we helped 2 young British guests buy an island, amazing!

Thanks. actually, I had no idea the young British couple---actually a guy from Wales and the girlfriend from Newcastle, England---would travel so long all over the different islands in the Philippines and that they would end up wanting to buy an island of a few hectares. I think it cost them 3 or 4 million pesos, or less than US$60,000 dollars to $80,000, I will check again... they are now there on vacation camping out with 2 British friends. They plan to work some more in Europe or North America, save up, so they can build their home there plus a hostel too I heard... I told them I'd help them out, because I'm here in the capital of Metro Manila, where many tourists pass by on their way to various isles.

By the way, I kidded the young British couple that in their country in UK, only billionaires like Richard Branson of Virgin Group or maybe the Queen can buy up an island... they gifted me a nice watch for my help, and maybe for having first encouraged them to tour the Philippines in the first place...

Happy New Year!

P.S. countries like the Philippines (or maybe South America or other Third World societies also) offer lots of tourism industry potentials, especially the volumes of incoming tourists are not yet very high and in general our real estate values are much much cheaper too in terms of rentals or even outright sales... of course, doing business in our societies also have unique but definitely surmountable challenges too...

Hi, thanks for your message. Where in South America did you visit & which cities impressed you the most, why? I think that region would be like the Philippines, because we're also a former Spanish colony for 333 years.

On restrictions for foreigners to buy property in the Philippines, we locals have ways around it and I referred the 2 British backpackers to a very brilliant young lawyer to assist them. You can send me a private message on this for details, because I hope nobody from the government of the Philippines would read this :eek: Seriously, there are various very legal ways to go around the crazy regulations imposed by our %*$&^%O^P%Y#%^# politicians... :D

If there's a will, there's a way :rolleyes:

Wow great story Green Mango. Are there no restrictions for foreign nationals to buy property in the Philippines?

Agree with you about the potential of South America, I've visited many of the countries out there and can see the potential. But getting up and running would be hard if you were not a local....hard not impossible mind.

Thanks your infos. The reason I'm particularly curious about South America is because that region seems to share almost similar historical and cultural experiences with the Philippines, since our society is a former Spanish colony for 333 years and up to now still predominantly Roman Catholic, we also have our barrios, fiestas, siestas, cervezas, etc. If you have more detailed informations and insights on specific countries or towns/cities/regions there, hopefully you can post here or private message me.

Agree with you and Branson on the inanities of government redtapes. I guess this is one of the obstacles hostel operators/owners worldwide have to hurdle? maybe there should be a seperate thread on this too, discussing different society's experiences with government regulatory agencies or bureaucrats, etc.?

Thanks. regards.

P.S. Back to the many islands of the Philippines, some years ago in the Miss Universe beauty pageant, the host asked the semi-finalist who was then Ms. Philippines the question---how many total number of islands are there in the Philippines. The witty beauty queen replied very fast and with a laugh: "During high tide or low tide?" What she meant as a joke was that during high tide, some of the smallest tiny isles might be covered by ocean waters... Seriously, the sunny Philippines has 7,107 islands and islets, many of them as beautiful as Boracay, Palawan, Bohol, Camiguin, Cebu, Siargao in Surigao, etc. etc. I was wondering, is there a hostel out there that uniquely occupies an island? that would be cool!

I visited Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and spent a month in Buenos Aires. Its hard to quantify the size of the continent let alone recommend places to start up a hostel. There are so many places (many already well established), but I would say there is potential along the Caribbean coast in Colombia and also the North Eastern coastline of Brazil, however I'm no expert in this especially when it comes down to the social political issues. I never really considered looking into it greatly as I knew I was going to come back to Europe at some point.

Re the islands, I'm not at the stage of buying one at the moment, I have a million other things I'd like to do first. Its true about red tape and regulations. To quote Mr Branson "red tape is useless nonsensical jargon, you should always find a legal way around the rules and give it a go".

All the best, decepe.

Very inspiring. I'm currently looking for a place to buy cheap beach property, (preferably with a house already built but not necesarily) to live at and soon after start up a hostel. I've heard good things about cheap property in the Philippines but coming from Canada I was aiming more towards the west coast of Mexico. At this point where ever the property is cheap, the land is nice and the potential for a hostel is there, that's where I'll buy! Any ideas?