5 Myths about Condominiums in the Philippines

Today we’re going to talk about the 5 myths about condominiums in the Philippines.

Today we’d like to talk to you about what are the controversial issues as far as owning a condominium property is concerned.

This topic has always been a perennial debate most especially in a conservative country like ours, whether one should actually really buy a condominium or actually own a house and lot because there are some people who would say that buying a condominium is buying “air”, there’s really nothing to it, you don’t really own anything, it’s just a condominium certificate of title. So what is it really that we’re buying with a condominium?

By the way, just a side note before we move forward, the Condominium Certificate of Title also an actual title for ownership but some people don’t really believe it, some people would always say most especially in the local language “bumili ka ng land, basta may land ka” or you always need to have land because in the reason, it usually goes like this “basta may land ka, you have land” that’s it.

And there’s nothing more to it, and they feel like the land is a real property versus condominium because even some would also often argue that a condominium is only good for 50 years and there’s nothing that we own.

So why are we even buying this? How does this really play in to this situation. What really the advantages and disadvantages to own a condominium here in the Philippines? Today we’re gonna talk about this and hopefully will give you a better direction as far as owning a condominium is concerned.

So, today we’re gonna talk about the 5 myths that you could usually find as a subject of discussion here in the Philippine real estate market about owning a condominium locally.

The first objection is, buying a condo will be the start of never-ending fees that you will never recover.

The first point here and it could be the keyword here to discuss is, “that you will never recover”.

This is actually an overstatement. What we usually and should avoid, is to waste money – and nobody wants to do that. It’s understandable to think this way since a condominium has fees, and association dues.

Whereas in a house some people feel like you’re spending nothing…. but in actuality there’s also a so much more things things to spend on and maintain in a house. They’re just not being billed on a monthly basis.

You’re being billed when the pool needs cleaning, when the roofs crack or say for example you need to repaint whole home, or all of your tiles are broken you have to do it in one full swing and usually this is becomes a five figure, six figure built.

But in a condominium usually it’s preventive maintenance you will actually have maintenance dues that are built to you on a monthly basis.

So, this is actually a misconception that you spend money that you will never recover… simply because everything everyday, most especially a property, has a maintenance due to it, every single one of them – no matter what the type.

If you want to keep it nice and beautiful you will always have some sort of maintenance that you have to do with a property – whether it be a condominium, a house (moreso) or a townhouse, etc… it cannot magically be nice and well maintained.

There has to be always maintenance that’s required out of anything that exist.

So as far as property is concerned and the main misconception is when you have a condominium, you’re paying for dues that you will never recover IS NOT TRUE.

You’ll recover the cost in several of these key different ways, so the first is you recovered it through the use of services. You will actually have a concierge service, you will have a security service ready to serve you 24/7 and you will also have cleaning and repair services  for the common area that’s automatically there for you.

Now in the case of a house – if you have to hire your own maid and security, and you will have to train them and tell them the things to do and manage their payroll, etc.

However, in the case of condominium there’s very well-trained personnel both for housekeeping and security stationed in each area with their own set of protocol to do so you all you have to do is live your life go to work, go back, and you’ll have a safe & clean area for you to go home to.

The common areas will be well maintained, cleaned, the garbage will be taken out of the development… all of these things are gonna be done for you… AUTOMATICALLY without you needing to tell them what to do.

So, it’s not like it’s not you haven’t received the money… actually the money well spent as well because the surroundings in your condominium are gonna be well maintained and you have been productive without worrying about these little things.

The second way that you recovered this cost is the, safety. Your safety and security are also relatively better when you are in a condominium unit. Why? Because you have a 24/7 concierge that screens all the guest… you have CCTV cameras, you also have guards that are 24/7 stationed there in the building.

And also, as far as theft is concerned it could be quite difficult to climb the side of condominium that is a 60-storey building (if you’re living in the 60^th floor or even the 25th floor).

