Can Foreigners Buy Property in the Philippines? What You Can and Cannot Own

A foreigner cannot own land in the Philippines. That restriction is constitutional, not a matter of local practice or paperwork. Article XII, Section 7 of the 1987 Constitution reserves the ownership of private land for Filipino citizens and for corporations or associations that are at least 60 percent Filipino owned. No visa, no marriage, and no clever corporate wrapper overrides it.

What a foreigner can own outright is a condominium unit, within limits, plus the building and improvements that sit on leased or corporately held land. Understanding the difference between owning the land and owning the structure is the whole game in the Philippines, and most foreign buyers who lose money never grasped it.

The condominium route and the 40 percent rule

Republic Act No. 4726, the Condominium Act, enacted on 18 June 1966, is the legal basis that lets foreigners own real estate at all. It works around the constitutional land ban with a structural trick. The land beneath a condominium is owned by a condominium corporation. When you buy a unit, you become a member of that corporation and you own your unit, but the corporation owns the land.

To keep the corporation compliant with the Constitution, foreign ownership of the units in any given condominium project cannot exceed 40 percent. The remaining 60 percent must stay with Filipino citizens. This is the rule that binds. In a fully sold building where foreigners already hold 40 percent, you cannot register another foreign owned unit there, no matter what an agent tells you. Before you pay a reservation fee, ask the developer for the current foreign ownership percentage of the project in writing. A reputable developer like Ayala Land, Megaworld or SM Development Corporation will know the exact figure and will not let you breach the cap.

What you cannot do, and why nominees fail

You cannot buy a house and lot and put it in your own name. You cannot get around the land ban by having a Filipino friend or your Filipino spouse hold title while you keep a side agreement saying the property is really yours. That arrangement violates the Anti-Dummy Law, Commonwealth Act No. 108, which criminalizes using a Filipino front to evade nationality restrictions on land. Penalties include imprisonment and forfeiture. Courts treat the foreigner's contribution to such a purchase as a donation to the Filipino titleholder, meaning you have no enforceable claim to the property or the money.

A foreigner married to a Filipino can have the land titled in the Filipino spouse's name, and can be named in the deed as the spouse, but does not acquire ownership of the land. On the death of the Filipino spouse, a foreigner can inherit by intestate succession as a legal heir, which is the one narrow path by which a foreigner may end up holding land, though even then disposal rules apply.

Leasing land long term, now up to 99 years

If you want a house rather than a condo, the legal route is to own the structure and lease the land. Under Republic Act No. 7652, the Investors' Lease Act of 1993, a foreign investor could lease private land for an initial term of up to 50 years, renewable once for up to 25 more. That framework changed in 2025. Republic Act No. 12252, signed on 3 September 2025, amended RA 7652 to allow a single lease term of up to 99 years. For a foreign buyer who wants a long horizon on a landed home or a commercial site, this is a meaningful upgrade and worth structuring properly with counsel.

A separate, simpler option exists for residential leases under the general Civil Code, but the Investors' Lease Act is the vehicle for investment grade, long term arrangements and it carries conditions on use and on the lessee's economic contribution.

Where foreign buyers lose money

The first trap is the nominee purchase, already covered, and it remains the single most expensive mistake foreigners make here. The second is buying a pre selling condominium from a developer that never completes or never delivers clean title. Your right to a unit under RA 4726 means nothing if the building is not built and the corporation is not properly constituted. Checking a developer's delivery history before you pay is essential, and Bektu (https://bektu.com) lets you verify a developer's completion record before you commit. The third trap is ignoring the 40 percent cap and trusting an agent's verbal assurance that "there is still room."

Verify before you buy

Confirm the project's current foreign ownership percentage against the 40 percent ceiling, in writing from the developer or the condominium corporation. For pre selling units, confirm the developer holds a License to Sell from the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) and that the project has a registered master deed. For land you intend to use long term, structure a lease under RA 7652 as amended, with an independent Philippine lawyer drafting the contract, never a nominee title. Confirm the unit's title status, the Condominium Certificate of Title, before final payment.

Foreigners who stay inside the Condominium Act and lease land rather than pretending to own it generally hold secure, transferable rights. The ones who try to own land through a Filipino front lose both the land and the money.