As some may know I am planning to partly live in the Philippines, and should have been there now, but need to get my treatment concluded first. Much better to do that in the UK as there is no NHS in the Phil and having already supported one family member through radiotherapy I can tell you, it's costly.
We have bought a house in Cebu, 15 kgs south of the city. It is right on the beach facing Bohol, which is where Connie's family live so they are close enough to be easy to visit, but far enough not to doorstep. I loath Manila and don't want to be anywhere close to the place. Having already spent around 12 months in total there I have enough experience to make a judgement. We plan winters there and summers here. I love the English summer, real ale in pub gardens, watching cricket, long evenings and walks on cliff tops. I also appreciate good food and the BBC. I find the TV in the Phil to be just terrible and you have to spend time finding good food. However I don't enjoy the English winter and so we will spend our time there, in our lovely new home, going fishing, diving and island hoping on the boat I will buy and generally relaxing. I am already semi-retired and may shortly be fully retired. My rule has been to make my money in the UK and then spend it in the Phil as earning an income there is pretty near impossible, unless you are contracted by an international employer. The costs in living in the Phil is like anywhere else.........it depends. You can live very, very simply on not very much but your comfort levels will not be great. We rented a nice house on a sub division last year, from a fellow Brit, and paid 27,000 pesos per month. We did whatever we fancied, eat out a lot etc and it cost less than 100,000 pesos per month on top of the rental but we really did not attempt to economise.
Another really important reason for splitting our time is to maintain our position with the NHS. In my case this is vital but as everyone gets older it becomes more and more important. My enquiries have established, via conversations with the Dept of Health and my PCT, that provided you maintain a permanent UK home and register with your GP on your return here that you will become a permanent resisdent again, that NHS treatment will continue. A permanent resident is someone who has resided, or intends to reside, in the UK for 6 months or more.
As our new home will not be used by ourselves in the summer months we will be offering to rent it and would much prefer to do so to folk we know and trust. So if any of you have the need for such a deal please get in touch and I will gladly send some details. It is not yet furnished, as that is our next task, which will happen just as soon as my treatment is finished.