Selling Inherited Property in the Philippines

If you inherited a real estate property in the Philippines, such as a land, and would like to sell it instead of keeping it, there are important things to know to ensure the sale goes smoothly and legally.

First, the inherited property cannot be sold right away without settling the estate of the person (who can be your parents, grandparents or other relative) from whom the property was inherited. In the Philippines, no properties left behind by a deceased person can pass on to his/her heirs unless the deceased’s estate is settled, either judicially or extrajudicially.

Estate is the collective term for all the properties and assets left by a deceased person at the time of death. The estate is usually settled by identifying and gathering all the properties and assets left by the deceased, paying off all debts and liabilities that the deceased may owe, paying the property and estate taxes due, and distributing the remaining properties to the lawful heirs.

Second, after the estate is settled, each heir is only entitled to a portion of the property left by the deceased unless the other heirs waived or sold their shares to one or some of their co-heirs. Thus, an heir can only sell his/her share of the inherited property and such parts as are transferred to him/her, if that is the case.

Normally, however, a buyer would not want to become a co-owner with other people so most likely the buyer will offer to buy the whole property. In this case, all the heirs must agree to sell their respective shares and sign a joint deed of sale.

It is also possible to physically divide the property so that individual titles may issue in the name of each heir, thereby making it easy for each heir to sell his/her share without the buyer becoming a co-owner of the non-selling heirs. This would only be practical if the divided properties would still be left with substantial value and size.

Finally, in addition to the estate tax that must be paid in the settlement of the estate, the selling heir must pay capital gains tax due from the sale of the property.

Most importantly, you must ensure that you will receive the payment through your authorized and trusted representative in the Philippines or the payment will be deposited or wired to your bank account, whether in the Philippines or in your country of residence.

Pag-IBIG to finance over 700k houses in 6 years

The Home Development Mutual Fund, commonly known as Pag-IBIG, plans to finance more than 700,000 housing units under the Marcos administration as it banks on its low interest rates.

Pag-IBIG CEO Marilene Acosta said the agency’s business model remains on track, but it plans to increase the number of homes that it will fund over the next six years.

“We intend to finance at least 708,000 housing units. This is an increase of about 33 percent from the 531,000 units that we financed during the past administration,” Acosta said.

“We will continue to extend affordable interest rates for our Pag-IBIG members. As of now, we offer the lowest rate at three percent,” she said.

Under the Pag-IBIG’s Affordable Housing Program, eligible borrowers have a special subsidized rate of three percent per annum for home loans of up to P580,000 for socialized subdivision projects.

Standing out as the lowest interest in the loan market, Pag-IBIG first offered the subsidized rate five years ago to help more members, particularly those from the minimum-wage sector, have their homes.

Pag-IBIG managed to maintain the three percent rate steady due to the program’s tax exempt status under the Pag-IBIG Fund Law of 2009.

Amid rising inflation that leads to higher interest rates globally and locally, Acosta admitted that it’s difficult to maintain such rate, but it can be done by making sure that the housing finance is sustainable.

“Simply if we lend, we should be able to collect. What we lend are the collections or savings of our members, which we return to them upon maturity,” Acosta said.

To meet its target over the next six years, Pag-IBIG plans to intensify its countryside housing initiative, which is similar to a public-private partnership where the agency encourages stakeholders, local government units, cooperatives, and developers to come up with housing units in the countryside.

“Countryside does not only mean in the rural areas, but also underserved areas. Like in Metro Manila, there is a low production of socialized housing units,” Acosta said.

She explained that production of socialized units is low because developers believe these are not profitable.

“That’s why we are pushing for the initiative. LGUs can come up with their own housing projects that can afford lower packages. We can provide them with developmental loans and later on take out the housing units,” Acosta said.

For this year, Pag-IBIG is targeting to release as much as P110 billion in home loans. As of end-September, the agency has so far released P83 billion.

In terms of savings, Pag-IBIG aims to collect some P70 billion, of which 50 percent will come from its Modified Pag-IBIG 2 Savings (MP2), a voluntary program for members.

Pag-IBIG has 14 million active members and has P800 billion in total assets which is expected to reach P1.5 trillion by 2028.

Source: Philstar

More building permits approved in 3 months

Construction activity based on approved building permits went up slightly or by 1.8 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Preliminary construction statistics released by the PSA showed approved building permits reached 37,270 from January to March, up from 36,621 permits in the same period last year.

The approved building permits in the first quarter, however, are lower compared to the 39,513 approved in the previous or the fourth quarter of 2021.

Approved building permits in the first quarter cover 7.72 million square meters of floor area with a total value of P86.78 billion.

By type of construction, residential buildings accounted for the biggest share or 71.2 percent of the total approved permits for the first quarter.

Residential building permits rose four percent to 26,546 in the first quarter from 25,535 in the same period last year.

“A majority (85.9 percent) of the total residential constructions were single-type houses,” PSA said.

Meanwhile, permits for non-residential projects rose six percent to 6,145 in the first quarter from the 5,798 in the same period a year ago.

The bulk or 70.4 percent of the non-residential permits were for commercial buildings.

As for additions to increase the height or area of an existing building or structure, approved permits grew 28 percent year-on-year to 1,131 in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, permits for alteration and repair declined by 21.7 percent to 3,448 in the first quarter.

PSA said Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) accounted for the highest number of building permits with 9,725 or 26 percent share of the total in the first quarter.

Source: Philstar