[Raymeander]

1. we are looking to buy a flat in baguio villas and would like to know if there are parking spaces and how much they are to buy or rent.

2. what is the management and building maintenance like. i know old building have problems with pipes such as low pressure and leaks, is this the case here?

3. is it quiet?

[KnowItAll]

Wow .. good time to bring this up.

We were at a stormy owners meeting last night.

1) All flats include a parking lot. Some parking lots are big enough to take two small / medium size cars.

2) I personally do not think there is too much of a problem with the management, atleast in Upper Bagiou which is in far better shape than some of the blocks in lower Baguio.

The owners of stage 3 approved an extensive renovation of their blocks - $40-43 million dollars worth of work is going to be done on those blocks. Stage 1-2 are apparently not in good shape from what I gather.

Things to consider

1) If you're buying in stage 3 - factor in the cost of renovation ($400K per flat) and the noise etc.

2) If you're buying anywhere - consider that the buildings department has served some rather weakly backed notices on close to 300-400 apartments. These notices might make it difficult to get bank loans (some banks will hesitate to loan on apartments which have illegal structures).

The owners of Baguio are negotiating / fighting with the buildings department about this issue.

We're in Upper Baguio - no problems with water pressure / leaks (well ... internal leaks always happen .. easy to fix).

[KnowItAll]

Let me reword it.

All flats should have a parking lot. Small chance that the owner might have sold the parking lot (some owners do this) separately. So check...

[KnowItAll]

3) Some of the flats can get noisy. The ones facing the mini bus stop on the lower floors have to deal with the noise of the reversing buses in the early morning.

[Raymeander]

Hi thanks for the response,

400k per flat is a big amount, what will this cover?

building notices - does this mean the owners of the flat have modified it in some way without permission and have to put it back to the original state?

[KnowItAll]

>> 400k per flat is a big amount, what will this cover?

Not too sure, building exterior, common areas etc etc. Not really a whole lot, its spread out over 18 months and the Stage 3 apartments are large (2600 sq feet).

Yes, the BD claims that the balconies have been changed - but cannot prove what the original condition of the balcony was, so its a bit of a lame notice if you appeal to them and ask them for documentation.