How much does it cost to build a house in the Philippines | Do and Don'ts of building | Dumaguete

[Music] so welcome to paul's asian adventure i'm here with george a good friend of mine that's canadian and he has decided to build a house and before he talks about his house i'm just going to pan over and so you can see the house before we start so this is the house so george how long have you been here in the philippines well i've been uh coming here off and on for about three years usually six months in canada and six months uh here and uh so this is basically my third year here third year and what now a lot of expats are fearful of building because of the laws in the philippines and you know they've heard ugly stories about people losing their house and lot and all that so what made you plunge into building a house versus renting well uh you know it may uh be of concern to people who are not married i'm married i married a filipino very happy uh with it uh and so i figured that married a filipino i'm going to be living here more often than not and so build a house and it's also good for resale value i if i'm not here someone else can sell it yeah so it's kind of a security for your wife security for the wife but it's also for my own pleasure because i want to live in something that is suitable instead of running around looking for a place uh that is uh rentable uh and then i have to furnish it or not furnish it and you know it often gets complicated because you don't know what kind of neighborhood you'll lend into at least here i know exactly where i'm getting myself into now this is a great choice for people who are maybe married and secure on their wives and also have decided this is where they want to stay because if you buy a house you become less mobile wouldn't you agree yes no absolutely and that's the whole issue if you're single it works if you're interested in traveling well obviously that's much better for you if you're footloose and fancy free but in my case i want a steady home uh so this is what i came up with so now you live in the bacon valencia dumaguete area i'm not gonna say exactly where but what made you decide to choose this area versus so many other areas in the philippines i i reckon you've traveled quite a bit before you made your choice yes i've i've done some of the other islands and i stayed on some of the other islands i really enjoyed all of them but you know there's a point in time where you have to decide and i heard about dumagetti i came to dumaguete it's a university town there's lots of arts and culture bars for evening entertainment and good food different kinds of food so that to me is extremely important uh when i get uh the whole package in one yeah i'll have to agree dumagetti valencia bacon has a lot to offer in the form of different cuisines because there's a lot of expats here also the bars are they have some really good bars here with live music great music here and filipinos of course are known for singing talents of course and they have some good bands as well so it's if you like that type of scene this is a really great area another thing that i like about this area here is all the nature yeah you know it's easy to get to the waterfalls the beaches to go free diving and the corals so it's a very good area apple is not too far from here yeah island i mean it's one of the most amazing places yes it is so uh we're going to do a tour of the house now and that's just a bit of background about george and why he chose to build so one of the first things i noticed george is your roof you have a really nice roof which is hard to see here but maybe my viewers can see it there and a lot of people here actually use the metal type of roof to save money what why did he go with a more expensive roof versus a metal type uh well this is metal uh however it's not just a cheap uh you know flat metal flat metal yeah uh so i went with this roof because one of uh the reasons is aesthetics and also the fact that uh when it rains here and you have one of those thin roofs that's all you hear yeah thunder and green and so you know this will uh mute out some of that sound okay and make it easier to sleep uh but it's mostly for aesthetic reasons and also to increase the value of the house yeah uh when someone looks at this place they say wow it's got style and so yeah it's worth an additional so many thousands now how in percentage how much more would that roof be than just the flat metal type of roof oh my god i think probably 40 to 50 percent more expensive than the flat roof okay so so we'll just walk into the house now and i really like the cement work they've done in the front uh the entrance here seems to is that hand or is that is that an expert who did those columns or no it was uh the workers here who actually did everything uh cement wise they are experts and it's just absolutely amazing what they can do i designed it uh and they uh they put it together and this is what's wonderful about them is you design something in cement here and they can do it that's not a problem yeah they love cement over here and now you have a fuse box over there and that's uh like you had an electrician do that or oh yes a qualified electrician very qualified electrician one of the best in the area i shopped around asked around and uh came up with his name and i'm very pleased he's very meticulous and that's what you need yeah when you're doing electrical work uh at that site on that wall we're going to have a wall unit