Real estate catalogue to lure foreign retirees to Philippines

THE INEQUALITY of the currencies is what the Philippines’ retirement industry is trumpeting nowadays to attract foreign retirees here.

How does that work? Simply put, the dollars you saved in the States, the euros you saved in Europe, or the riyal you saved in Saudi Arabia has a lot more value here in the Philippines. Say, a retiree couple spending their twilight years in Los Angeles has only $128 a month left for all discretionary spending, after all the taxes and bills are paid. If they lived here in the Philippines, that value would increase to something like $1,084.

Realty catalogue

Money talks, indeed. And the higher the value, the louder it gets. And the louder it gets, the more people will take notice. At least, that’s what the real estate catalogue is counting on.

The catalogue, recently distributed in the United States in print and online, shows a chart of a typical retiree couple’s monthly pension in Los Angeles at $3,000, how it would be spent there, and a comparison of how that amount would translate here. Roughly put, as the couple lived in relative thrift in the States, here they could employ a full-time domestic helper, a full-time driver and still be left with over $1,000 to spend any way they want.

An initial 10,000 copies of the glossy Filproperty have been distributed among Filipino stores in the United States and in Philippine Airlines flights this month. The creation of the Philippine Real Estate Catalogue and its website www.filproperty.com sprang out from the recent retirement summit organized by the Philippine Retirement Authority chaired by Edgar B. Aglipay and private partner Philippine Retirement Industry chaired by president Ernesto M. Ordoñez. The partnership was created to “market” the Philippines as an ideal retirement haven.

Contents

Filproperty’s contents describe how retirees could take advantage of the Philippines’ range of services covering housing, lifestyle services and healthcare. It also showed requirements and costs in acquiring a special resident visa (SRV). The SRV is a nonimmigrant multiple-entry visa that entitles the holder to multiple entry privileges with the right to reside permanently in the Philippines.

The destinations, developments in housing, healthcare and developers’ houses, condominiums and resort accommodations and current PRA-accredited facilities in Baguio, Bulacan, Tagaytay, Bicol, Calabarzon, NCR, SBMA, Clark, Pampanga, Mindoro, Cebu, Palawan and Boracay were featured.
Photos of Cebu del Sur are splashed on its pages. It is marketed as silver home estates for foreign retirees. It relates how Rep. Simeon Kintanar and the mayors of 15 municipalities teamed up to push for Cebu del Sur as a “retirement haven region.” It highlight the region’s white sand beaches and coral reefs, island resorts, four district hospitals and the Cebu international airport.

Chester Place in Dasmariñas, Cavite, for instance, was cited as a “retirement village” a residential subdivision that features added service such as medical, resort, culinary and entertainment venue for residents and retirees.
Campo Verde, a residential subdivision with its view of Mount Makiling in Laguna province, was cited as having a medical hospital nearby in partnership with St. Francis Cabrini Medical Center and the Professional Village Management Group that would handle full concierge service, full activities programs and manicuring of its public gardens.

Affordability

PRA and its private counterpart Philippine Retirement Inc., composed mostly of property developers, believe that affordability is one of the key issues that attract retirees to consider retiring in a specific location abroad.
Asked if glossy photos of destinations in the country really captured the actual look, PRI director Noel Gonzales said that for several years, developments have already improved as a result of tight competition.
“These are the actual look of the developments … the developers try to outdo each other now in terms of color, amenities, features, materials and building styles.”

Key flagship project

President Macapagal-Arroyo recently declared the retirement industry as a key flagship project.

Gonzales said that because of this, a retirement desk will be designated in the airports for faster processing. Retirement villages will be given incentives. Tesda training modules will be created for service training specific for retirees such as caregiving, househelping, driving/transporting, and nursing.

Source: Inquirer by Tessa Salazar. 11/17/2006.

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