9251 Houses in Cebu

We were offered single storey houses to buy, 40m² on 120m² lot for PHP 2.5M. Alternatively, we could have purchased 72m² on two floors on 80m² lot for about PHP 3.2M.

Here in Cebu the condominium apartments I was given brochures for in the malls are about 25m2 and larger ones are 40m². “You pay your money and you take your choice.”

From our limited searching for temporary accommodation, we were shown a property found I liked on my second day here. We are paying PHP30k for 60m². This seems to be in line with renting shop space i.e. about PHP 500 per m² per month at the end of 2015 in Lapu-Lapu or Talisay.

There are cheaper properties but frequently they are looking for 12 months rental as a minimum

The property web sites are to be treated with suspicion. I almost regard them as “bait” to reel in the casual browser caught unaware. Some are displaying properties from some time (years) ago. I did not notice “web site last updated” or similar notices on many. If you are buying or renting visit the property, I would NOT rent on-line. I have seen some rather disgruntled holiday makers comments, possibly on TripAdvisor. I would not wish to be “disgruntled” over the long term.

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For those considering constructing their own houses I would recommend the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur - Earthquake Tips. Particularly Earthquake Tip 18 showing the stirrup with the ends bent to 135^ and a length of 10 bar diameters.. This is necessary in a Earthquake Zone. I don't believe I have seen any in the Philippines so far.

The complete set of "Tips" start at ...01.pdf and go up to ...32.pdf. They are quite useful to have a browse through prior to designing your house. (Just change the last two numbers to browse through all.)

The "Tips" point on such things as it is NOT a good idea to build a concrete house on "stilts" as it will pancake in the event of an Earthquake

Should a steel framed building be considered there should be beams tying ALL the steel column bases together. See Earthquake Resistant Steel Building ...Any pinned footing may actually be moving differently from other footings on the same building, and so not even be giving horizontal or vertical support, but actually helping to tear the building apart. So to earthquake proof the building REIDsteel would start with steel ground beams joining the feet together, and these should have moment resistance to prevent the bottoms of the columns from rotating.

I would suggest that any column bases in reinforced concrete buildings in Earthquake zones should be tied together for similar reasons.

REIDsteel Resilient Structures is also a good site for ideas regarding Hurricanes and Tsunamis.

Natural Ventilation and Colour in Hot Climates here it is stated that a White roof may be at 50^C and a Black roof at 110^C. As REIDSteel have produced steel for the Philippines in the past I would suggest this may be from practical experience rather than just theory.

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