So, relatively it’s much safer and what I mean by this is your safety is relatively expensive. How much do you think you’ll spend in the hospital if you get stabbed, or if there was a gunfight inside the house because there’s a robbery?

We prefer not to talk about all of these unpleasant things, but  what we’re simply saying is that your safety is relatively also expensive.

Maintaining that is actually one of the things that you wanna do so that you don’t get into trouble later on and owning a condominium will actually give it back to you in the sense that you’re not spending it in a hospital bills, or you know, or something else that’s gonna be costly for you in terms of security.

Another advantage where you recover these expenses is, since the condominiums are usually seated in the city and in prime areas is, they usually most often than not, GROW IN VALUE.

So, when the time comes that you have to re-sell your property, even if you’ve been paying the monthly dues for the past few years, your capital appreciation will have EXCEEDED the monthly dues paid for the property (and by the way these are the services you have consumed for security and cleaning so this should be an additional benefit on top of that).

There is usually a high demand because there’s work there, there’s commercial area there, it’s very convenient you go down and everything you need is already there. So, it really really works for you.

Again, the profit is in the purchase. The profit is also in the use of the property depending on how you use it to your advantage.

So, if you are in the city, you’re making more then it’s good for you.

So, it really depends on how you use the property but there are ways and means that you can recover your cost it doesn’t really necessary mean that you can’t recover these.

The second myth about condominium is, it’s a waste of your time and money.

Some conservative people would say that “Why would you buy a condominium? It’s a waste of your time, you don’t have to buy that. It’s air, it’s nothing, it’s not an asset for you.”

But the FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT convenience that the condo offers is that you save time. And saving time will have a lot of advantages for you, most especially if you’re a highly productive person – you will be able to use this time to: of course spend it with your family, your loved ones, your special someone, or your friends or if you are in the business you can actually make more of what you already make.

Being able to do this, could turn out to be a higher quality of life for you.

So, condo living is not entirely a that of a waste of time, it could really work for you and it provides CONVENIENCE – you don’t have to travel or waste time traveling.

Most especially in today’s traffic, it could take you like more than an hour to get you anywhere. With a condominium you can do so much with that one hour, and it could be highly, highly productive move for you.

So, since everything is conveniently located near most condominiums, you don’t have to drive like five-kilometers just to buy some basic needs.

All you need is to go down probably the elevator, walk a few steps to a convenience store outside, you buy and you go back up. And you know, in 10 minutes you’re done and back home.

Versus when you’re living inside the house and then you have to drive five-kilometers all the way and then buy something then go back.

Probably it will cost you roughly around probably 30mins or 40mins depending on how long it will take you to get there, find parking, walk to the place where you need to buy stuff, drive back 30 mins or so, before you get back home…it will simply take you more time.

So, it’s not just about saving gas or commute money, now we’re talking about saving time that you could allocate for more productive stuff for you. And you could even potentially earn more money by saving that amount of time because everything that you need is just 5-10 minutes away at most. So, it could actually be really beneficial for you.

The third myth about condominium is, nobody wants to live in a small boxed-in space.

Well, to begin with, not all condominiums are boxed in small spaces. There are palatial condominiums with huge ceiling heights, and large spaces around 200-400sqm in floor area. There are even condominiums we know of that are around 1,000sqm in the PHILIPPINES!

But let’s go back to the normal discussion of a typical condominium…. When we’re talking about small spaces, all adjective of course are relative.

To some people, 250sqm could be small most especially if when you’re considering land or if it’s agricultural land that something not gonna work, you need hectares to you be able to get your ROI (Return of investment) right? But when it comes to living space when you have a 250sqm of living space you have a 3-4-bedroom unit with the large living area, and then you have your maid’s room, and then you have a stock room and you have a two-kitchens, that can fit in that kind of space.

And it’s a penthouse, so some penthouses are around 200sqm or even up, and if it’s a penthouse in a nice city and you’re in the middle of everything that could actually be a very big space that ample enough for your living needs.

