buying land in PI

[analou scott 8]

i am USC, my wife a 2yr GC holder from PI. we are going to cebu this month and i was wanting to look at buying some land in the Barili area. what are the ins and outs of an american owning land in PI? taxes, insurance do you use an attorney etc.

[bestofboston 36]

You can only own land if you are married to a Filipino which is the case.

There is a website you can search on that has a lot of info about this.

Good luck

Talk to some Americans while you are there that own land.

[magdasal 19]

First, a USC can't directly own land in the Philippines, by law. Only your wife could own it, since she is still a Filipino citizen. There are exceptions to this like ownership of condos, and minority ownership in businesses, etc.

Second, be careful. Fraud is rife and property laws a very 'flexible' there...squatters are a *major* problem and Philippines laws tend to go against land owners. Unless you have someone you can trust actually occupying the land, you could wind up essentially losing it to squatters. It's often almost impossible to get a clean title too. The Philippines simply don't have strong laws to protect property rights.

Almost every foreigner I know who has bought land in the Philippines (thru a wife, of course) has had trouble.

Edited April 2, 2011 by magdasal

[lee&jeniebee 23]

You can only own land if you are married to a Filipino which is the case.

There is a website you can search on that has a lot of info about this.

Good luck

Talk to some Americans while you are there that own land.

That is nice, but do you have a link to the web site??

[George & Gina 29]

basically, you can't own land but your Filipino citizen spouse can.

Here's a good resource that explains some of the ins and outs. http://www.kittelson...perty-ownership

George