小蓝视频

From March to July 2023, I visited my fiancée, Joyce Apostol, on my second trip to the Philippines. I fell in love with the country the first time I stepped off the plane in February 2020. I love the people, the culture, the food, the cost of living, the ocean and, most of all, the weather.

One night, we were discussing our future and dreams. I casually mentioned to Joyce that if we bought property and built a home in the Philippines, we could live a very good lifestyle that we wouldn’t be able to afford in Canada. Plus, I might even be able to retire a few years earlier. At the time, it was just a dream, so we locked it in our memory vault and thought, someday, somehow, we would make it happen.

Fast forward to October 1, 2023. I was at home in Kenosee, watching YouTube, when our friend Kevin interviewed another friend, Tim.

Tim had hooked up with a local real estate agent, and they had purchased a block of land in Dauin, a suburb of Dumaguete, in Negros Oriental. The island is south of the capital city, Manila - one hour by plane. The Philippines is made up of over 7,000 islands, many of them uninhabited. Dumaguete was number seven in 2014 for Forbes top ten places to retire in the world, and Dauin is home to the best snorkeling and scuba diving in all of the Philippines.

Anyway, as I am watching the interview I remember thinking this is checking all the boxes. A large part of Dauin’s economy revolves around tourism, because of the fantastic scuba diving, there are many small resorts, terrific restaurants, a golf course, live entertainment venues, deep sea fishing, fantastic hospitality and a good mix of locals and expats. It feels like an Asian Kenosee Lake, the perfect home away from home.

The property itself is about a quarter of the way up a mountain, which expats like because it cools off at night. It is a five-minute drive from the ocean, the roads are cemented, and in Dauin, the traffic is not nearly as congested. There is also a hospital only 15 minutes away. The only question left was the price. When they announced it, I nearly fell over. Not only was it affordable, but it was doable. I got on the phone with Joyce, told her to watch Kevin’s channel (too much time on my hands) to see what she thought. She called back after she watched it, and she was as excited as I was.

We decided we were going to make our dream a reality, so we contacted Tim’s partner and told him we would take it sight unseen. I normally would not suggest this, but when I got a hold of him, they only had one property left, so we decided we wanted to secure it. He said he would let the owner know in the morning as it was quite late, in all the excitement I had forgotten about the 14-hour time difference.

When he finally got back to us, our dreams were crushed. The owner had already agreed to sell to someone else. As they say, don’t count your chickens before they hatch.

Sensing our disappointment, he said, “Give me an hour. I have an idea.”

After waiting a very long hour, he said he contacted a farmer that owned property on the other side and if we were interested, he would sell us 1,500 square meters (just over 16,000 sq. ft.)

Joyce caught the first flight from Manila to view the property. Our dream was still alive. We made a conditional offer, which was accepted.

Joyce had to get back to Manila for work, so she flew back to Dumaguete on October 15, went to the lawyer’s office, signed the papers and BOOM: just like that we were property owners in the Philippines.

We sat on our property until I could fly out on November 26. We cleared the bush, hired our contractor, filled out various permits, ordered our supplies, got our blueprints printed up and we now have just completed Day 21 of our build.

We are building a 140 sq. m. (1,500 sq. ft.) bungalow style house, on our 1,500 sq. m. property. We have 12 coconut trees, palm trees, and we will be planting lime, papaya, banana, mango and jack fruit trees, overlooking the jungle, and a beautiful view of the top of the mountain. Our house and pool should be completed by the end of June 2025.

Our house and pool should be completed by the end of June 2025.

If you wish to follow us on our journey we have started our YouTube channel, Fooman in the Philippines. It will show the progression of our build, and “A day in the life” so to speak.

Please like and subscribe. We can also be contacted by email at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Stay warm everyone!