What you don’t actually want is not just small space, what you don’t want is inefficient and mismatched space. What do I mean by this? When we’re talking about inefficient space, say for example the furniture does not match the space, you have a big leather couch seated on a small one-bedroom condominium, it’s really not gonna work. But if the one-bedroom condominium is well designed, is well lit, is well colored and there’s only one of you who’s gonna live in the compartment, it can work.

You know it might be quite a nice place to stay in.

So, what you don’t really want is an inefficient space and one that does not match your space needs.

So the first order of business really in finding a condo is determining the kind of space you need, then buying or renting that kind of space that suits your needs.

For example you are a family of three, you have one kid, and you have a space that’s around a 130-150sqm in the middle of the city, very near to a good school and it’s walking distance to the park, you have a nice commercial area in the ground level, everything is convenient, the work is only 15minutes away and then the grocery is just right next door and all of these life’s conveniences are you know literally a few minutes away, and you have a storage facility somewhere within 10 km radius from your property… then why would that not be a workable space, right? Why would that not be a good lifestyle for you? So, what we’re simply saying is space is relative, and not just that what you don’t want is inefficient and mismatched space.

So, if you want bigger space and if you want better laid out spaces that’s all you might even actually need, depending on your priority of course.

The fourth myth that we’ll talk about is, the condominium will deprive you of many things more than just space.

The condominium will not be depriving you of a lot of a stuff, on the contrary it enables you to focus on the things that you really need.

Sometimes what we buy are repetitive stuff and how many times have you found and open your cabinet or closet and you found a lot of stuff that you bought that you don’t really need, plenty right?

This is because the mind’s psychology is to fill in empty spaces.

When you find open spaces our mind tends to fill it that’s why when you try to find a circle that is not fully drawn, you know it’s a circle right? Because your mind usually completes these things in your head. And when you see space, you usually end up collecting & buying stuff to fill in this space (sometimes unknowingly)… that’s what we humans do.

But, first things first  – with a condo, you save on money because you won’t be tempted to buy stuffs that you don’t really need.

Second you don’t really have to deprive yourself you can actually buy the nice things that you really like, you just have to make sure you really like them and it actually brings out the fat, the excess, so it really enables you to focus on the more important things that are gonna be able to contribute to your life, and you know you can enjoy it.

If you are living in the center of everything, you’re near work, you’re near the schools, then you’re near the commercial areas, you’re near the parks and you can go out anytime you like because it’s a lock and leave concept then why would that not be a good life?

The fifth and last myth about owning a condominium in the Philippines is, you don’t own anything, you own air.

One of the most common objections when you’re purchasing a condominium is that you don’t own anything. And this is actually not quite exactly true, did you know that there’s a law in the Philippines governing condominium ownership? You call it a “Condominium Act” or what we known as “Republic Act 4726”, so what does this simply mean?

This is an act that actually govern ownership of property which is known as a condominium. A condominium is a titled property so you actually own it, and it could be leased out, it could be mortgaged, it could be sold and transfer to another person to a certain amount of consideration.

So, what we’re simply saying is that it actually also an asset class. No different from land or stocks, you actually have a Title that says that you own this particular property and you can sell it or lease it or mortgage it if you need it.

If it’s a residential empty land, you still have to build on it or to make an improvement before you’re able to maximize its return, or simply even able to use it, versus a condominium it is a completely built unit. So, you’re not really owning air, you actually have a real property with a title that you can use.

So in summary, having a condominium today is not a waste of your time and money because you actually get a real property that you can use or resell for usually for a higher cost because it’s in the prime city and normally developments are there and values go up. So, all in all, there are pros and cons to owning a condominium and most of these myths can actually be address so that instead of being something we’re scared of, it could be actually something that will work for you in the long run.

And that’s it for today. I hope today’s discussion was able to give you a better idea as far as owning a condominium in the Philippines is concerned.

And we do hope and look forward to seeing you again here.