so most of that will be covered uh it won't be as evident as it is now uh that will be the television but all the other aspects the outlets and things of that nature including the panel will be covered by a piece of decorative furniture okay because if we walk over here and we film this whole area the way george has designed this and i let him talk about this is it's going to be an open type of solution none of this is going to be screened in right so you decided for an open because you want it's kind of the filipino way maybe you could talk about why you made that decision or how he came to that decision well filipinos live outside and even if they have their uh you know houses their accommodations that kind of thing they may be four walls but in actuality you always find them outside and it's because of the weather here you want to be outside you want to have the fresh air the coolness because uh in your household it just you know stifles you yeah and so i figured okay well if that's the case why don't i have my living room and my entrance way as well as uh the uh dining room outside because that's where i'm going to be living and you had been to a friend's house that was somewhat similar in design correct yeah i remember exactly that that was their guest house as it were okay and they had their own houses with you know uh the uh the four walls as it were but this is what they did for a guest house similar to this not as extensive as this because theirs was a guest house this is a two bedroom uh and two bathrooms uh they only had the one bathroom and the one bedroom but it's the same concept the patio here is much much larger yes i really like this concept and you've installed some fans to i guess make more of a breeze when the guests are here correct that's correct uh but also all the rooms also have fans and i think that's very important they have fans with lights and so that deals with an issue of lighting as well and also for subscribers i've done this this helps keep the mosquitoes away as long as the air is circulating but you also mentioned last time we talked about you had some type of grass that helped keep the mosquitoes away that was lemongrass lemongrass yeah lemongrass keeps mosquitoes away and we're growing a whole bunch i don't know if you saw it on the in the entrance i saw it and we'll be putting it here and there but surrounding the household to keep the mosquitoes away there are many kinds of herbs that you can use to keep flies away for instance uh sweet basil mint that kind of thing so we'll be having that in the kitchen uh where we'll just grow it for our own purposes but also to keep the mosquitoes away and also to keep the flies away okay so we'll go to the master bedroom is the first bedroom is here and i see you have like a slim type of window yeah is that going to be enclosed or is that going to be open no it's enclosed and the idea is simply to give light uh when you walk into the room you probably uh won't need to put on the lights uh but it's it's going to be basically closed it's not intended to be open that's why it's slip like that and also uh the area that you see in front of the window over here will be a walk-in closet and so we had to accommodate for the window it couldn't be a large window so we are going to have a walk-in closet eight by eight so it's quite considerable uh and of course the rest of the room will be used for uh the bed etc etc as well as an area for the television uh each bedroom is equipped uh for the potential of installing a television okay now this window is that going to be enclosed or is that going to be open no no it's enclosed uh the room will be enclosed after all this is a bedroom okay and so you'll be able to have your door your screen door as well as your window with screens so you can open this one you'll be able to open with a screen that's correct the window behind us so we just looked at no that's uh enclosed and then you have the ensuite bathroom uh a nice size shower and it's very important to separate the shower area from the rest of the bathroom because of obvious water yes you don't want to spray everything and many of the bathrooms in the philippines that's what you end up doing because there's no division and the window there is for ventilation purposes yes so yeah it'll be screened in window okay and i see the fence back here i was looking earlier is that gonna be all the way to the top here are you gonna have like a see-through fence or whatever yeah it's a see-through fence so what it is is basically a wired fence it's going to be a wired on the back side and that way you can get uh yeah a bit of the breeze maybe if on the back side yeah well it's mostly intended for the dirty kitchen which is located outside okay because i see here your fencing here is what maybe 10 feet 10 feet high and that's pretty high yeah i see you haven't put any type of security on the top are you intending to put some security in the top there or yeah they'll be the uh you know decorative uh spikes okay i don't want to have barbed wire or glass or anything along that line okay uh after all uh you you have to be somewhat accommodating to the aesthetics and so there there will be the spikes uh but that's about it okay uh the reason why the walls are so high is because this house is extremely high off the ground as you can see so uh when i come out here when the bunk house disappears all you'll be able to see are trees you won't see any of the roads you won't see any of