Dream House – Buy or Build?

Owning a house is more of an emotional thing than an investment for most people especially in the Philippines. A house is often associated to security and most often a “status symbol.” People having their own home are often assumed to be well established and having a stable life; aside from the feeling that you now have a place that you can call your own.

You made strides in your career or business and now feel that it’s time to have your own house and made that “dream home” a reality. You are faced with two options, buying an existing house in your desired area or building your own house from scratch. Either way buying or building can get you your own house, but these two different paths pose also different matters that would require you attention.

The process of owning a house is an exciting time for many people. You might consider buying or building but without first weighing out each of the pros and cons of each option, you might be surprise of want you can get when you compare the two. Let this be a bit of your guide in doing such.

One important consideration would be the cost. As you might know, housing prices have shoot up in the last few years. Cost of labor and materials had also gone up as fast. Housing prices differs based on the style/design, size and all other factors. But for the sake of discussion, let’s consider the same style/design and size to include same cost for the lot for both buying and building options. That way, well have an “apple to apple” comparison instead of an “apple to orange” comparison which can be misleading.