Land Ownership in the Philippines as an Expatriate | Waldrop and Colvin PLLC (2024)

The concept of land ownership has been a cornerstone of the American dream since the founding of the United States. This freedom has played a crucial role in shaping the economic, social, and cultural landscape of the nation. However, land ownership is restricted or subject to stringent regulations in many other countries.

Restrictions on land ownership, along with the challenges of maintaining land ownership from abroad, can prove difficult for expatriates. The purpose of this blog is discuss certain restrictions imposed in the Philippines and discuss how Filipino Americans can manage certain tasks from abroad.

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ARTICLE XII

Section 7. Save in cases of hereditary succession, no private lands shall be transferred or conveyed except to individuals, corporations, or associations qualified to acquire or hold lands of the public domain.

ARTICLE XII

Section 8.Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 7 of this Article, a natural-born citizen of the Philippines who has lost his Philippine citizenship may be a transferee of private lands, subject to limitations provided by law

Former natural-born Filipinos or those who have undergone naturalization in order to become citizens of another country can still buy land in the Philippines under their name, however, it is subject to certain limitations.

They answer is: not necessarily.

The process of transferring the title of acquired properties to the buyer’s name involves going to multiple government offices in the Philippines such as the Registry of Deeds, Bureau of Internal Revenue, and Assessor’s Office. The visits to these offices involve filing the required documents, securing assessment of transfer taxes, obtaining appropriate Certificates to facilitate the transfer of title, and acquiring the new title and new tax declaration in the name of the new owner. The buyer need not go to these offices personally if the buyer has an authorized representative so named in a legal document called a Special Power of Attorney.

The Special Power of Attorney (“SPA”) is a document that creates or conveys rights over real property. It lays down the specific acts that principals authorized their attorney-in-fact to do on their behalf which includes, but is not limited to, selling of the property, leasing out of the property, buying a property, making and/or receiving payments over the subject property on behalf of the principals, paying the property taxes, signing contracts and/or other documents pertaining to the property.

In the case of an SPA executed by former natural-born Filipino citizens to transfer the title of their acquired property to their name, the SPA shall authorize their attorney-in-fact to, among others, process, file, submit, comply, and sign all documentary requirements and other pertinent papers for the processing of the transfer of title and/or tax declaration over the principals’ acquired property. In addition, the SPA shall authorize the attorney-in-fact to pay and settle all taxes and fees due over the transfer of title and/or tax declaration over the principals’ acquired property. Essentially, the SPA authorizes the attorney-in-fact to do and/or perform any other acts as may be necessary for the satisfaction and/or facilitation of the transfer of title and/or tax declaration over the principals’ acquired property.

Remember: Philippine laws generally reserve land ownership for Filipinos and former natural-born Filipinos who lost their Philippine citizenship can own Philippine land only by way of exception. Thus, their acquisition of Philippine land must strictly comply with the limitations and requirements set forth by Philippine laws.

As mentioned above, the process of transferring title of Philippine land involves multiple visits to different government offices. This back-and-forth would certainly be time-consuming.

Former natural-born Filipino citizens, due to location problems, usually do not have the luxury of time to wait out the personal processing of the transfer of titles to their name which is why most opt to authorize another person on their behalf to facilitate the transfer of title and tax declaration to their names instead.