40%

Foreigners are only allowed to own up to 40% of the TOTAL UNITS of a condominium project.

The number was derived from the percentage limit of Philippine corporations (i.e., foreigners can only own up to 40% of the total outstanding stock of a PH company). In the RE world, the count is done by the total number of units (NOT the total floor area) owned by foreigners.

Why is this important?

Projects that have filled up their FA are the same projects that are slow-moving in the secondary market because Filipino sellers could only sell to Filipino buyers. These sellers would have to offer their units at huge discounts (20% to 50%) from the market price just to liquidate them.

It's interesting to note that before the pandemic, there were rumors that a particular project's foreign count far exceeded the FA (~60%). The condo corp (allegedly) failed to keep track of the count of foreign owners. Even at the height of POGO operations in the country, when property values grew at double-digit rates, secondary market prices for this project significantly lagged behind. Up to this day, units from this project are sold at hefty discounts from other condos of the same quality.

Thus, when buying pre-selling condos, it would be helpful to know the foreign allocation count. Buyers would want to buy projects that are far from utilizing their foreign allocation so they could sell to foreigners in the future.

Moreover, it would be ideal for dual citizens to use/register their foreign citizenship when purchasing condo units so they could sell their property to other foreigners in the future.