Live in Philippines - can a foreigner become an owner?

an owner of what?

Fabien Occhipinti wrote:

Hello i want to know if a foreigner in pinas can become an owner ?

Need more information than the simple one line you have given. 

Are you looking to own a business, real estate, car, truck, bus or what ??
I am sure members will get back to you when you supply more information.

Thanks

i d like to buy a an appartment or a house when i retire

http://www.pra.gov.ph/
Under this scheme Foriegners have certain rights to buy or lease Property.

Happy Easter!  A foreigner can acquire/purchase property under his name here in the Philippines BUT, it is limited only to residential properties such as condominium units.

you can only own condominum units..

Vehicles yes. Businesses no. Real property no.

Let's clear things up. A foreigner can purchase land and house if they have a retirement Visa. This is very easy to get. Minimum age is 35. You become tax exempt. You can ship a car and 40' container and not pay any duty tax. Its all handled by the retirement board in Makati. The application fee is $1600 US...non refunded. You must open a savings account of $10k US with Chase Bank that you can't get to unless you want to give up your Visa. You will receive a passport book that is your Visa. This will allow you to do business and travel in and out of the country at will. For more information contact me.

You can purchase a condo in your name, but not a house and lot or business.

sirrobcentral wrote:

Let's clear things up. A foreigner can purchase land and house if they have a retirement Visa. This is very easy to get. Minimum age is 35. You become tax exempt. You can ship a car and 40' container and not pay any duty tax. Its all handled by the retirement board in Makati. The application fee is $1600 US...non refunded. You must open a savings account of $10k US with Chase Bank that you can't get to unless you want to give up your Visa. You will receive a passport book that is your Visa. This will allow you to do business and travel in and out of the country at will. For more information contact me.

According to the dfa.gov.ph a retirement visa holder cannot own land.  Even former Philippine citizens have restrictions on what land they can buy.

Q: Can SRRV holder own real property in the Philippines?

A: No. If he or she is legally married to a Philippine citizen, he or she may construct a residential unit on a parcel of land owned and/or registered in the name of Philippine spouse.
Natural-born former Filipinos whose SRRV has been issued may own/acquire a maximum area of 5,000 square meters of urban land and three (3) hectares of agricultural land.

Source: http://oslope.dfa.gov.ph/index.php/spec … ree-s-visa

You can buy whatever you want... people will be real eager to sell it to you :-)
BUT the only thing you can OWN is a condo or car or similar
House, lot, business etc.. you DO NOT own

So many times people ask this question... what part of you CAN NOT OWN do people not understand? :-)

Thank you, it is good to hear from the properly informed side of the house.  As I said previously we cannot own real property, just as in the US that means with land, only vehicles and condos which are not real property.

ocfm wrote:

You can buy whatever you want... people will be real eager to sell it to you :-)
BUT the only thing you can OWN is a condo or car or similar
House, lot, business etc.. you DO NOT own

So many times people ask this question... what part of you CAN NOT OWN do people not understand? :-)

You can actually own a house, just NOT the land that it is on.

Many couples get the land in the Filipinas name and the house is put in the non-filipinos name, but with the land then leased to the other for an initial 50 year period and renewable every 25 years..

Its very confusing for people trying to get accurate informatiomn, when some clowns give incorrect advice of which they have no idea.If you dont know what your talking about, shut up.
I assume sirrobcentral is a US citizen? That explains everything.

THERE ARE MANY AMERICAN CITIZENS HERE.

To many for my liking, ive never come across a race that complains continually.
As my friend from Florida said, " no wonder we lost the war in Vietnam, every American i have met was in special forces" ... That must tell you something of the US character, to reinvent themselves., and to be damned with the truth.

Norm Allard wrote:

Its very confusing for people trying to get accurate informatiomn, when some clowns give incorrect advice of which they have no idea.If you dont know what your talking about, shut up.
I assume sirrobcentral is a US citizen? That explains everything.

Off subject a bit, but it seems that Expat.com would mean expats from all countries, some of them good, some of them bad. Taking a cheap shot at the US is neither helpful or informative, though somewhat telling about the poster's ego.

You cannot own property in the Philippines as a non-citizen and yes as I do, you can own a house. My wife owns the land.

Mabuhay

Norm Allard wrote:

You can purchase a condo in your name, but not a house and lot or business.

You can purchase a house but not the land on which it's built. Though you can lease land and build on it if feel comfortable with the arrangement and the terms of the lease. If your Filipino spouse who has ownership of the land dies then as the legal foreign spouse you may retain ownership of the land.

