A Guide to Choosing an Affordable Family Home

A Guide to Finding an Affordable Home for Your Family

For Filipinos, owning a house brings a sense of security and achievement, whether you’re buying one for your family or just yourself. It’s a place you can definitely call your own, as you can personalize it however you like and you don’t have to pay rent to have a roof to come home to.

However, the home buying process is as daunting as it is exciting. You’ll need to do a lot of saving to afford your property of choice and deal with all sorts of fees during the buying process. Plus, you need to make sure the amenities and location suit your needs and lifestyle.

These difficulties can make any homebuyer feel overwhelmed. As such, you need to know as much as you can about the process to make a confident and informed purchase. Here’s a guide to help you find the best home for your family.

Make Location a Priority

Location is everything when it comes to choosing a home. It determines how long you’ll commute to work. It’s also a factor in choosing the right school for your kids. Most importantly, it affects how much your house will cost. Consider these tips when selecting a location:

Look Beyond the Metro – Property prices are high in Metro Manila, with places like Forbes Park and Ayala Alabang costing well above 100,000 pesos per square meter, according to the Global Property Guide (GPG). These values continue to soar, as prices in the National Capital Region increased by 6.8% in 2018. With these rising costs, it’s best to find a home outside the metro, where prices grow more slowly (2.2% in 2018, according to GPG) and homes are generally more affordable.
But Don’t Go Too Far – While you may have to move outside the business district your job is in, you should still be as close as possible to it. You don’t want to immediately regret buying your home because you’re constantly running late for work or you can’t find great nearby schools for your kid. We all don’t appreciate having to go on a long commute or drive just to get to a mall, hospital, or restaurant.

If you’re working in Manila or Makati, you may want to consider looking for house and lots for sale in a nearby province like Cavite. Its towns, such as Bacoor and Tanza, have direct access to Manila through an expressway, which gets you to the metro easily.

Scan the Neighborhood – Your home should make you and your family feel protected. You should do research on how safe your prospective area is. Look for crime statistics or recent news reports on its city. Check the subdivision’s brochure or website to see if it’s guarded 24/7 and if it has closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras scattered around the area.
Extras – If you’re willing to spend extra, you should also look for subdivisions with amenities like multipurpose halls, parks, and courts. These are great perks to have if you want to stay active or you want to facilitate events.

With these suggestions, you should be able to narrow down your search to a couple of properties in an ideal area.

Set a Budget

Now that you’ve determined your ideal location, you need to know how much you can comfortably spend on a new house. The 25% rule is a popular concept in finances in the United States. It’s used by local governments to determine if the money they’ll borrow is feasible. The rule states that the establishment’s long-term debt should not go beyond 25% of its annual budget.

Homebuyers also want to know if their salary is enough to pay off their mortgage. You can apply the rule to your payments. In this case, your monthly amortization should not exceed 25% of your monthly income. For example, if you’re making about 50,000 pesos per month, your monthly payments should not exceed 12,500 pesos. This way, you’ll be able to pay for your home without sacrificing spending on other needs.

Sizeable Needs

Next, it’s time to find a house size and model that can perfectly accommodate the number of family members you have. Townhouses are a great choice for new families and young professionals who want to own a home. These provide roughly the same price as condos, but with significantly more space. They’re also more flexible, as you can extend them to create a new room or a larger living area.

If you’re living alone, a single or two-bedroom house is more than enough. After all, you don’t want to waste money on space you don’t use. But if you’re with a partner or planning to have children, it’s best to think ahead and buy more space and bedrooms than you need right now. It’s a hassle to move again in a few years because your kid needs their own room.

Your family deserves the perfect home. As such, you need to do the legwork and determine the right location and size according to your budget. Start by looking outside the business districts to find subdivisions with more affordable properties. Check the websites of the housing developments you’re interested in to see how much their models go for.

If they have an amortization calculator, use it to find out how much you need to pay monthly. Compare it with your salary using the 25% rule. Repeat this process until you find a house that checks all your boxes. This may be a lot of work for some, but it’s worth it once you finally have a property you can proudly call your own.

Get a Great Home at an Affordable Price

Your home is one of the most significant expenses you’ll make in your lifetime. You should only trust experienced developers, such as PRO-FRIENDS, to give you a quality house you can afford. Our Micara Estates–Tanza development provides townhouses with up to three bedrooms in a 24/7 guarded community. Commuting to and from this subdivision is a breeze, as it has easy access to the Cavite Expressway (CAVITEX).