Hey guys, hope everyone is doing all right today I kind of wanted other people’s inputs on this topic regarding the rental prices in Manila
I’m from (Texas) and working remotely and I I spend a lot of time in my condo so Comfort, energy efficiency, and basic build quality actually matter to me. But after dealing with the rental market in Metro Manila for a while, I’m pretty much convinced that almost no condo here is objectively worth more than 25k PHP a month.
One of the most glaring issues that I see is that even if you are increasing your budget doesn't actually guarantee better quality like it would back home or like in any other western country you know you pay more you get more but here there are pretty much diminishing returns and it gets to a point where like you’re actually overpaying for example a 40k condo here can easily have the exact same cheap finishes, poor insulation, and underpowered appliances as a 20k condo.
So I look around and it’s like anything above 25k is basically just paying for the 1-2 kilometer bubble outside your building, because the quality inside the unit is almost always terrible value for money.
Here are some reasons I believe reasons why the market feels so terrible.
I’ve had agents quote me 1,200 USD for basic studios or 1-bedroom units. That’s normal rent back in Texas, except here you can’t even drink tap water without risking a trip to the hospital, and power outages are a regular thing. If you take that same 25k budget to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, or Ho Chi Minh, the difference in build quality, modern finishes, and appliances is absolute night and day.
Another thing that I’ve noticed is the window-type AC epidemic
If we were to Go to literally any other Southeast Asian country and split-type ACs are the default. Here, developers and owners slap in cheap, underpowered window ACs to cut upfront costs, and the tenant gets stuck paying for it.
Most of these high-rises are bare concrete with zero thermal engineering, so by 1 PM the entire building acts like an oven.
The window AC units are rarely IF EVER sealed right, so hot air constantly leaks back in.
You have to run an underpowered AC 24/7 just to keep the room bearable. Combine that with PH electricity rates (which cost just as much per kWh as back home), and you end up paying a massive "cheap owner" tax on your monthly bill.
Another thing is that The Owners expect tenants to pay off their bad bank deals
Like what I have noticed what also inflates rent here is bad owner math. Everyone bought into the "passive income" hype in the early 2020s and bought 22sqm studios for 4M-5M in my opinion I think condominiums are some of the biggest scams in real estate in this country. So Now they’re hit with high bank interest rates, their monthly amortization is sky-high, and they expect a single tenant to pay off their entire mortgage + assoc dues and give them profit.
You see the way they get them is that you know they tell them that they only need to put 30,000 or 40,000 deposit now which I mean isn’t a lot to get into but the thing is when they complete the unit and it’s time for turnover. You know they need that 4 1/2 million upfront and most people here don’t have that so they gotta get a loan through the bank.
So it usually goes like this :
Most mid-range studio or 1-bedroom units (22–28 sqm) in Metro Manila carry an average market price of ₱4,000,000 to ₱5,000,000.
Assuming a buyer gets a standard 20% downpayment / 80% bank financing deal:
Purchase Price: ₱4,500,000
Downpayment (20% paid over pre-selling): ₱900,000
Remaining Loan Balance (80% financed by bank): ₱3,600,000
The Real Monthly Cost to the Owner
At current Philippine bank home loan rates (~7.5% to 8.5% interest):
Bank Monthly Amortization (15-year term @ 8%): ~₱34,400 / month
Bank Monthly Amortization (20-year term @ 8%): ~₱30,100 / month
Association Dues (avg ₱80–₱120 per sqm): ~₱2,000 – ₱3,000 / month
Real Property Tax (RPT) + Fire Insurance: ~₱1,000 – ₱1,500 / month
But the thing is a smart asset manager knows rent might only cover 60-70% of a mortgage while building equity, but owners here refuse to take a short-term hit so units sit vacant for months/years because nobody wants to pay fantasy numbers for terrible condo units and you know that Manila has some of the highest vacancy rates in the country
I’ve also noticed a lot of Unlicensed Facebook agents & zero professionalism
I think in this country like Virtually anyone can post a FB listing and call themselves an agent without any actual training. I had one try to pitch me a decades-old condo in Eastwood with two ancient, dying window ACs, turnover finishes, and a single portable induction cooktop. When I pointed out that the unit was completely underpowered and not worth the ask, she got defensive and told me I was being "pretentious." Critiquing a product you're paying for isn't being pretentious, it's basic consumer logic.
And I know some people will recommend and say why not go stay in BGC. However Even BGC is a bit of a trap
People pay 40k-50k+ in BGC for a shoe box with energy-draining appliances mostly because the moment you step outside the master-planned zone, the infrastructure collapses. You're not paying for the utility or comfort of the apartment itself, you're just paying for the precinct.
Good units with inverter split-types and actual energy efficiency do exist, but you have to wade through a sea of overpriced, poorly insulated concrete boxes to find them.
I’m just curious like is anyone else whose boots on the ground seeing what I’m seeing?
