freebie

Price of land.. depends if you are the one looking at it, or its your wife. Price will most certainly vary. Titel..well it maybe rela or it may not , and you cant own the land anyways. House building, if you know what you are doing, good. If you dont you wil be fleeced on everything from materials, contractor costs etc etc and lot more etc.
Check the neighbours.. some places can seem nice and quiet by day but hell at night with karaoke everywhere, guys roaming around etc etc. Recognise you will need to make some compromises.. further away you are the more quiet things are..but the further away perhaps less safe for either self or possessions if you go traveling from the house for a long period.
Recognise you need to be good friends with the heads of the barangay where you live, not because you need them but because they can make your life hard if you are unfriendly towards some of their illogical rulings.
There are some great places to live and relax and enjoy, such as Bantayan, Southern Leyte, Moalboal, Puerto Galera, Boracay, Camuigin, Panglao.... BUT.. these may also be far from good medical availability if needed.. or schools or other important infrastructure needs. AS I said, theres a lot of compromises to make and no whre is perfect. Oh and its really hard to find nice quiet beaches......the country is vastly overpopulated and so there are people literally everywhere......But you can have lots of fun exploring and finding the place that feels right. Remember also language varies from place to place and your tagalog can be useless if you are in waray2 linguistic environment.

Raffin

Nice summary. I would add useful to look at typhoon tracks. There's two routes which are followed most often by the higher strength systems, one into Aurora, Nueva Viscaya and another across Bicol to head NW over Marinduque and N, MIndoro. Islands to the south less affected.

Then there's the NPA. Active in many areas in the North of Luzon and from parts of Batangas/Laguna, south through Quezon, the Camarines, Albay to the tip of Bicol, in Samar. On the islands Negros is one location of recent activity. Mindanao, of course. along with other armed groups is at a much higher level .The local NPA may be pretty harmless and just ask for Revolutionary Tax but is that something you want to be involved with? Worth Googling for reports of military, criminal activity and political instability in any area. Not that you would be targeted so much but could be caught up in operations against.

freebie

Indeed @Raffin, good additions to the list. As a further addition, if on an isand see what happens when ferries break down if theres an alternative.
Been on Siquijor when one ferry broke down so 5 hours queues/lines for the next and on Romblon in a Tropical storm when no ferries for 5 days.
I would also be looking at consistency of power supply, how many brownouts and how often and water supply. Many things for the OP to be looking at when considering where to live..... its quite possible that renting in 3 or 4 places for first year might be the best way to determine where to live.

Johnkalbo

yes I will.be renting for a start I am going to naval to have a look just wondering if any body has info many thanks

Bealinehx

Do you mean Naval, Biliran? I was last there in 2006.
If so, fairly quiet, some pleasant tourist hotels. If you need to to go to big cities Ormoc and Tacloban are about 2 hours travel by PUV. Cebu and Mandaue a daily overnight ferry.
Weather-wise it is typhoon alley. Generally enjoyable.

Johnkalbo

yes my wife is from biliran so she speaks three dialects we are looking for somewhere to build.a modest house for the three of us I believe there is a university

Raffin

So despite that you are now planning to live near the rellies! People here gave you many ideas about alternatives, finding them, factors to take into account. What happened to your thought process?

Bealinehx

Perhaps Asawa rules the roost! LOL

freebie

Stayed there for a couple weeks, and to be honest couldnt find any reason to stay longer. Theres some nice islands off the north coast but it was a desperately quiet place. Had one large suprmarket but alsmost nothing in it that I wanted to buy. Lots plastic items, a few tins cans of whatever but absolutely nothing fresh by way of produce as I recall. Ormoc would be nearest SM. Hda a few brownouts whilst there too. Lots youtube clips of the place to review , and as I recall before going there was a youtube clip of some foreigner having been shot or something equally grisly, but that indeed happens in a few palces. All the expats in Naval meet in some cafe thats near the ferry terminal.

abner

In some cases, an extended Filo family can be an asset on one side, and a liability on the other (though always assuming the worst case is prudent!).

In my wife's case, her immediate family are challenging: hard to help in any way that proves sustainable (e.g. send a bright niece to college...she gets pregnant). But they're also proud, and don't tend to ask for much except where there's a true crisis (or at least, they've learned to view such things through our eyes before asking).

Meanwhile, there are other branches of the family who have achieved far better, e.g. specialist doctors and similar post-grad-qualified types in the Philippines; or, in the case of several family ex-pats now residing in Oz and NZ, white-collar careers similar to my own first one.

And they offer well-meant advice, and useful local political connections, for setting up a "nice" spec-build retirement house in "their" barangay. But I'm still not convinced yet.

Bealinehx

Never forget Rule 1 !

Johnkalbo

I only can wish for some close family that is willing to help and be helped but hey ho it's not going to happen we have a a expended family who have nothing but appreciate every bit of help we can give them and we like to help in return there gratitude is overwhelming to say the least so that's the way the cookie crumbles. 😊

Raffin

What I have understood by Rule 1 was usually defined by Expats in terms of Islands. I think live on the next but one so that people would at least have to take two ferry rides. But I see Biliran is actually an island connected to the mainland by a bridge. If the close relatives he wants to avoid are up in Central Luzon then they are indeed far away, which is good But the extended relatives will now become the close relatives so will the good relationship continue?

Looks also to me the OP was overruled. Why did he start this thread if Biliran was on the cards all the time? As some others have said relatives nearby can be helpful sometimes, but you don't have to live that near to them in a place with one not very well stocked supermarket.

Philosophical 11

I don't understand the importance of a supermarket. At my last place the nearest supermarket was about 2 hours away. Everything we bought was from local markets and stores

Yes... when we went into the big city every 6 months to renew my Visa....we visited the supermarket to buy various bits and pieces but mainly to look around. What we bought could have been bought just as cheap...or cheaper at home. Granted...more choice maybe. But each to their own I guess.

Raffin

Supermarket just an indicator. Sort of one horse town.