You can find an answer to many ownership questions here:
http://real-estate-guide.philsite.net/foreigners.htm

Mabuhay

TeeJay4103 wrote:

If your Filipino spouse who has ownership of the land dies then as the legal foreign spouse you may retain ownership of the land.

You can find an answer to many ownership questions here:
http://real-estate-guide.philsite.net/foreigners.htm

Mabuhay

It seems that the legal foreign spouse may retain ownership of the land for only a short period of time though:

In the event of their spouse's death, the foreigner becomes the natural heir and may do any one of the following:
1: dispose of the property within a reasonable amount of time and collect the proceeds;
2: pass the ownership to their children or legal heirs;
3: or in case the couple is childless, turn over the ownership to the Filipino spouse's relatives.

This is quoted on www.lamudi.com.ph

However, Section 7 of the 1987 Constitution Of The Republic Of The Philippines – Article XII states:
"Save in cases of hereditary succession, no private lands shall be transferred or conveyed except to individuals, corporations, or associations qualified to acquire or hold lands of the public domain."

Is there anything that confirms or denies the part about having to dispose of the property?

Direct from that site: The simplest way for a foreigner to acquire real estate properties is to have a Filipino spouse purchase a property in his/her name.

In other words... you DO NOT OWN it - you have purchased it for someone else :-)

You could buy a house or apartment as long as the land that it is built in is not yours.

foreigner diesbefore always here in philippines than falpina dies. so property is for filpina.

iftikhar_peeto wrote:

foreigner diesbefore always here in philippines than falpina dies. so property is for filpina.

That is one reason why many foreigners buy a condo, in their own name, so that it can be dealt with in their own will.
On their death it does not automatically go to a spouse.

This topic has been reviewed many times with detailed posts from myself and others.  Please do research on and understand the two land titles:  TCT & CCT.  Understanding the TCT vs. CCT holds the key to all your questions and Philippine constitutional answers on this topic. 

It does not matter what RE Sales agents say here or how incomplete some of the answers may be.   

If the property (condo/townhouse w/common grounds) has a CCT and all other conditions are met = a foreigner can own the structure 100% and have annotated references on the title.

Note:  Not all condos are CCT, many are TCT and not convertible,  so don't be mislead by those telling you that you can buy any condo.

If the property is a single family house and or raw land, it is a typically a TCT = No new foreign human ownership allowed after 1935.

I am not aware of any raw land that can be sold under a CCT and all new ownership titles on such newly purchased raw land will be issued a TCT.

I found a link that might be able to explain a foreigner's right to land ownership. http://famli.blogspot.com/2008/11/prope … rried.html 

I sometimes worry that my American husband might lose the house in case I pass away before he does. But according to the attorney blogger of link above, my husband, as a natural heir, he will inherit our property. There's no indication in the law that he will have to sell the property within a certain period of time, which is great, since we really like our house and our community.

I'm the main breadwinner in the family. My long term plan (maybe in 5 years' time) is to build a row of rental apartments as an extra source income for me and my husband. If I suddenly pass away, he won't be able to afford our family's current lifestyle with just his salary, unless he quits his job and takes over my company, which I guess he can't have full ownership of because he's not Filipino. Even if he can, he's not interested in running the company (maybe until expenses pile up and reality sinks in).

Since rental apartments are also a business, I wonder if he would be allowed to rent out those apartments I'm planning to build without needing a Filipino partner.  I really do wish my husband would take interest in researching these things on his own to protect himself. Sometimes, I feel like spoonfeeding him. Getting tired of doing that.

There are too many websites that quote the bit about having to sell in a reasonable time for me to be 100% sure either way.

This is an example from one website:
""Foreigners Married to a Filipino Citizen
If holding a title as an individual, a typical situation would be that a foreigner married to a Filipino citizen would hold title in the Filipino spouse's name. The foreign spouse's name cannot be on the Title but can be on the contract to buy the property. In the event of death of the Filipino spouse, the foreign spouse is allowed a reasonable amount of time to dispose of the property and collect the proceeds or the property will pass to any Filipino heirs and/or relatives.

http://kittelsoncarpo.com/property-ownership/
Kittelson & Carpo Consulting was founded in February 2007 by a Philippine Corporate Tax Lawyer and an American Business Consultant in Makati, and is comprised of former corporate, labor and tax lawyers, CPAs and tax consultants from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Ernst & Young ..."

One thing about this is that the wording on all the sites I looked at use almost the exact same wording.

I would like to know of a real case example where this can confirm it.

THE 1987 CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES – ARTICLE XII
Section 7. Save in cases of hereditary succession, no private lands shall be transferred or conveyed except to individuals, corporations, or associations qualified to acquire or hold lands of the public domain.

