Are homes in the Philippines affordable?

[Tsar]

I read US$25,000 for a detached home in the Philippines is possible. Is that true? Would someone need a car because that price is probably outside of the cities?

[Yohan]

This is not true, at least not here in Cebu City.

Such detached houses are not for sale to foreigners, similar to Thailand, a foreigner cannot own land, condominium only.

Here in Cebu City area and nearby, a 27m2 condominium which is suitable for sale to foreigners is starting with about 3.5 million PHP,
this is around USD 65000,-

Condominiums are not cheap at all in Cebu, but in general they are not far out of the city located and no car required.
However public transport is often very crowded.

There are no condominium buildings in small cities and villages which can be bought by foreigners.

Even small houses 44m2 living area which can be bought only by Filipinos will cost around 1.5 to 2 million PHP...empty, just land and walls and roof...for example in Liloan, 15 km outside of Cebu City...starting around USD 30.000 to 40.000,- somewhat like that.

I am now in Cebu, BTW... plenty of very expensive unsold units plenty of construction sites with condominium and office towers unfinished...but who can buy that? Only rich investors who will rent them out...

[publicduende]

That's right @Yohan.

We may add that, if a foreigner wants to build a cheap house on a plot of land owned by his partner or wife, if he is not too fussy about size (single floor, around 60-80 sqm) and construction quality, then $25,000 is a reasonable budget.

There are some developers who specialise in selling the dream of a "starter home" for young couples barely scraping middle class. One of them is Deca Homes, famous for purchasing land areas really far from the city center, building tiny houses (40-60 sqm) with a conveyor belt approach and selling them for the a price of less than 2 million ($40K USD). Back 8-10 years ago, the price was even less, sub-1 million ($20K USD). The problem about these houses is that the quality was so low that, even when selling them at $20K, they would still pack a very good profit. As it usually happens in the Philippines, they also had their own lending company which would create loan packages for buyers, packing interest profits on top of real estate profits.

There is no respite for the poor in the Philippines. The only way for them is down: they are under-served, over-charged and scammed at every corner.