Recently I was asked ‘How much does it cost to rent a condo in Cebu?’ and the truth is that it varies wildly, but it’s probably more expensive than you would think. It is very easy to develop unrealistic expectations about what you can get for your money, especially when you consider how cheap general expenses are like food, transport, alcohol etc. Property in Cebu however, is unrepresentative of the low costs found elsewhere, and many people say that property here is actually more expensive than property in Manila per square foot. If you’ve read my other posts, you’ll know that I used to live in Crown Regency Residences on Fuente Osmena (where the above photo was taken). It was a stunning, modern, open plan condo split over two floors. What I haven’t mentioned yet though is how much this place cost – the original price was 45,000 PHP, which works out at roughly $1000 or £600 a month. I did manage to negotiate it down to 40,000 PHP though. You’ll see below however, that there were a number of additional costs involved that made the place considerably more expensive.
I’ve never lived in the US so I don’t know what rental costs are like there, but that price is actually the same as what I used to pay living in a small, 3 bedroom house in Brixton, London with 2 other friends also paying the same amount. So, the difference between what I used to get for that amount and what you can get here were huge. The ‘commute’ involved 30 seconds walking from the residences to my office building, which was literally next door and I certainly saved a huge amount in taxi fares (despite how close I lived though, I was still late sometimes!)Having said that, there were a significant amount of drawbacks to living in this condo; Another negative is that you’ll often share the elevator with prostitutes/bar girls both during the day and at night, due to it being mostly foreigners inhabiting the condos, although, this could be an advantage for some people depending on how you look at it, but when you are hungover at 10am and just want to go down for some breakfast
, they’re not a pretty sight. Taking all of the above into account, I cannot recommending living in this place, as nice as it looks and despite it’s close proximity to the girly bars and J Ave on Mango Avenue, it’s just not worth the cost. .ph, as it gives you a clear idea of the prices of local properties as well as high quality images. It has a range of properties to buy and sell across the Philippines, and a very user-friendly interface too. For people looking to invest in property in the Philippines, they also have some informative articles under their ‘journal’ section. Other good sites include rent.ph and Sulit real estate. Before I moved into Crown Regency, I looked at several other condos but most were around the 30k PHP and above mark, so at the time I thought that all habitable properties were around this price. What I discovered when looking for places to live is that you can get good deals if you’re prepared to live in a more ‘local’ area like Guadalupe, Banawa (where I live now) or Lahug, as opposed to only choosing property near Fuente Circle or IT Park.
I think that perhaps most foreigners (myself included) are scared or hesitant to live in areas that they’re not sure of or don’t know (and let’s be honest, Mango Square, IT Park and Ayala are pretty much the only areas most foreigners know). However, after overpaying for a place I hardly spent any time in for a year, I would have been happy to live in a box for a few few months. I also got completely ripped off by my landlord who took half the deposit for mostly fabricated/exaggerated reasons, but I won’t go into it. One thing to bear in mind though is that most landlords here will try to rip you off, especially if you’re a foreigner. Anyway I can say that there is literally nothing to fear about living in less central areas. You might get stared at more compared to when you live in a centrally located condo, but if you’re an expat in Cebu then you should be used to that. I think that as long as you’re nice to people and don’t show off your wealth too much then you should be fine, but nowhere is completely safe.
A friend of mine who also lived in Crown Regency had his place robbed last year (the ‘security guards’ are pretty useless and most of the guards are small women). I found my current place through Sulit – it can take time to actually find a place online that’s the right price and in the right area, you just have to be patient sometimes with your searching till you find somewhere you’re happy with. My current place is a 2nd floor apartment with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (1 en suite) with open plan living room and kitchen, and the price is 20k a month, plus no ‘condo dues’ or ridiculously overpriced electricity. It only came semi furnished so I still had to buy a sofa – it had chairs but just metal ones that go with the dining table. They also provided a ‘TV’ but when I say TV I mean an old school black box where you have to move the arial to get channels – not quite the luxury of having 2 large flat screen TVs in my old place! I since bought my own second hand TV anyway.
One thing to look out for though is often properties that are shown in ads are actually not available or not even covered by that realtor who placed the ad. They will lure you in with somewhere that is most likely too good to be true or too cheap before trying to push you towards other properties. Your phone number will then be subjected to several property companies who will send you a text every other day on some ‘property deals’. If you have any friends in Cebu, it’s also worth asking them about where they live and how much they pay, as they will probably know if there are any other reasonably priced apartments/condos in their building or nearby. It’s probably best to at least look at 3 or 4 places to get an idea of what you can get for your money. Living in Cebu can be fantastic if done properly, but I know a few people (myself included) who have had property-related headaches here, so make sure you choose wisely.StudioapartmentCoffeetableDreamhomeFor The HomeSmallspacesStudio AptStudio LivingStudio SpacesStudio StyleForwardHow difficult/expensive would it be to have the bedroom area raised a couple of inches like this?