Welcome back to our Property Wise Pinoy channel!
I’m Atty. Donna, your property lawyer. I’ve missed you all. I know I haven’t uploaded a single video since the New Year—my apologies! I’ve been busy learning how to ski here in the Swiss Alps.
Can you see my surroundings? I’m heading up the mountains now to ski. But for today’s video, we’ll learn more about land classification, so stay tuned.
Even if I’m busy skiing, I haven’t forgotten how important it is to discuss real estate concepts—because I want all of you to become Property Wise Pinoys.
Today, we’ll continue our topic on land classification. If you haven’t seen our previous videos on this, you can watch them here [referring to a card].
You may be wondering: Why bring up land classification again?
Well, even though we’ve already discussed it, there are many concepts we haven’t covered yet—and I also want to share a recent experience with you.
Even while enjoying my time here in Switzerland, I’ve been looking at properties back in the Philippines—specifically one in Palawan. Since I couldn’t inspect it personally, I hired the services of a geodetic engineer. Why is this important? That’s what we’ll cover today.
Imagine this: you’re paying ₱5,000 per square meter. A discrepancy of even 10 square meters could cost you a lot. That’s why it’s important to have a geodetic engineer conduct a survey. Even if the property is titled, there can still be discrepancies in size.
Geodetic engineers use precise tools to reflect the actual size of the property. If you want to be sure, get it surveyed—this is part of being a Property Wise Pinoy.
There have already been Supreme Court cases where buyers ended up purchasing the wrong land—simply because they didn’t verify the location. All of that could’ve been avoided with the help of a geodetic engineer.
This one is especially relevant to our topic today.
Remember the property I was eyeing in Palawan? It’s titled, but the geodetic engineer found that the entire area isn’t alienable and disposable. Only 5,000 square meters of the land are classified as A&D (Alienable and Disposable)—the rest is forest land.
If you want to know more about the difference between alienability and disposability, watch this video [referring to a card].
So yes—part of that land is still classified as forest land, which means I can’t own or build on it.
So there you have it! Land classification knowledge is vital, and it should be part of your due diligence before buying any property.
I hope you learned something new from me today. I’m off to resume skiing now—but I’ll be back with more real estate tips and legal insights for you.
See you around, and bye-bye!
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