I Only Want a Condo with a Pool in the Philippines: The Dream and Harsh Reality of Moving to the Tropics

When I am tired, watching YouTube videos about moving to the Philippines has become a private pleasure.

I imagine living in a condominium with a pool in the warm tropics.

I would wake up slowly in the morning, drink coffee, and swim whenever I felt like it.

As for work, I would only need to open my laptop occasionally and do a little.

Does that not sound like a wonderful life?

Of course, I have no intention of moving immediately. This is purely a fantasy.

But as I watch these videos and allow the dream to grow, one harsh reality after another appears before me.

Apparently, the Philippines is no longer as inexpensive as I had imagined.

Living as You Do in Japan Can Cost More Than Japan

In the past, low prices were the greatest attraction of moving to Southeast Asia.

With a Japanese pension or savings, you could feel moderately wealthy there.

At least, that was the image.

Recent videos from people who have moved there tell a different story.

Leaving aside a spacious condominium with a pool, which would be beyond my means even in Japan, I would expect to live in a clean, air-conditioned room, shop at a supermarket, and eat at restaurants in shopping malls.

If you try to maintain a lifestyle like the one you had in Japan, the cost of living is not very different from Japan. In some cases, it can even be higher.

Restaurant prices surprised me in particular.

When I look at prices in shopping-mall restaurants and fast-food outlets, some meals cost more than lunch in Japan.

Wait a moment.

If I moved to a country with lower prices, why is Japan cheaper?

Is Japan too inexpensive, or has the Philippines become expensive?

Probably both.

Ordinary Filipinos Do Not Eat at Those Restaurants

As I continued watching, I noticed something else.

Ordinary people in the Philippines do not eat every day at the kind of shopping-mall restaurants Japanese people imagine.

Even locally, the people who can use those places regularly are relatively affluent.

Most people cook at home or eat at small local establishments called carinderias.

Those options are much less expensive.

In other words, saying that prices in the Philippines are low and saying that Japanese people can live there comfortably are entirely different things.

If you fully adapt to local life, you can certainly live cheaply.

But if you expect the same standards of food, hygiene, and housing that you are accustomed to in Japan, you will need a reasonable amount of money.

I want to live in an inexpensive country while keeping my Japanese standard of living.

When you think about it, that is remarkably convenient reasoning.

Did I Want to Live in the Philippines, or Merely in a Luxury Condominium?

At this point, I reconsidered my fantasy.

A room on a high floor with a beautiful view.

A swimming pool and gym inside the complex.

I would drink coffee in an air-conditioned room and visit a stylish café nearby whenever I felt like it.

I see.

What I admired was not the life of an ordinary person in the Philippines, but the life of an affluent person living there.

Of course it would cost money.

If I reduced my budget substantially, I could probably find less expensive neighborhoods and housing.

But what awaited me there might be a life of enduring the heat while battling insects.

That would certainly feel tropical in its own way.

But I was not looking for an adventure.

I wanted to sit in a comfortable room and do nothing in particular.

I Have Not Abandoned the Dream of Moving to the Tropics

Still, I have not lost interest in moving to the Philippines.

The warm climate, the ability to communicate in English, and the relaxed atmosphere.

There is plenty to find attractive.

I have simply learned that it is dangerous to make plans on the assumption that living there will be cheap.

If you bring your Japanese standard of living with you, you need a corresponding budget.

Global inflation and the weak yen are undermining the old assumption that any Japanese person can live elegantly in Southeast Asia.

Even so, watching videos of tropical condominiums on YouTube remains enjoyable.

Swimming pools, palm trees, and blue skies.

My ideal life spreads out on the other side of the screen.

And today, once again, I am watching those videos from my home in Japan with the air conditioner running.

Now that I think about it, is this not the least expensive tropical lifestyle of all?

I cannot use the pool, but at least the insects cannot bite me.