However, this does not by itself nullify the possible need to then dispose of the property, in reasonable time.  But then again, it also does not say that one would need to either.

This is quite important to consider, and I would hate to find out the actual situation by personal experience.

Just like in the USA, the highest law in the Philippines is the Constitution.  You and your husband must make sure your "ownership and occupancy arrangements" are constitutional.  Therefore, you both must use a combination of Fil & American laws as it relates to Last Wills and legal agreements (leases) surviving death.  This is a complex topic and I won't try to get real details here.  There is a way to legally "protect" a foreign spouse after the fil's death for sure… all within constitutional parameters. 

Note:  I said "protect" and did not say own. 

A few months ago I worked on a similar document for a person.  As a minimum, please review Supreme Court ruling G.R. No. 201787 & PRESIDENTIAL DECREE No. 471 May 24, 1974, for some key historical and very current points.

FilAmericanMom wrote:

…...
Since rental apartments are also a business, I wonder if he would be allowed to rent out those apartments I'm planning to build without needing a Filipino partner.  I really do wish my husband would take interest in researching these things on his own to protect himself. Sometimes, I feel like spoonfeeding him.

Please look up EO 98 and review the changes and reconfirmations President Aquino III made and published 29 Oct 2012.  If you and your husband have any business considered a retail trade enterprise, foreigners can participate based "paid-up capital" of $2.5M or more, or no foreign equity allowed.  Most of the other sections of negative A have allowances that limit foreign equity for a "judicial person" and not a human person.  Rental of housing is considered a "domestic market enterprise" and without a paid-up capital of at least $2M, judicial foreign equity is limited to 40%.  Your foreign spouse can't operate the rental units as a private (non-judicial) citizen and there are different pros & cons based on your husband's visa status (i.e., retirement, marriage, SVEG, etc.) as a natural person.

BTW - It is EO 98 that now allows expats to obtain their TIN without being denied for not having a current business.

Thanks for all your help. But this is still so confusing. I don't trust lawyers. My friend's grandmother lost the title to her property because her lawyer put the title under his name. My husband said that he would consider either getting a Filipino citizenship or doing a "Weekend at Bernie's" when I pass away. Haha.

FilAmericanMom wrote:

Thanks for all your help. But this is still so confusing. I don't trust lawyers. My friend's grandmother lost the title to her property because her lawyer put the title under his name. My husband said that he would consider either getting a Filipino citizenship or doing a "Weekend at Bernie's" when I pass away. Haha.

I also remain attorney adverse….  so I get it.  Please understand that ALL you need is a review of the related laws and some knowledge of contract laws… or a trusted non-atty friend that can read well and help you on this matter.

FilAmericanMom wrote:

My husband said that he would consider either getting a Filipino citizenship or doing a "Weekend at Bernie's" when I pass away. Haha.

That sounds like a good option, the getting Filipino citizenship bit...

In brief though, getting back to the original point, it seems like the worst case scenario, in the event of you passing first, would be him having to sell any property quickly, (if that is the actual case). This would be a problem though, as any buyers may know that he was having to sell, and would undervalue it.

Creating a legal entity, of which he would own the maximum percentage possible would be worth looking at too.

I have asked a couple of lawyers here about this point, by email, but as yet, no answer, which I find relatively common here.  Not many people like to put specific information in writing, or can't be bothered using email to reply.

Hello!

I am thinking of coming to Philippines. I have been doing some research about what the life is here like.
I have read in a post of  I have read in some travel posts to Philippines (travel blog specialized in Philippines that the Philippines are considered one of the cheapest destinations around the world,  therefore I guess that building up a business and a life it is not complicated. Is it true? How different is the life of a traveler compared to an ex-pat?  My idea is to have an ecommerce business, therefore I do not need a lot of infrastructures... 

Thanks guys!

ecommerce could work, but forget most business, put your money under your mattress, im not joking.
I estimate that for every hundred business start ups by foreigners, 99 fail within 12 months,  usually less.
Thats the reality of it, not negativity.
Good luck and yes the Philippines can have economic advantages, but do not ever think it will ever be like home.
Cheers, Norm Allard

Elisa Betancour wrote:

Hello!

I am thinking of coming to Philippines. I have been doing some research about what the life is here like.
I have read in a post of  <span>[link under review]</span>s  that the Philippines are considered one of the cheapest destinations around the world,  therefore I guess that building up a business and a life it is not complicated. Is it true? How different is the life of a traveler compared to an ex-pat?  My idea is to have an ecommerce business, therefore I do not need a lot of infrastructures... 

