A nurse in Riyadh reached out to me about a lot she found online. The seller sounded friendly, but she couldn’t walk into the Registry of Deeds to check anything herself, and her remittance was already set aside for the deposit.
Where does she start?
As a licensed lawyer and real estate broker, I hear from Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in 3 different situations: buying land, receiving a share of an inheritance, or selling property from abroad.
Each follows its own process.
If you’re still a Filipino citizen, you keep the full right to own land, and moving to another country for work doesn’t change that, even if you’ve been away for 20 years.
Your right stays the same abroad.
The rules change if you took another citizenship and lost your Filipino one. I have a client who moved to Canada years ago and became a Canadian citizen.
Batas Pambansa Blg. 185 and Republic Act 8179 limit how much land a former Filipino can hold, and the cap differs for residential and agricultural land.
Confirm which cap applies to you before you pay a reservation fee. It’s worth checking early.
Republic Act 9225, known as the Dual Citizenship Law, lets you reacquire Filipino citizenship, and once you do, the size caps no longer apply to the land you buy.
Here’s what I’d do first. Check your status before you start looking at lots.
Someone has to go in your place. Since you can’t be at the Registry of Deeds yourself, you appoint someone you trust to act for you, and that person is called your attorney-in-fact.
The document that gives them authority is a Special Power of Attorney, usually shortened to SPA.
It’s natural to feel uneasy. Your SPA should spell out exactly what your representative can do, such as signing the contract, paying taxes, and applying for a loan on your behalf.
The narrower the list, the less room there is for misuse.
An SPA lets someone act for you, but it doesn’t transfer ownership, so the title still has to end up in your name through a Deed of Sale.
Keep that in mind.
After you sign, get the SPA authenticated. If your country is part of the Apostille Convention, you get an apostille stamp, and if it isn’t, the Philippine Embassy or consulate there consularizes the document instead.
This is best when done early.
There was an electrician in Doha. He found a lot in Batangas on a Facebook listing, the seller sends photos of the title, and the price looks fair.
I’d hold off on wiring anything, because a photo of a title won’t tell you if the seller really owns the land or if a bank already has a claim on it.
You may plan to visit the lot when you’re home next year, and a friend who’s a lawyer may have offered to look at the papers before you pay anything. Good idea.
Inspecting the lot in person helps, but most of the paperwork can be checked before you ever board the plane.
Here’s my list.
I’d ask the seller for each of these items, then confirm each one directly with the Registry of Deeds and the local government office before I sent a single peso.
Have your representative walk the lot and compare what they see with the technical description on the title, including the boundaries and the lot size stated there.
My property inspection tips post gives you a checklist for the visit. Photos from the visit help too.
If anything about the title looks off, read how to spot fake land titles in the Philippines and how to verify a land title in the Philippines before you decide anything.
Then bring in a lawyer to review the full set of documents. Ask what the review covers.
A client approached me about cancelling a pre-selling condo contract. She had signed up at an agent’s presentation in Abu Dhabi and paid monthly for months, and when she tried to cancel, the developer’s office was in Manila and nobody near her could help.
The forms also had a submission deadline. She felt stuck.
Republic Act 6552, known as the Maceda Law, gives buyers of residential property on installment certain rights when they stop paying, including a possible refund of part of what you paid.
Those rights depend on how long you’ve paid and on following the contract’s cancellation steps. Read those steps before you sign.
Before you pay a reservation fee, ask in writing where the after-sales office is, who handles buyers’ paperwork in your country, and what the cancellation deadlines are.
These are fair questions.
Once the title checks out, your representative signs the Deed of Absolute Sale for you under the SPA. Then the paperwork begins.
The taxes are paid, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) releases an Electronic Certificate Authorizing Registration (eCAR), and the Registry of Deeds issues the new title in your name.
Look for your name on it, not your representative’s.
Land often gains value over time, but it isn’t entirely hands-off. You’ll pay real property tax every year, and a lot that nobody watches can draw squatters, so it helps to have a trusted person nearby who checks on it.
Plan for that early.
A kababayan in Italy messaged me after her mother passed away. Her mother left a lot in Pangasinan, and the 3 siblings now live in 3 different places: Pangasinan, Canada, and Italy.
It’s a common situation for heirs abroad. Until the estate is settled, the title stays in her mother’s name, so none of the heirs can legally sell the lot or use it as collateral for a loan.
Here’s how it works.
If you’re an heir abroad, you don’t have to be in the Philippines to receive your share. A relative there can handle the filing for the family, usually with an SPA from you, while you sign your own copy of the settlement where you live.
If your parent or relative left no will and no debts, and every heir agrees, you can settle the estate privately through an Extrajudicial Settlement of Estate (EJS) instead of going to court.
Each heir abroad signs their own copy, and the copy is apostilled or consularized in the country where that heir lives. Nobody has to fly home to sign. The signed pages are then collated and processed in the Philippines as a single document.
After everyone signs, the process has 3 steps.
Each step produces a document, and you’ll want copies of every one because the Registry of Deeds needs all of them together in the final step.
I’d keep a copy of each one.
I’d look at the deadline first.
The Estate Tax Amnesty runs through December 31, 2028, with reduced penalties on unpaid estate taxes, so now is a good time to settle an estate that has sat for years.
Philippine law also sets deadlines, called prescription periods, for many property claims, and the length depends on the type of claim, so I’d get a dispute checked early.
If there’s a will, if an heir disagrees, or if the estate has debts, the EJS route may not fit, and your family might need a different process, including court.
There’s no rush to sign.
To sell from abroad, you give your attorney-in-fact an SPA that says plainly they can sell the property, negotiate the price, and receive payment for you.
Ask the buyer to pay by direct bank transfer or escrow into your own account abroad, and not in cash handed to your representative.
A bank record is easier to trace.
If you’re nervous about giving a relative that much authority, that’s reasonable.
Limit the SPA to the one property you’re selling, and say clearly in the document which bank account receives the buyer’s payment, so there’s no room for confusion later when money starts moving.
Then you know where you stand.
Here are the numbers you’ll need. Rates and local fees can change, so treat the table as a starting point and confirm current figures before you budget for a purchase, a sale, or an estate.
| Transaction | Tax or Fee | Rate | Who Usually Pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buying or selling | Capital Gains Tax | 6% of the selling price or the zonal value, whichever is higher | Seller |
| Buying or selling | Documentary Stamp Tax | 1.5% | Buyer |
| Buying or selling | Transfer tax and registration fees | 0.5% to 0.75% (transfer tax) | Buyer |
| Inheriting | Estate Tax | 6% of the net estate value | Heirs |
| Inheriting | Publication and local transfer fees | Varies | Heirs |
The zonal value is the government’s reference price for land in that area, so the tax is based on whichever of the two numbers is higher.
Let’s say you’re selling a lot for ₱3,000,000.
The price is above the zonal value, so you’d owe ₱180,000 in Capital Gains Tax at 6%.
The buyer would usually pay ₱45,000 in Documentary Stamp Tax at 1.5%, plus ₱15,000 to ₱22,500 in transfer tax.
Let’s price an estate too.
For an estate with a net value of ₱5,000,000, the 6% rate comes to ₱300,000, and the heirs usually pay it before the Registry of Deeds will issue any new titles.
Who pays what in a sale often depends on what the contract says, so read that clause before you sign, and confirm current rates with the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
Rates also change over time.
I’ll look it over with you.
Share the title, the Tax Declaration, any draft Deed of Sale, SPA, or Extrajudicial Settlement, and your messages with the seller or agent, so I can read them before we talk.
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