Stokkevn

25 Peso a kilo here at the moment. On the other hand potatoes, onions & carrots are 100 Peso/kg ( equivalent in Asda - 35 peso, 50 peso & 50 peso ).

Bealinehx

Bananas with Nestles Greek Yoghurt yummy!

Raffin

Saba a lot cheaper and keep you...going...!

mikek1

I have seen many ex pats who were down on their luck here. I asked the UK owners of a hotel why these ex pats bothered living in the Philippines. Their reply was they had either poor pensions or we’re running away from problems in their own countries. I think there is an element of truth in that statement.
Johnkalbo, you might want to consider checking out the La Union province. San Juan is the surfing capital of the north, and has many nice beaches, restaurants and hotels. Urbiztondo is very busy, particularly at weekends with many visitors from Manila. It is the equivalent of Bournemouth in the UK. ( not Blackpool, Urbiztondo is upmarket). There are many foreigners in the area. A lot of the nice hotels are owned by Brits and Aussies.
The foreigners are well organized and put on events so that freinds are easily acquired….hash walk, pool competition, dinners,etc.
La Union offers some good hospitals ( Lorrma) and shopping malls.The city of San Fernando is the capital of La Union and is always very busy. When the extension to NLEX is complete it will only take 3.5 hours to drive from Manila. Clarke airport is 3.5 hours drive, although when the NLEX extension is finished it would cut the time down to 2.5 hours.
Rental accommodation is easy to find and for 15k you would get a nice 2 bedroom apartment ( not beach front).
We live in Pangasinan but liked La Union so much we bought a house there. We sold the house after 18months (200 meters from beach) and are having a beach front house built.
The Philippines has many nice places so you need to take your time and explore many locations before deciding where you want to settle. There are numerous ex Pat sites on the internet, read them and ask questions, gain as much knowledge as possible.From what you have written you have lived for a time in Angeles. Angeles has many foreigners, however many who live there are enticed by the numerous bars and clubs. If you want a quiet life I would steer clear of Pampanga.

Stokkevn

You could have just waited a few years and your old house could well have been a beach front property.

Raffin

Yes, we experienced that in Bicol. Some erosion was going on where we built, though still a good way away when we sold 4 years ago. But along the bay a long established resort became inundated close to the accommodation block at times. The beach there and nearby disappearing completely at high tide.

mikek1

I was aware of erosion. The original plans were to build the house only 6 meters from the original sea wall. Having looked on google earth I noted that no house with beach front access was less than 20 meters from existing sea wall. We quickly altered our plans. The original sea wall which was badly constructed was destroyed by high seas. We had to have a new deep piled steel sea wall constructed at a very high cost.

mikek1

Raffin

That resort in Bicol needed something like that.

We were about 200m from the sea. One thing I didn't realise was how loud and sometimes frightening, especially at night the sea can be.

Maybe it doesn't apply to your project but in our case the DENR asked us to rent the foreshore land in front of us to prevent squatters spoiling the view.

mikek1

We bought the lot from our foreigner friend Les ( Polish). Les built a high perimeter wall around the entire Lot. Les still owns 3000plus square meters and was intending to build a house there. Les recently returned to Canada and bought a house there so he will only return to the Philippines for a vacation. We have no neighbors on the left hand side ( unless Les does build), to the right all houses are extremely large and are owned by the Mayor, judges etc. The road is nicknamed millionaires road……unfortunately we don’t come into that category. There certainly are no squatters.
One of the reasons for building the house was so that I would have something to keep me occupied. It has been quite challenging, many visits to the architects, semi project managing, purchasing and importing finishing products from China, etc. I have been working on the project for over 18 months. I want to ensure that that as much as possible everything is what we consider to our dream house.
The house is primarily for a vacation home, although we might eventually attempt to let it be used for Airbnb purposes…….again for something to keep occupied.
The first picture is a view from the balcony of the master bedroom.

freebie

Good to see and hear more Yorkies around and about... Im from the original West Riding.

Stokkevn

Remember when building a house get the work tops and sinks/basins at European height

Johnkalbo

yes lived in Angeles for a few years as I worked in clake now.i want out of the rat race thanks for the info we be looking around for a few weeks also at the area you have so kindly mentioned

mikek1

if you go up to La Union give me a shout I have ex Pat friends there who could help you with suggestions of the best places to live and the local amenities etc.
Should you decide to build a house the best advice I would give is to use the services of a good architect. Always get 2/3 or even 4 quotations to get an idea of cost and to obtain a realistic price……many construction companies will overcharge you if do not have much idea of cost.

Johnkalbo

Thanks for the help I will contact you when we come over
John and Darna