Thanks guys!

It may be one of the cheapest if you live like a local. But not if you live like a Westerner.
An example; for 3 months in Australia, renting a furnished property etc, I spent an average of A$633 (22,790 peso) per week (excluding car rental), and a similar style in the Philippines is currently costing about 16,000 pesos per week.

It is cheaper than Australia, but I lose out on good quality food, decent shopping facilities (I am not in an city), and other lifestyle options of Australia.

I used to think that Australia was complicated for business etc, especially for new arrivals, but the Philippines makes Australia look easy

ABC Diamond, you must have landed on another planet.
Have you honestly gone through the process of starting up a new business and compliance?
I doubt it.
On the ease of doing business by country index, Australia ranks consistently number 9/10, while the Philippines is way  back in 113.
Just a simple transaction with any government department can take hours, thats if the staff can break away from their cell phones or are not eating, i cant believe my eyes to read such rubbish.

Norm Allard wrote:

ABC Diamond, you must have landed on another planet.
Have you honestly gone through the process of starting up a new business and compliance?
I doubt it.
On the ease of doing business by country index, Australia ranks consistently number 9/10, while the Philippines is way  back in 113.
Just a simple transaction with any government department can take hours, thats if the staff can break away from their cell phones or are not eating, i cant believe my eyes to read such rubbish.

I've been self employed all my life, started and run over 12 companies, in UK and Australia.

You actually seem to agree with me though.  I am saying that the Philippines is much worse than Australia, with my words:
"I used to think that Australia was complicated for business etc, especially for new arrivals, but the Philippines makes Australia look easy".

ie: Australia was not easy to start a business, especially for new arrivals who knew nothing
But the Philippines is so much harder, that it makes Australia look so much easier
The UK, ranking 8 on that index, is even easier than Australia.

Obviously a new arrival in any country will find it even harder.

You may want to get all your ecommerce related accounts set up prior to departing the UK.  There are/will be many equipment, internet and poor infrastructure issues in the PI. 

Regarding official or unofficial e-business activities - Most expats will find filipino obstacles if all ecommerce related payments or carts are based on a local bank in the PI.  Expats need an EU, British or US bank account established while still in those areas.  There will be some strong "WALLS" of resistance to get over if you come to the PI with concepts of a virtual office and related e-capabilities without first establishing a footprint in your home country.  Last year I met with an SEC Attorney on this topic and she was not able to point to a solution within SEC regarding how such an enterprise would be categorized and or registered. 

Regarding conducting business with any agency - All expats should understand the ACR-I card and TIN requirements.  Some may say they have done fine without the TIN, YMMV.   Also, 99% of the time you will need a current ACR-I card to start your local account at any bank here. 

Regarding basic Equipment needs - All expats should arrive in the PI with the latest cell phones & broadband devices (in an unlocked mode) to reduce the issues with locally locked/controlled/chocked devices.  Your failure to handle this alone can greatly affect how, when and where you will get a proper web connection that can support ecommerce based activities.

Seems your husband would benefit from becoming a Filipino citizen.  There are many who do so under the table but to do so legally might be beneficial if you and he do not plan to return to the usa.  If he becomes a Philippines citizen, currently he would have to denounce his US Citizenship in writing to the US Consulate, and I believe that is pretty much irreversible so yes not a decision to take lightly.  Not sure what the Philippine government requires now in the way of documentation showing that the US citizenship has been voided but I would suspect there are a few "dual" citizens running around the Philippines.  Im not referring to US citizens who were born in the Philippines who can get dual citizenship legally.  I have done some research on the SRRV program whereby if you are over 50 and receiving a pension, you can deposit 10K usd for 3 years to get the SRRV.  Its been a while since I looked the material over but another provision to the SRRV is a path to citizenship.  Teachers can take an accelerated path to citizenship in 3 years.  No idea if your husband has any desire to teach... I too have property with my wife and contrary to another post, both my wife's and my names are on the title to the lot and lot improvement (house).  We also own 4000 sq mtrs in beachfront property, condos, and commercial space, so if she dies before I do (unlikely), I too would have concerns, but I think the mentality on foreigner spouse property ownership and disposal is evolving.  Anyway, the nature of my employment (as Im not yet ready to stop working and start my own business there)  precludes me from denouncing my citizenship and Im not brave or foolish enough to go around the rules to get a Philippine passport.  Now, you have children that are dual citizens?  My son is dual US and Filipino citizen so how does that affect the disposition of property held by a Filipino and Foreigner spouse, if the son is a Filipino? Hmmm...