Moved to Lapu-Lapu City last February

hi i am chris from perth west australia.
we will be searching for a place in a few month for my wife and myself to reside in. what is the housing and prices like in  your area. my yahoo address is [email protected]

We are in Tumulak Village in a 2 bedroom 2 story townhouse in Lapu-Lapu city Mactan Island for P 6,500 per month. This is a gated facility with a guard actually there are 3 guards here. There is one townhouse coming available soon as my neighbor is moving out. The owner lives at the end in the big house. Come and be my neighbor, so we can sit out and tell stories in the evenings. Evenings here are nice 75 degrees with a breeze, I think this is due to it being an island with lots of water to keep the temperature cool.

Hi Charles,

Let me know your contact number so we can call you when we go to Visayas area. I also will refer you to other expats who might consider Cebu as their retirement place.

We used to have a house in Lahug and my dad used to own a construction firm for so many years. I will see what I can do to connect you with other locals there. Are you married to a Filipina or are you single?

Sincerely,
Pinaymentor

I am married to a Filipina for 6 wonderful years. You can see us on our social network here and please join: abutinangpangarap.ning.com/
571-970-9195 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              571-970-9195      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Hello charles,

I am happy to hear from you that you're comfortable to staying in philippines especially my Visayas-Cebuano area. Id grew up there and living now in france with my husband! I knew that placed!



Mia

I really like it here close to Cebu City, the SM and all the other places. I work nights here my clients are in the USA, so I work from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM usually and sleep from 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM. That way I still have time to go to the beach resorts and malls.

We went back to the Philippines last October. We stayed about 1/2 mile from where you are staying.
My wife is from Sacred Heart Village, Lapu-Lapu City. We will be retiring in about 10 years and we are considering moving to Mactan Island. From what we are being told a square meter of land is 7000 peso. I hope that I am figuring wrong, but that would make an acre of land more than $620,000. Please correct me if I am wrong.

jw101758 wrote:

we are considering moving to Mactan Island. From what we are being told a square meter of land is 7000 peso. I hope that I am figuring wrong, but that would make an acre of land more than $620,000. Please correct me if I am wrong.

It could be worse, that would be nearly A$900,000 per acre.

Good locations in any country are not cheap.
But the way to keep them low is to buy for the wife a very small lot of land, which is more common.

Land sizes vary from 40 sqm (minimum by law) to 120 sqm, very few lots are more than 120 sqm of land in urban areas. 80-120 sqm looks being average lot size. - teoalida.com/world/philippines

At 40 sqm you are only looking at:  US$6,000 or A$8,750 for the block.

An example of a large block that I saw in Mactan is this:

Lot Area: 316 sq.m
Developer's price: 13,000/sq.m.
Re-sale Price: 10,000/sq.m. ONLY

Yours seems cheap in comparison.

But the larger the block, the cheaper it gets... per sqm

6 Blocks Currently being advertised for Sale in Mactan       
PHP 1,700,000    144sqm    11,806 PHP/sqm
PHP 3,160,000    316sqm    10,000 PHP/sqm
PHP 4,000,000    404sqm    9,901 PHP/sqm
PHP 3,534,000    589sqm    6,000 PHP/sqm
PHP 3,348,000    744sqm    4,500 PHP/sqm
PHP 3,856,000    963sqm    4,004 PHP/sqm
Average 7,701 PHP/sqm

jw101758 wrote:

We went back to the Philippines last October. We stayed about 1/2 mile from where you are staying.
My wife is from Sacred Heart Village, Lapu-Lapu City. We will be retiring in about 10 years and we are considering moving to Mactan Island. From what we are being told a square meter of land is 7000 peso. I hope that I am figuring wrong, but that would make an acre of land more than $620,000. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Actually it's only about $603,000 an acre or about $1,490,000 per hectre...Considering it was more likely than not purchased less than 25 years ago for as little as 10,000 pesos($212.00) a hectre...What a bargain you will be getting and they say there is no bubble and the prices will continue to rise so go for it...Land is so cheap in the Philippines!!! LOL...

Are you talking on the water or further inland.??

Keep in mind mate..That is the area Megellan was killed and even the Lapu Lapu would not give up his body..It was kept as a trophy....That could happen to the millions of pesos foreign investors are putting into that region..Kept as trophies never to be seen again...

We are wanting to be off of the beach and more inland. I never dreamed the land in the Philippines could be more expensive than in the states.  We own a hectare in Leyte and only paid  $1500 for it 2 years ago.

jw101758 wrote:

I never dreamed the land in the Philippines could be more expensive than in the states.  .

I found the same when I was looking at land the same size as back home in Australia..

Near me now is about 5,000 pesos per sqm or A$156
Similar area near to where I was, it was $80 sqm

Boracay is also high. eg: 450 square meters at PHP 17,000.00 per square meter

But, for probably the highest prices:  Makati CBD land prices are now PHP353,795 (US$7,500) (A$10,775) per square metre.

There are cheaper blocks in both countries, if you wish to travel away from the centres.  I just found some in Australia for A$0.13 (4 peso) per sqm

I love the Philippines and it's people, but the whole reason for wanting to retire there besides the fore mentioned is it is supposed to be cheaper to live there.  How do the Philippino people live there on $5 a day.

jw101758 wrote:

I love the Philippines and it's people, but the whole reason for wanting to retire there besides the fore mentioned is it is supposed to be cheaper to live there.  How do the Philippino people live there on $5 a day.

In squatter homes, with very basic food, often no electricity. No hot water.

I have visited a few, and it isn't really life to many of us Westerners.  BUT...  They seem happy with nothing. They know no better.

For some of them, US$5 a day is double what they survive on, but they are happy.

It defies logic.  And one really weird thing, when they move to the West, some of them miss the easy life of poverty....

Maybe it's not the easy life of poverty they're missing. Maybe it's the balance they strike between work and time with family, that sort of thing..putting the dollars and cents of it aside for a moment. Their preference may be based on many barometers with which to measure a life well lived. Money is certainly one of the real important barometers; but to them at least, and others I strongly suspect - it's only one barometer of several. I wouldn't dismiss the validity of their preference out of hand so fast.