the houses just the trees just the trees the top there and in here you're also planning to put a pool correct yes well the pool will be where the uh bunk house is located right now okay and that's the idea it's going to be you know not an extensive swimming pool it's going to be about five feet deep so it's just a pool for pleasure it's not for doing laps or anything along that line and depending on the cost we'll see how long it will be okay well a friend of yours and a friend of mine is actually the person who is going to help you with that correct yes of course so you always try to find friends who are going to help you especially if they have experience yes now this is the second bedroom somewhat smaller very small and you talked about having a bed and maybe you could talk about how you're going to put that bed up well the idea is to have the bed fall into uh the actual wall when you're not using it when you're not using it and so you just pull it down and that's why there's no window in this room okay so except for the window uh in the front where the door is located so there's a window here yeah and then lap screen and of course the door will have a screen as well so there'll be considerable you know uh possibility for uh ventilation yeah but there's also fans there's a fan in every room there's a fan there too yeah yeah and this is the this is a second a combination ensuite and and a guest washroom so you can enter through the bedroom or you can enter through the open space and they'll both have locks so if somebody is in there from the bedroom they want to lock it so that nobody else comes in and vice versa now i did notice that the the entrance is very small and it was very interesting what you told me this is actually typical in the philippines to have such a small entrance it is with a plastic door yeah it's a it's it's a way that they do things here in fact uh on the plan that was done by a professional draft person i came up with all the concepts but he actually did all of the measurements to make sure that it was in accordance with the building codes here and this is what we ended up with and i thought well yeah this is this is how they do it everywhere in the philippines most of the houses unless they're you know american houses yeah uh they they are uh smaller small doors for the bathroom and now this is a standard door the rest are all standard doors uh now the the last room is the kitchen yep and that's probably where most people spend most of their time well including the dog so the dogs actually in this case we haven't even started making food there yet they still know they know this is the place to be right they must they must yeah uh so there's a this is a sliding door that you'll have here okay and uh of course you have the rear door going to the dirty kitchen outside and this is going to be a large window with screened in so this is a really an open concept kind of thing because the the where you spend your time is in the kitchen obviously preparing food uh receiving guests as you can see we have a counter and so there'll be you know four chairs uh stools around the counter and so people will be able to watch as uh merry christmas myself for cooking it's actually a very nice way to do things because i use that i had some somewhat similar in the us and that's where people would sit you'd be cooking you'd be having a wine while you're talking and it's a very nice surprise it is yeah and the kitchen has a lot of uh cupboard space right so that's right most uh kitchens in the philippines do not have very much uh space yeah but you know i said why not put it together we've got the room let's put it together okay so now let's talk about the actual building of the house the building of the house the foundation first maybe you could say something about the foundation uh obviously is it probably an engineer who designed everything and a foundation is it is it single rebar or double rim bar or how do you know okay well it always depends on what you're building if you're building a uh one story obviously you don't need as strong rebar uh rebar if you're building a two story well then you're changing the whole concept and so you have to have more uh in my particular case uh i i put in uh what is required plus okay to make sure that uh it was going to be strong enough this is an earthquake area yes and so i i would presume everywhere in the philippines it's an earthquake area so you know i decided that i would take extra measures wherever i could and obviously one extra measure that i could take was in the foundation and in the columns to make sure that they would be strong enough to withhold someone now like i mentioned all this is designed by the engineer so all you have to do is make sure that the rim bars that were ordered and delivered were the correct dream bars yes i order them and i check them when they come in to make sure that it is what it supposed to be and then when they do the installation i'm always here to see that they're in fact putting in what is required so that's a segues into my next point if you're building a house here and i've heard this from multiple people it's very important that you're here almost on a daily basis yes and i'm certainly here more than just a daily basis i'm here at least two three four times a day because i'm in talk to them uh see what they need uh if they need anything then i'm off to the races to go to dumaguete and get what i need and back back and forth back and forth