Foreign ownership

Land is generally reserved to Filipino citizens and to corporations that meet the nationality requirement in the Constitution. A foreign individual should assume that a house and lot cannot be taken in their own name. Leases of land exist. They are leases, with an end, and they need a lawyer’s reading of the actual contract. They are not a quieter form of freehold.

The practical foreign freehold is a condominium unit, and the object itself is described in the condominium section. Section 5 of the Condominium Act states the nationality proviso, and the ownership card quotes it. What still has to be checked before a reservation fee is the share already on that corporation’s ledger. A remembered percentage is not a substitute for the ledger.

Buying through a Filipino spouse is a family-law question, not a form to copy from a forum. Putting land in another person’s name so that a foreigner can control it is the kind of arrangement the Anti-Dummy Law is aimed at. It is a known legal hazard. Counsel should be independent of the seller.