Can I buy a house in the Philippines?

A lot of readers of my various blogs write to me and ask about buying a house here in the Philippines. Be careful, though. If you are no a Filipino, you cannot own property in the Philippines. This is a provision in the Constitution of the Philippines. Unless you are a Philippine Citizen, or a Former Philippine Citizen (already naturalized in another country) you cannot buy land here, PERIOD. A couple of points to consider on this, though. First, if your wife is a Citizen of the Philippines, she can own property here but it cannot ever be yours or even part yours. For example, if your wife dies, you cannot inherit the property, it will go to one of her other legal heirs (children, siblings, etc.). A second consideration… if you or you spouse are former citizens, your property ownership rights are limited to only a small parcel of land. Read more

Opening a Jollibee or McDonald’s Franchise

One of our readers, Vincent posted a question as a comment on another post, so I thought I’d answer it here, as a new post since it is somewhat unrelated to the post where the question was posted.

Vincent said that he and his wife were thinking of moving to the Philippines, and perhaps wanted to open a franchise of a Jollibee or McDonald’s fast food franchise in the Digos or Davao area in Mindanao. Read more