So you’ve been to a vacation destination several times and decided that you love the place so much you’d like to have a permanent base there. It’s a great thought, and one that enters many people’s head. Unfortunately, the decision of whether or not to buy beachfront property should not be entered into lightly. There are many different factors affecting whether or not you should buy property in a given area at a certain time. Make sure that you know everything that you are getting yourself into, your personal financial situations, and the property that you are buying inside and out. If you know these things, and you do the proper research, you’ll be able to come to the best decision you possibly can in no time.

Before you even start looking at specific beach front properties, you should first and foremost look at your own financial situation. Examine if you really can afford to buy beachfront property. If you can, always set a budget based on what you think you can afford and make a vow to yourself not to go over this. Make sure to include not just mortgage costs in this, but also costs of upkeep, maintenance, and of furnishing the home or condo. This is to help you if you should happen to fall in love with a certain property that is just out of your price range. If you are planning on using the property to rent it out, always do the math to see how many renters you need each year to break even in case the market in the town your are buying property in collapses for some reason.

After you have gotten your personal finances in order, the next step is to familiarize yourself with the local housing market. Start by looking around the internet for various different places you would be able to own property in. You may already have an idea of where you would like to own a beachfront condo if you have a favorite vacation spot, but there may be other areas that are cheaper or more attractive than this. Doing research on the internet will also allow you to compare property prices so you’ll have a rough idea of what sellers are asking for before you actually take the time to go down to your future beach home.

As you get closer to looking to buy a beach home, talk to a local real estate agent and, if possible, friends and other locals that have lived in the area. Find out what property prices are doing in the area and if there are any proposed projects underway that could affect property prices either way in the near future. This could involve plans to station lifeguard, beach renovations, new roads, or other new infrastructure projects. The condition of the beach is of particular importance. The cleaner and better kept the beach is, and the less erosion that it suffers, the more people will be willing to come and you will be able to charge higher prices for rents.

Try to find out more about the overall economy of the town surrounding the beach as well. Are more and more tourists coming year after year? Or have people lost interest in this location and are slowly beginning to migrate to other areas? The one bodes well for your future property value, while the other one doesn’t.

Finally, find out as much as you can about the individual property that you are planning on buying. When did the seller buy it? For how much? And why is he selling it now? Asking why a seller is selling a piece of property should be a particular importance. If they’re moving, figure our why. Do they just need more money, or have they seen the writing on the wall and want to get our of town before they lose more money on their investment?

There are many different factors that influence whether or not you should buy beachfront property, and only you yourself can figure out if the investment is worth it for you. The major thing which should influence your thinking is what order your personal finances are in. After this, make sure that you find out as much as you can about the property you are going to buy, the town surrounding it, and the housing market in general. If you follow these simple steps, you can find yourself in the beach house of your dreams in no time.

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3. Should I Buy Beachfront Property in the Philippines?

The Philippines is an incredibly beautiful set of islands set in the idyllic South Pacific. They are far enough away from mainland Southeast Asia that they don’t attract a horde of tourists every single year, yet they contain some of the most beautiful, pristine beaches in the world. The tropical climate on the islands gives it an amount of biodiversity found few other places in the world. There is also world class diving, coral reefs, and any number of other water sports you would like to take part in, including kite boarding and surfing.

There are over 7,000 islands to choose from in this country, but only about 2,000 of those islands are inhabited. The islands are split into three major groups, Luzon, Mindanao, and Visayas. Luzon is the northernmost set of the islands, and contains the largest island, which is home to the capital of Manila. Visayas contains the middle group of islands, and Mindanao is the southernmost group of islands. With so many islands in such an idyllic location, beachfront property is not hard to come by. However, there are several obstructions to owning property in the Philippines.

Cebu, Philippines

First, despite the fact that there are many locations for eco-tourism, diving, and other water sports, not to mention great weather, the Philippines has received a lot of bad press. It’s in the middle of a volcanic fault line known as the “Ring of Fire” making volcanic eruptions in certain areas a relatively common affair. Depending on what islands you’re on, there are also typhoons that hit the islands, sometimes in devastating form. If you can deal with everything Mother Nature throws at you, the Philippines also have their share of political troubles. Since being colonized by the Spanish, the country has been predominantly Catholic, but there is a small Muslim majority on some of the islands that stirs up trouble from time to time. Perhaps the most important flaw holding people back from owning land in the Philippines is the corruption present in the government. Despite recent efforts to tackle this, the Philippines is consistently one of the worst countries in the world for corruption, which will limit your ability to own the land, and also to sell or rent it.

If you decide that even with these troubles, owning beachfront property in the Philippines is worth it, there’s another obstacle in your way. Foreigners are not permitted to privately own land in the Philippines. Unfortunately, there is no way for you to directly own any Filipino beachfront property. What foreigners can do is control up to 40% of the equity in a domestic company that owns land. These companies are generally joint venture development projects that are run by Filipino individuals and build condos and other apartment blocks. This is because the lease holding is much easier and more straightforward for the condos. Instead of just owning 40% of a piece of land, leaving you out maneuvered if your Filipino business partner decides to pull a fast one, Foreigners are allowed to own individual condos in a complex, provided that they don’t own more than 40% of the total amount of units.

The Philippines is a great area with some of the beast beaches in the world. Unfortunately, the country also has many problems it needs to tackle. Whiles these issues don’t make the country completely unstable, serious issues like corruption make owning property a risk because your rights to it may be violated by the highest bidder to a certain government official. On top of this, foreigners can not directly own land in the country making it more difficult to acquire beachfront properties. With all this taken into account, while the Philippines has a great atmosphere, great people, and great beaches, it may not be worth investing your hard earned money into the country and instead keeping it as a vacation destination, especially when there are so many other great places to own land in the world.

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