If you intend to buy houses for sale Philippines, you might want to get a loan to buy a house. Either for investment portfolio or for your family. Here are some of the main pointers about getting a housing loan in the Philippines.

I intend to share my answers and some actionable items, as inspired by the book “The 4-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferris, one of the books that inspired me to take a leap of faith (more about this in a future post). Tim’s book has a number of “Questions and Actions” at the end of each chapter.
Beginning with this post, I intend to feature questions from readers from time to time as a way of helping real estate investors in the Philippines.
Of course I will not disclose our reader’s name and e-mail address to protect her privacy and her questions are as follows:
“Hi Jay. I am currently looking for properties and try real estate. (I was an attendee from the Nov. 21, 2009 TRP seminar.) However, most banks have limits like income if you are an employee you must have 25k + salary. I only have 12K. Or must have a steady business. Or must be 2 years or more in a company. How can I start early with all these limitations? How can I apply for a loan and thus finance my first deal? Thank you very much…” – Miss MJ
Thank you for the excellent question Miss MJ. Let me try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge and also share some of my thoughts as follows.
Your capacity to pay
Assuming that Php12,000 is your take home pay, let us first try to determine what is the maximum loan amount you can get based on your capacity to pay. I believe most banks and lending institutions look at a person’s net disposable income or NDI to determine a persons capacity to pay and the corresponding maximum housing loan they can get.
The rule of thumb is the monthly amortization should be no higher than 40% of the NDI. In your case, If you have no existing obligations like loans, etc, and assuming Php12,000 is already yourtake home pay after taxes and monthly contributions like SSS, etc., then 40% of your monthly salary of Php12, 000/mo would be the maximum monthlyamortization that can be allowed for you, which is Php4,800.
Foreclosed properties you can afford
Using the payment terms from Unionbank as an example, Php4,800 would be more than enough as the monthly amortization for a foreclosed property priced at Php350,000 with a downpayment of 10% or 35K, and the balance financed with an interest of 15% per annum for 15 years. With these terms, the resulting monthlyamortization would be Php4,408.69, well within your maximum of Php4,800/month.
Obviously, there are other banks and lending institutions that offer lower interest rates and longer terms so you can definitely still get your first deal through bank financing. That is assuming you can come up with the minimum downpayment required.
How can I come up with the downpayment?
Yes, you will still need to save for the downpayment. I suggest that you start managing your money NOW! I believe learning how to manage money is a prerequisite to starting to invest in foreclosed properties. I would like to reiterate my belief that anyone who wants to get out of the rat race really needs to learn how to manage money and finances and this remains true whether you intend to invest in foreclosed properties or other investments.
Moving forward, let’s assume you manage to consistently save 15% of your salary each month or Php1,800, you will be able to save enough for the downpayment in less than 20 months. If you think 20 months is long, remember the requirement you mentioned that you must be working for a company 2 years or more in order for you to be able to qualify for ahousing loan?
Don’t bite off more than you can chew!
You might be asking why you should limit yourself to foreclosed properties worth Php350,000 and below? Well, I believe there is wisdom in starting small so that in case you do make mistakes (we all do!), you also make small mistakes and failures from which you can easily recover.
You still learn from the entire process but you start gaining knowledge and experience that would help you to get ready to take on bigger deals and bigger success.
What about Other People’s Money or OPM?
I know the subject of OPM is always in the mind in beginning real estate investors but I believe that if you are just starting with your real estate investing career, you should not even consider using other people’s money unless you are already able to prove your worth in managing your own.

How the heck would you be able to make good use of other people’s money if you cannot even manage your own?!
Your own money might be small but it should be good enough for one to start. As mentioned in Luke 16:10(NIV), “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much…”.  Makes sense right?!
Investing in foreclosed properties is a numbers game
Obviously, it may take some time for a lot of people to save enough money to start investing. I know I did as it took me 3 years before I was able to buy my first property. But that should never stop anyone from consistently analyzing properties to find deals worth pursuing.
You do not need any money to analyze deals as you are investing your time. So go ahead, start analyzing deals NOW, even if you still have no money to invest. Save money while  consistently analyzing properties and make the most of your precious time!
The more foreclosed properties you analyze, the sooner you will begin to see those deals worth pursuing. I’ve read a number of books about real estate investing that mention that on the average, you may have to analyze a hundred properties to end up buying one and I for one believe that these numbers are accurate. The key is to keep on analyzing as muchforeclosed properties as you can.
Don’t listen to the little voice in your head that may say “These numbers just won’t work… foreclosed properties are too expensive… I will never find one that is worth investing in… ” after looking at just a few listings or just a few properties. Remember, that’s the voice of the loser inside of you.
Just keep it up and you will eventually begin to see those great deals that you were unable to see before. When that time comes, I have a feeling you will already have the money to invest.
Happy investing

Here is a great advice from a Filipino Financial Planner in Australia. He said that houses for sale Philippines or any other countries during the economic times are much more important that it is not. While people are selling their houses during economic times, chances are these houses will double their value after the crisis. To know more about the story, read below.

