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Places to Live Outside of Metro Manila

March 6th, 2008 · 7 Comments

I grew up in Paranaque. I lived there with my family close to 16 years. Prior to that we lived in the province of Nueva Ecija for 8 years. I have lived abroad for the past 12 years! Time flies by so quickly indeed.

Anyways, I have no plans to come back to Paranaque especially to our old house. First of all, we have sold that house to a relative anyways. Plus, I still have lingering “traumatic” memories of the water situation in our village and in my mind the cause of it is still a big puzzle. To make it simple, I just concluded that there has been a big conspiracy between government and developers and that all these greed stops things from progressing toward a solution to that water problem. But anyways, my blog is not meant to discuss political matters but I understand that the choices we make will be influenced by how livable is on that place where we will eventually settle.

As of now, my main criteria for choosing a location would be:

  • good and strong running water and village developer does NOT control water distribution, example centralized water works that is controlled by developer
  • availability of high-speed internet connection and preferable not monopolized by a single provider
  • availability of cable tv (not necessary but a plus)
  • high elevation, no flooding
  • movie theater, mall, restaurants, market, groceries, stores or schools within 10 minutes drive (I don’t want to live in a jungle or deserted island)
  • Not too far from Quezon City, Taguig, or Mandaluyong/Ortigas CBD (maximum 45 minutes drive)
  • lower pollution and cleaner cooler breeze (is that too much to ask?)

The places that interest me now are the following:

Rizal Province ( 13 municipalities) Angono, Antipolo, Binangonan, cainta, Rodriguez, Taytay and San Mateo are 1st class municipalities. I have no idea what they mean by first class but it sounds good to me. Among this list, the three highest populated are Antipolo, Cainta and San Mateo. I am pretty confident about the fact that this area is served by Manila Water (Ayala managed) which I believe has a much better track record and reputation. I have lost confidence in living in the South. Now, it would take a lot of convincing facts before I even consider living in cities such as Paranaque, Las Pinas, Cavite and Alabang.

Here’s a good list of properties and prices in that area.


Bulacan (21 municipalities). The closest towns to Metro Manila are Meycauayan, Marilao, San Jose del Monte Bocaue and Santa Maria.

According to wikipedia:

“On December 12, 2007, Bulacan and the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) signed an agreement for the development of an P11-billion bulk water supply project. Ayala-owned Manila Water Co. Inc. will implement the project. MWSS and Manila Water will provide a financial package of an infrastructure grant, a P10-million development assistance and a P10-million royalty fee to the towns of Norzagaray and Doña Remedios Trinidad, which will host the water supply project.[2]“

That is indeed a big plus! Another good thing is that I feel more cultural affinity with this province as I spent my early childhood years in Nueva Ecija. Not to mention the Sevilla’s sweets and palabok I remember from childhood is still a thriving business there. In several new developments in that area you can buy a small 2 bedroom townhouse for around 500K PHP such as this or a small detached house for 1.3 Million PHP such as this.

As we plan to do business ourselves, there are no plans on applying for jobs therefore we don’t need to live in the big commercial areas but you never know. It seems that all the action is still right there in the Makati - Ortigas area but then we’ll see!






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Tags: Getting Settled

7 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Cecilia // Mar 22, 2008 at 3:30 am

    I like your website. Maybe I could learn a few things from you. You seem to really have a definite plan. Like you, we plan to retire in the Philippines. My husband wants it in 3 months but I’m hoping not yet.

    My parents and siblings had moved to SJDM, Bulacan more than 15 years ago when it was a nowhere land yet. Now you can’t tell it’s in the province since it’s only bordered by a bridge and feels like it’s part of Quezon City. It’s 20 minutes away from Fairview–one reason I bought my place there.

    Before that we were also in Paranaque, Better Living in particular where water was really difficult. We were originally from Negros Occ.

    I envy you that you have gone this far with your website. I am excited to follow your 5-month countdown to being in the Philippines. Good luck!

  • 2 maria // Mar 22, 2008 at 6:24 am

    I come from Bulacan and just a little note of advice … Norzagaray and Dona Remedios Trinidad [or DRT] is as far west as you can go from Bulacan before hitting the Sierra Madre Mountain range. Trust me, it’s not a place for the “un-connected”.

    If you will consider Bulacan but would not want to be too near the city, anywhere from Bocaue/Sta. Maria going north is a good choice. Marikina or Pasig is also a good choice or even Katipunan or Teacher’s Village in Q.C. Katipunan is right next to Libis which is well developed.

    I would still pick Makati or the surrounding environment since I lived in The Makati CBD area for years.

    Good luck!

  • 3 mixxy // Mar 22, 2008 at 4:20 pm

    Hello Maria, Thanks for the tips on Bulacan. I am also considering QC as well..I have relatives there.. and I agree Makati is tempting..

  • 4 mixxy // Mar 22, 2008 at 4:26 pm

    Hi Cecilia, Nice to hear from you and thank you. I’m thrilled to see how your property is developing. I think owning an apartelle is such a great idea, and I am excited and sort of envious for you as well. You have gone so far in your business!:D I’ll try to visit SJDM as well during my trip.

  • 5 Bruce // Mar 23, 2008 at 3:12 am

    Mixxy,
    From your comment on my blog I took a look at yours. It is very nice and interesting. Too bad you want to me near Manila since Davao has a lot of what your looking for and also it is out of the “Typhoon Belt”

  • 6 mixxy // Mar 23, 2008 at 5:12 am

    Hi Bruce,
    First of all welcome to “back to the philippines”.
    I have mentioned Davao, in fact, in my article In Praise for the Philippine blog community. It is interesting how many blogs I’ve seen from people living in Davao and most of what I hear is positive in fact. Some would find this trivial but in fact the main reason I don’t consider living in Mindanao or Visayas is because I do not speak Bisaya and I have trouble living in a place where everyone speaks a different language. This is the main reason I could not live longer here in the Netherlands and I don’t want to repeat the same frustration I had. No offense for people who live there but it’s really just me. Learning a new language is not really my interest or skill now. I know people would say that people can speak Tagalog or English there.. but I also know that people will speak their native tongue after a while .. maybe this topic deserves a new article in itself. I am curious whether foreigners have trouble dealing with the fact that everyone around them is speaking another language like for example in a party.. The first 10 minutes people speak English to you but later on they start reverting in their native tongue and now you are lost in the conversation! I hope you know what I mean by this..

  • 7 Cecilia // Mar 24, 2008 at 6:22 am

    Thanks, Mixxy…also about Bulacan: My sister would not want me to consider anything past the Tungko market. Traffic is bad already esp. when they start road construction which seem to coincide with the opening of classes and the rainy season.

    My brother’s place in Bulacan is just before this market and right across from their subdivision is Araneta’s huge one (forgot the name just now) that they started developing last year. The entrance already looks beautiful but I’m not sure about the river next to it. There are parts of Bulacan also that easily gets flooded. SJDM is a little bit higher with a few street floodings where the hill slopes, nothing major so far.

    As for our place, my husband is already excited to live there, but I’m afraid it’s not going to feed the whole gang yet.

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