How can an American buy a CHEAP house in 3rd World?

Have you considered Norway?
http://translate.google.com/transla...10000&sort=2&PRICE_TO=200000&OWNERSHIP_TYPE=3

 

Divide by 6 and you USD, divide by 8 and you have Euro.

 

I'm too comfortable in the sun, Ragnar. And Norway either has too much or too little. I prefer rainy season and dry, to light season and dark. But thanks for the invite!

 

Mabey San Diego then?
I'm here now, the kid's school is 15 miles from Mexico.
A fish taco is 99 cents and a haircut 4 dollars.

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/sear...axAsk=30000&bedrooms=2&sort=priceasc&hasPic=1

 

About the same here, except I pay about $5 for haircut and beard trim together. Restaurant food isn't expensive but it's much cheaper to cook at home. healthier too!

 

Back to the original question, I'm an American living in the Philippines, and I've also lived in the Bahamas and UAE, so I've experienced many sides to the issue.

Here in Manila, we pay around US$500 per month rent for a 110 sq m house. Our compound is what you would rank as middle class Filipino. The only other foreigner besides myself here is a Dutch captain who sails on an OSV out to Palawan and back. Generally, the vast majority of foreigners here are either retirees or ex-military. I would say that our cost of living here is around 40% cheaper than what I spent monthly living in Los Angeles.

Foreigners are not allowed to own any land here. If you are married to a Filipina, your wife can own, and you can be on the title, but you cannot technically inherit the land if she pre-deceases you. You can own a condo here, if the total foreign-owned units does not exceed 40% of the total. You can also lease the land for up to 50 years, and build on it. If we were to purchase the house we live in, it would cost US$80 - 90K. With my job, we need to live near an airport. Were I retired, I might look at the new US-style developments at Subic or Tagaytay, where townhouses (US-style detatched) range from US$50K to.... The sky's the limit.

One thing many foreigners do here is that they build something for their wife, and it is much larger than everything around it, and far more expensive, so if they end up leaving, the house is essentially unsaleable.

It really depends on your lifestyle: Some people can live like Tarzan in a nipa hut eating nothing but sardines and rice, without air-conditioning, for a few hundred US$ per month. I like to be comfortable. I like having aircon, Internet, and cable TV. I like eating the occasional imported food.

If you want a US-style house here, you will pay quite a bit more.

In my experience, in SE Asia, cultural assimilation is far more important than how cheap your costs are. Yes, you can find the young wife, live the dream, so to speak, but many, many people leave here after a couple of years because they could not adapt locally.

By way of comparison, the UAE allowed foreigners freehold ownership in certain areas, but, and many people forget this, it is a dictatorship. What the Sheikh wants, the Sheikh gets. I personally know several expats who lost their homes because the ruler wanted the land for a new development. I'll leave it to anyone reading this to guess how much compensation those foreigners received.

In the Bahamas, there were serious income requirements for foreigners to own property (Government... not the bank). If you have a big checkbook, you could own, but you needed to prove a serious net worth.

 

I also will chime in this: Would I not be somewhat tied to living here, I would probably choose Malaysia. Freehold ownership is allowed in many areas, visas are relatively easy, and there are many very nice new developments in Malacca and Klang (If you need to work). A friend bought 200 sq m in Klang not too long ago, very nice, modern house, brand new. Around US$90K. The infrastructure in Malaysia, especially near KL, is far better than Philippines or Thailand, in my opinion. Malaysia is also much more easy to assimilate, given the multi-cultural nature of the place (and leaving out discussion of Bumi laws, etc.)

 

Malaysia visa is not easy, its called 'my second home' ( google it) the paper work and the lawers cost is expensive with only certain lawyers able to submit and mostly in kuala Lumpur. A certificate of you being a good boy is required from your Embassy ( try that one and see what they say). An investment of over 100,000 ringet is required that can not be used for 2 years.

Land is NOT free hold --only some of it is that is designated by the government and is usually in KL housing estates. Theres is none for instance in Langkawi where I live.

Condos are available in your name however the minimum a foreigner has to pay is 500,000 ringet yet the true value is half that. It is then risky to make deals including furniture, or money return through the lawyer because it is basically illegal etc etc.

You get a 10 year entry visa, a taxe free imported car.

Klang is one of the most disgusting cities in Malaysia, dont even think of using a public toilet and cought rats are left in the sun to dies outside the resteraunt while customers eat . Port Dickson 50 miles away is the opposite.

A work permit is not easy to get, beginning with my second home and company registration and taxation certification.

If you work for a Bumi company that will do this for you then of course all the above is irrelevant

 

Well, Klang isn't so bad... Would I retire there? No. But as essentially a KL suburb, it's not too bad. My friend had his home investment counted towards the total. I'll have to ask him about how much he paid (Though he does work for a foreign company in KL). The subdivision he lives in could be in any western country.

 

Ide stay in the PP if I were you if you can handle the corruption.

The Malaysian lack of bars and a female bar maid instead of vacant Indians behind the bars gets to you after only a short time. Yes there are quite a few in KL for the yuppy Indians

Having a job and getting paid for it is different.

Singapore --now there your talking, if you have a million dollars for a house there is some nice places.

All countries are crap but some are less crap than others.

 

I just started reading this thread, and it sure didn't take long for the PC police to show up. My advice to you is, 'don't let the door hit your butt on the way out.' Because hating on people for their country of origin isn't a whit better than hating on them for their race.

Amazing how you scream bloody murder at the very thought that folks (especially white folks) might even notice their own skin color, much less someone else's -- but you're totally willing to dump on 300 million people simply for where they were born.

[edit] I'm sure this all got said by someone farther down the line and I just haven't read that far yet. But I've been sitting on my bottom for half a day with a textbook and a laptop, teaching myself a CAD program, and I needed some cardio. It's too bleeping cold and dark for a California boy to be running around the block, so I decided to raise my blood pressure by venting instead....

 

WOW! Well said!

 

I was listening to a radio commentator the other day, and he made a remark about the term "ugly American" being a tautology. Apparently not enough listeners complained, 'cos he never apologized later. But the only real damage was to his own credibility.

 

Proof that not all the talk shows are hosted by right-wing idiots.... apparently there's at least one idiot out there busily fulfilling the stereotypes those other hosts spout about left-wingers....

Do you remember who it was?

 

Troy,
Know exactly what you mean. I get spleenfull, I say something controversial, and wait for some one to walk into my jaws.