depending on the day so uh you're the one who actually buys the stuff you're not having people deliver oh that's very interesting because so um you're very involved in this because mine from what i remember you told me is that in canada you had you weren't a builder but you had management building experience correct well what i did in canada is i i built uh and i also renovated in order to sell okay and so i would live in those uh houses and then move on from there after selling them because if you live in a house for a certain period of time uh you can then sell it and then you know build another one and sell it it's it's a very good way of doing uh construction and also making a profit as you're doing it okay so one of the things uh that i notice here is that you have a septic tank could you maybe is that's also designed by the engineer i assume is there anything that people need to know about septic tanks here in the philippines or anything they need to worry about or how anything you would say about that well it's a oversized septic tank and the the way that they operate here is basically they fill it up and when it gets to a full situation you pump it out they don't have what we have in canada which is a draining system uh you know weeping tiles and things of that nature they just don't have it here they don't operate on that basis okay so it is an oversized tank as you can see there's three compartments so you have the first one for the uh larger blocks as it were as it comes out of the washroom and the next one is uh more of a secondary treatment and then a third one for the last treatment and then if it gets if all three get filled up you have to empty them out okay but this one is going to take a long time to empty out when you say a long term what are we talking about well probably if well you know it depends on use how many yes yeah how many guests that you have yeah yeah and this is where you're gonna put the water tank yeah um so how big is your water tank gonna be uh well we haven't quite worked that out yet uh because uh the the plumber uh is going to be doing his calculations based on the kind of plumbing that we have and then uh we'll just uh do it in accordance with the plumber whatever he thinks is appropriate and now the last thing that i notice is this one here and buy a combo yeah tell me about that okay well that's the first thing that i bought when i uh decided to build uh and and put it on the land the reason is because when you uh start obviously there's no cover yeah especially here because this is a a former agricultural piece of land uh and so there were no trees you have lots of trees surrounding it but on this property there are no trees uh it has its benefits but it also has its drawbacks because there's no shade yeah and so i bought a buy a cobo uh installed it here and that's basically uh i use it for my office but also uh the staff that work here uh they uh labor people uh they can use it for uh you know their breaks uh their lunch breaks uh and uh you know it it i think is uh you gotta plus you're gonna keep it once you got done oh yeah well of course so there's no reason to throw it out i mean it's uh in fine shape yeah yeah yeah yeah it's a nice thing to have yeah yeah so i think we okay the design these lights and all that the fencing design is that also the or did you design this or i designed it okay yeah okay um is there anything else you'd like to add on any do's and don'ts for people that are thinking of building why they should build why they shouldn't build what to watch out for well you know i i think that the important thing is you know whether you go with a contractor or yourself be on site constantly yeah go there i mean it's your investment and you you have to take care of your investment if you hire a contractor make sure that there's a contract make sure that the person is uh a successful contractor in other words go and see what that person has built uh what do the people that live in the houses that they built uh you know what do they think of the construction are they satisfied are they happy uh did they have any pitfalls or do they have any pitfalls so you know i think if you check check check that's the most important thing and of course deal with the municipality uh that's one of the most difficult aspect of it fortunately my wife uh used to work in a hardware store and so she knows uh construction turned out to be a benefit yeah uh so she has been able to negotiate with them and she understood what they were talking about whenever we were talking about the plans and how the plans should be written up and all of the processes that you have to go through uh here it's much more complicated uh it's not uh simply submitting your plans and they say okay uh you'll have an answer in two months uh you can never really know when you're going to have an answer if it's a year an a so you have to keep going and seeing them and asking them and making sure that they are there to help you so follow-up is really important follow-up everything that you do and if you decide to build on your own uh make sure that you have someone who is a qualified like an architect uh who are an engineer that will advise you as you're going along because the construction here is completely different than what we do i mean they use uh you know uh much simpler tools and we are always you know using uh electrical tools uh mechanical tools but here they they mostly uh use you know work their bodywork and