A Filipino financial planner in Australia believes that people who want to invest in real estate should start by doing what he calls “negative gearing”.

Alex Aranguren who is also an accredited mortgage consultant explained that negative gearing means borrowing money to buy an asset but treating the loss incurred from the loan as an income tax deduction.

Aranguren began negative gearing when he bought his first investment property in 2006.

He admits that just like other people he was afraid to be in such a debt cycle.

“Yung mga deductions na yan, maliit na portion lang yan. Ang pinakamalaking portion is depreciation noong binili mong property,” said Aranguren.

Aranguren said the process lowers your income bracket and allows you to pay less tax to the government.

He advises that as a property investor, one must have savings to pay for monthly repayments for at least six months in case nobody is renting the place. But because most Australians cannot afford to buy their own house, rental properties are in demand.
“Ang market dito sa Australia, there is only 2% vacancy rate sa nagpapaupa, so which means maraming humahanap ng rental property,” he said.

“Pagsinabing economic downturn ibig sabihin noon nasa bargain ka ngayon para bumili. Yung negative gawin mong positive. Yung mga iniisip nung tao na mahina ung market this is the best time to buy kasi mura ngayon,” he added. Report from Chito Javier, ABS-CBN Australia News Bureau, Melbourne

Philippines is one of best places to live or build a family. Here, you can find a lot of properties for sale whether for business, leisure, start your family or just spend your retirement.  Sure, you can find the best real estate property in the Philippines since a lot of real estate companies are continuously developing subdivisions, condominiums and leisure getaways.

Before you buy a property or a house for sale in the Philippines, it is important to understand the basics, in order to avoid fraud transactions. Here are some tips that can serve as your guidelines, especially if it is from an individual seller.

Transfer Certificate of Title or TCT should be original or authentic. You can ask the seller to give you a copy of the title so you can verify it from the Registry of Deeds. This is the government agency where you can check the authenticity of the property that you are aiming to buy. Here in the Registry of Deeds, you can ask for a “certified true copy” of the land title of the property. In doing this, go to the municipal hall where the house or property is located then give them the name of the owner and the title number.

Availing a property or a house for sale in the Philippines requires careful research. In fact, aside from title verification, you still have to look at the history of the property owner.

Check if the property title is clean. This tip means you have to check that the property is owned by the seller. There should be encumbrances or claims on the property. So, how do you do this? Just look at the back of the title and see the heading ENCUMBRANCES. There should be nothing written on this part or page of the title. But do not be surprised or confused if some parts of the property description are written on this area. Sometimes this happens when there is no enough space in the front page; nonetheless, it’s perfectly fine.

The property description must match the property that you are purchasing. There are times, especially when you are buying a property that has no house number or street name. There are also cases that descriptions written in the title are not detailed. So, what you can do is clarify the descriptions or details from the Registry of Deeds or get the service of a surveyor or geodetic engineer. You have to take note that the exact location and size of the property are needed for the Transfer Certificate of Title.

When you buy a property or a house for sale in the Philippines or in any part of the world, you have to deal with the real sellers or owners of the property. It is essential so that you can ask details upfront or confirm some things concerning the property.

Know who you are dealing with. If you are buying from an individual property seller, it is important that you know his identity. If possible, request for identification documents such as license. Try to talk to the neighbors so you will have an impression of his history. This will help you in assessing his character, if he is trustworthy or not.

Verify if the annual tax of the property is regularly paid. As the buyer, you have the right to know if the seller pays his property tax regularly. You can do this by asking for proofs of payments such as certified copies of Tax Declaration and the tax receipts.

In buying a property, you just have to make sure that every transaction is properly documented. If you are still hesitant on making transactions by yourself, then it is better to have someone knowledgeable on this matter. Besides, you can always get the service of a real estate broker. These people are experts in terms securing you a good property with clean and legal documents. You have to remember that when you buy a lot or a house for sale in the Philippines, you have to be really cautious because it will cost you huge amount of money. It pays to search for good location and to deal with honest seller.