I would rather shoot myself in the head than invest in pre-selling condos in the Philippines. My brother and I were interested on getting a condo unit not really as an investment but as a vacation home. However, when I read a contract to sell from one of the Philippines' top developers, I was shocked at how skewed it is on the developer's favor. There is very little protection, if any, on the buyer's side. I think you would have to be either really stupid or overly trusting to sign one of those contracts. The first issue I had was that they require the full post dated checks even before providing the contract to sell. What the hell? They should give the CTS when the buyer has paid 10% downpayment. Next, if they failed to deliver the unit as scheduled, there is no compensation to the buyer. They can practically construct the condo as slow as they can. Then they are also free to alter the floorplan as they please. So if you expect 10 units per floor, you might be surprised that they have increased it to 20 units per floor upon turnover. These are just a few of my concerns and when I brought this up to their agent, they said they are a reputable developer. Hmmmmm...... I think the contract speaks a lot more than any developers' reputation, regardless of how well deserved it is.
Buyers, beware! Happy investing.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
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i totally agree on this.. by the way may i ask who's the developer and where's the location of the condo that you were planning to buy? is it in manila or cebu? thnx :)
ReplyDeleteHi Mee Shell. Thanks for dropping by. Anyhow, the name of the developer nor the project location is irrelevant. What I would like to share here is for prospective condo buyers to review the contract very carefully and seek protection before investing in any project, especially if it is at preselling stage. Furthermore, remember that words mean nothing to most salespeople, its their job to sell after all. Unless its explicitly written in a contract, promises can and will be broken.
DeleteWhen you said "pre-selling"? What does that mean?
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, thanks for sharing. I never really thought about buying a big property such as a house/condo as I would love to travel around the world with my back pack while I'm still young. I don't even want to get married. But when I get too old, that I couldn't walk places anymore, I'd probably rent a small room where I could retire in peace. :D
hi Jinri
Deleteeven if you like travel, buy a real state.
becase your 10,000 U$ now is equal to less than 5,000 after five years
and if you have a realstate in good place (like main cities), then your 10,000 u$ now, will be equal to 12,000 (in today prices) after 10 years. because the real state prices is going up more than other items
Hi Jinri and thanks for visiting. "Pre-selling" as I used it in the above blog post means that the condo is not yet ready to be occupied. A more appropriate term would be "pre-construction". Good luck on your backpacking adventures and I hope your investments will serve you well during your retirement in the far future.
ReplyDeleteNot all the type of condo's are likely to what you mentioned about your experience of pre-selling condominiums. Try this eastwood condo for rent,for sure you will like this one.
ReplyDeleteIn this matter, it depends really on the things that you need to check out on. If you would be able to really get things to work out on this one, then that's fine. You can get less price on a pre-selling property, provided that it would finished on the allotted time. Also, check their credibility. In that way, you would be able to make most out of the things here.
ReplyDeleteman
ReplyDeletei do not see the above reason is big matter with very known developer (like the first two or three developer in the country),
they will make a contract in thire side, look the pepole buy from them before, how much they paid and how mich the unit is worse now,
Thanks for sharing these warnings!
ReplyDeleteThey really do sound like scammers with a contract like that. I would expect a contract they wrote themselves to be skewed towards them, but that seems a bit much.
If that's the case, I'd rather wait for a ready-for-occupancy condo and rent it out or re-sell if the market value appreciates quickly.
My brother and I haven't ruled out purchasing a condo completely and, as you've pointed out, we will only be considering those that are ready for occupancy.
DeleteI recommend you to buy ready for occupancy condominium. But you have to understand that RFO unit is quiet expensive rather than buying a pre selling condo unit. Talking about Post dated checks, I can recommend you a developer that will let you pay bank to bank transaction for the payment of the equity. See my fb: https://www.facebook.com/cis.ricio
DeleteCondo are cheap in some developing countries compared to a places loik hong kong new york or london.
ReplyDelete