the reason for that is because the electric tools here are relatively expensive compared to labor while exactly in canada or the us it's relatively cheap compared to labor the amount of time you save so uh and probably here if you had electric tools that walk off somehow i'm guessing because they're they're relatively expensive compared to yeah so uh follow-up is very important um the uh and having someone to advise you uh that is extremely important i have a a architect who uh doesn't do the architectural work nor is he the contractor but whenever i have a question i need advice uh or i want him to come and see something uh to tell me if this is the correct way of doing it uh he's there i pay him uh on that basis and it works out really well and also one thing you mentioned that i also think is very very important is word of mouth whoever you hire make sure that they have a good reputation make sure you go see their work especially like you were saying last time on the electrical and the plumbing get a professional uh you know to do the electrical work i think that that's a must anybody who uh will simply rely on the jack of all trees uh you know they may be lucky but i think that it's much better to ensure that you get a qualified electrician a qualified plumber to do the work for you because those are two fields that could be a real issue could be catastrophic if it goes wrong at the end of the day it could be yeah now the paint uh is there anything you can say about the paint is it any type of paint you need to use or this type of quality or is it just pretty well you always use the best quality paint uh i don't think that there's any doubt about that okay uh so that's that's not an issue the issue becomes what color are you going to be using and that's usually negotiations being you and your wife yeah yeah well like everything else i'm sure the cupboards oh yeah the range everything is negotiation well how we did it is uh i i would plan it out that would show it to her and we would discuss uh from from then on i bet there were some heated discussions right there they weren't heated uh but they were long [Laughter] long discussions long discussions yeah i've been in a similar situation not building but just buying furniture for the house when i was married it was a big i mean hours and hours and hours and she liked something i didn't and it's just it took forever well i think we went like six months without a sofa you know oh my goodness yeah so we decided both of us there's one way to save money no one's taking money because then we have to buy a sofa and i'm very fortunate in that my wife and i are uh really compatible when it comes to you know choosing colors uh and furniture yeah we have the same we appear to have the same taste so that's why it works out so well that's great uh but on the other hand uh you know there are certain things uh color wise uh that's always a discussion yeah yeah she probably wanted pink everywhere no no i can say yeah she didn't want the blue bedroom and actually i didn't want that shade of blue i asked for another shade of blue but when you apply it all of a sudden you say oh my god that's not what we really wanted you wanted something lighter maybe well yeah exactly i wanted a very pale blue and it turned out to be a very dark blue yeah okay i'll live and learn yeah so how about landscaping are you planning to do anything special beside the lemongrass are you planning to do yes it'll be extensive landscaping uh once the the the pool is in uh all of this area here uh including the parking area i'm going to have landscaping in the parking area and i'm going to buy those stones that have holes in the middle as it were i don't know if you've ever seen those uh where the grass grows through oh yes yes and the kind of grass that we're going to be using here is a grassy caribbean grass okay so it is a grass that doesn't grow very tall it spreads out and so that's that's what we're looking at nice well well george i can hardly wait to come back i think we agreed that i'll come back in a few months and look at the end results that's right and uh i mean the pool's not going to be put in before next year right so we won't see that yeah until next year i i presume it won't be until next year because uh i'll be going back to canada hopefully soon uh so uh while i'm way yeah you know things will simply grow here so you're when are you planning to go back to canada well i hope as soon as this coronavirus allows us to go back so you know it's it's a guessing game for all of us well i guess he could go back it's just you can't come back here yeah you'll be difficult you're just waiting till the philippines open up so you can go and come back yeah exactly well to my guest george thank you for letting me tour the house and to my subscribers thank you for watching and hit the subscribe button if you're not a subscriber share like and comment thank you bye [Music] hmm

Channel: Paul's Asian Adventure

Views: 360,515

Keywords: DO NOT build a house in the Philippines BEFORE watching THIS video, house building in the philippines, pauls asian adventure, How much does it cost to build a house in the Philippines, cost of building a house in the philippines, How much does it cost to build a house in the Philippines 2020, 2020, house building in the Philippines 2020, how much to build a house in the philippines 2020

Id: Z3GipgW9gt0

Length: 30min 30sec (1830 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 13 2020