Can't help with your personal problem, but do know a little bit about real estate there.

By law foreigners cannot legally own land in PH, but you can buy condos where the land is owned by the condo corp (like US home owner association) and foreign ownership in the project doesn't exceed 40%. Some sellers will offer voodoo methods for foreigners to "own" landed property via leaseback, but I wouldn't trust my $$ in that.

If you buy a "pre-build" condo from the builder, you have the option to pay in cash or payments up to ~4 years. The condo building is actually NOT built yet. If you pay cash up front, you get a hefty discount. If you do payments, you lose the discount but pay no interest on the payments.

I've heard that locals can get bank mortgages up to 20 years in term. You'd have to discuss with the bank manager for eligibility.

I'm on the mailing list from Megaworld Corp in PH, they build properties around Bonifacio Global City. The most recent mailing is for "The Venice" and "Tuscany" in Mckinley Hill in Forbestown (west of Bonifacio Global City). These are fairly expensive areas where 1 bed condo starts at 5 million PHP and 2 bed start at 9 million PHP for new construction. The math might work for income property since the peso is down now, but I haven't done the ROI calcuations.

When I toured several buildings in Greenbelt area of Makati last year, I came to the realization that the building maintenance and upkeep post-construction is a variable that you cannot control. The building that I stayed in, only the lobby area looks nice. Once you go up, there's no AC or even ventiliation in the corridors, just this stale yucky smell. So it may be better to look at units for sale post-construction. Just walk into any condo building lobby and ask the security desk to see the bulletin board, where owners put up "for sale" ads to sell their condo. The prices are often cheaper than new pre-construction. Be warned that PH has high RE transaction fees. Here are some good articles to read:

http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Asia/Philippines

If you opt to acquire inexpensive landed property in cheaper or more rural areas, you'd probably have to do it under Dianne's name. In which case I'd suggest not spending too much to limit your risk exposure.

Have you considered taking Dianne to a completely new environment, away from her extended family? Maybe take her and your kid to Taiwan for a while? If she has never left PH, you might want to try putting her through a culture shock (to TW), then reverse culture shock (back to PH) experience.

By the way, one sad thing I'll have to admit is that in the relationship between Dianne and I, it does not feel like we are on the same team, but competitors for power. We constantly have to resort to manipulation tactics and bargaining tactics, such as "I won't do this until you do this for me first" type of thing. Isn't that sad and a bad sign?

I see other relationships here, even among my other friends here, where the couple seem much more harmonious and complementary, not against each other. Though they admit they have their problems and disputes too, I'm sure it is not as bad as ours.


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“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” - Arthur Schopenhauer

"The greatest awakening I underwent in my travels is that nations in reality are the exact opposite of how they are depicted in the media." - Ladislav