Welcome to the Edgardo J. Perez, CPA, Realtor website.
Here in Davao, for many years in fact, the real estate market has been inflated. Most real estate sites you will see online, have properties priced much higher than they should be, for the market here.
Before purchasing any properties here in the Philippines, please do the appropriate amount of research on the area, and a proper title search on the property in question. If you do not, you may end up with a lot of headaches down the road, and learn the property isn't really yours after all!
Here are a few points for you, off the top of my head. Take them for what they are worth:
1. Please note that, as a foreigner, you cannot legally own property in this country (the Philippines) without having a Filipino as co-owner of said property.
2. If you are not 100% sure of your relationship with the person you wish to be co-owner with, concerning the property in question, then do NOT buy a property with that person.
3. If you try to circumvent the rules here by opening a dummy corporation to buy property, you can get into serious legal trouble for doing so. There is an anti-dummy law in effect here. So, if you start a corporation here, it had better be genuine.
4. I know of two real estate agents I trust, two, in this entire country. I have been here for almost a decade! So, be very careful choosing who you deal with, regarding real estate.
5. Contrary to what you may have heard, your wife cannot own land and lease it back to you for 25 years. This is illegal in the Philippines. You cannot be married to the person you are leasing the land from, in order to build a home or business on said land.
