved away. This is slowly declining as people realise the value of their lots.

There are rules about roosters, but there are always the few individuals who feel too important to follow the rules.

There are rules about garbage collection, but a certain few people still haven\'t realised that dogs will rip open any bags of food waste and spread it up the street. It doesn\'t bother some people, the poor people who have money. They aren\'t wealthy, they just have money.

Dogs. It is against the rules to leave your dogs wandering the street, but again, a certain few people are above the rules.

However, things are improving, more two story posh houses are being built on a regular basis. Less dogs wander the streets, fewer scabby dogs, less roosters etc. 

[MikeBal]

   When we visited our old subdivision (Villa Sol) in Angeles in 95, many, if not most, of the houses had been occupied by squatters. When we checked it out again in 2008, most of the houses had been reoccupied by legal residents and rehabed. In fact our old house on 3rd street was fixed up nicer than it ever was when lwe lived there in the 80s.

  When we visited our old subdivision (Villa Sol) in Angeles in 95, many, if not most, of the houses had been occupied by squatters. When we checked it out again in 2008, most of the houses had been reoccupied by legal residents and rehabed. In fact our old house on 3rd street was fixed up nicer than it ever was when lwe lived there in the 80s.

It is taking a long time, but things are improving. Many owners go state-side and leave poor relatives house-sitting in their place. People who would normally have lived in the boonies, and thus they live to their means, broken trikes outside, chickens, rubbish, dogs, looks just like some dirt poor village. The street one over from ours is like that, but most others are quite nice.

Like attracts like, and that sort of mentality seems to have taken over the whole street. A couple of scruffy sari stores, one that plays karaoke to all hours, beer bottles along the road side etc. There are a couple of cheap lots for sale down there, but after one walk down the length of the street a few months ago, I\'d never live there.