Back to the Philippines » Housing http://www.backtothephilippines.com An Overseas Filipino Returns Mon, 21 Nov 2011 04:31:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Village Subdivisions South of Metro Manila http://www.backtothephilippines.com/village-subdivisions-south-of-metro-manila/ http://www.backtothephilippines.com/village-subdivisions-south-of-metro-manila/#comments Tue, 23 Sep 2008 09:07:48 +0000 mixxy http://backtothephilippines.com/?p=155 We visited several housing developments in the South of Metro Manila, between Paranaque and Tagaytay.

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I had two goals: first, is to visit the house and neighborhood where I grew up and second, is to look around for places where we want to live.

Villages or subdivisions are the counterpart of the suburbs in the US so to speak. We visited both middle class and upperclass villages. The upper-classy villages

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we visited were developed by Ayala Land and Landco. Ayala Land is one of the most reputable developers in the country. You can’t go wrong in your investment with them be it condominium or a lot. Don’t worry I don’t work for them at all. SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA This is just from my observation after having lived in a Condominium developed by Ayala called the Columns and visiting a subdivision called Ayala Westgrove.

They do take care of many details such as security, infrastructure, and quality of life by making sure strict rules are implemented and using modern techniques such as underground power lines. We loved the Ayala Westgrove in Silang, Cavite! It is not cheap for sure but it sure is better than taking a 30 year mortgage for a small rowhouse (100 sqm) worth 250K euros in Holland.
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A house and lot here would cost roughly 150K Euros and that will be roughly a 250 sqm FA house on a 400 something sqm lot. Another nice development in that area is the Ponderosa which is more like a hobby farming community.

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Anyways, let’s not go overboard with this. We also looked into middle class housing
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somewhere in San Pedro Laguna or Cavite area developed by Filinvest.

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Ready for occupancy house and lot with 100 sqm FA costs roughly 3 Million Pesos or 45K Euros. We also looked into smaller houses that cost not more than 2 Million Pesos (below 30K Euros).

]]> http://www.backtothephilippines.com/village-subdivisions-south-of-metro-manila/feed/ 1 Places to Live Outside of Metro Manila http://www.backtothephilippines.com/places-to-live-outside-of-metro-manila/ http://www.backtothephilippines.com/places-to-live-outside-of-metro-manila/#comments Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:30:00 +0000 mixxy http://backtothephilippines.com/news/places-to-live-outside-of-metro-manila/ I grew up in Paranaque. I lived there with my family close to 16 years. Prior to that we lived in the province of Nueva Ecija for 8 years. I have lived abroad for the past 12 years! Time flies by so quickly indeed.

Anyways, I have no plans to come back to Paranaque especially to our old house. First of all, we have sold that house to a relative anyways. Plus, I still have lingering “traumatic” memories of the water situation in our village and in my mind the cause of it is still a big puzzle. To make it simple, I just concluded that there has been a big conspiracy between government and developers and that all these greed stops things from progressing toward a solution to that water problem. But anyways, my blog is not meant to discuss political matters but I understand that the choices we make will be influenced by how livable is on that place where we will eventually settle.

As of now, my main criteria for choosing a location would be:

  • good and strong running water and village developer does NOT control water distribution, example centralized water works that is controlled by developer
  • availability of high-speed internet connection and preferable not monopolized by a single provider
  • availability of cable tv (not necessary but a plus)
  • high elevation, no flooding
  • movie theater, mall, restaurants, market, groceries, stores or schools within 10 minutes drive (I don’t want to live in a jungle or deserted island)
  • Not too far from Quezon City, Taguig, or Mandaluyong/Ortigas CBD (maximum 45 minutes drive)
  • lower pollution and cleaner cooler breeze (is that too much to ask?)

The places that interest me now are the following:

Rizal Province ( 13 municipalities) Angono, Antipolo, Binangonan, cainta, Rodriguez, Taytay and San Mateo are 1st class municipalities. I have no idea what they mean by first class but it sounds good to me. Among this list, the three highest populated are Antipolo, Cainta and San Mateo. I am pretty confident about the fact that this area is served by Manila Water (Ayala managed) which I believe has a much better track record and reputation. I have lost confidence in living in the South. Now, it would take a lot of convincing facts before I even consider living in cities such as Paranaque, Las Pinas, Cavite and Alabang.

Here’s a good list of properties and prices in that area.

Bulacan (21 municipalities). The closest towns to Metro Manila are Meycauayan, Marilao, San Jose del Monte Bocaue and Santa Maria.

According to wikipedia:

“On December 12, 2007, Bulacan and the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) signed an agreement for the development of an P11-billion bulk water supply project. Ayala-owned Manila Water Co. Inc. will implement the project. MWSS and Manila Water will provide a financial package of an infrastructure grant, a P10-million development assistance and a P10-million royalty fee to the towns of Norzagaray and Doña Remedios Trinidad, which will host the water supply project.[2]“

That is indeed a big plus! Another good thing is that I feel more cultural affinity with this province as I spent my early childhood years in Nueva Ecija. Not to mention the Sevilla’s sweets and palabok I remember from childhood is still a thriving business there. In several new developments in that area you can buy a small 2 bedroom townhouse for around 500K PHP such as this or a small detached house for 1.3 Million PHP such as this.

As we plan to do business ourselves, there are no plans on applying for jobs therefore we don’t need to live in the big commercial areas but you never know. It seems that all the action is still right there in the Makati – Ortigas area but then we’ll see!



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