Buying a condo in Mandaluyong as a first home

A condo is a unit, not the land under it

A condominium in Mandaluyong is a common first home for people who work between Bonifacio Global City and Ortigas. What you buy is a unit, together with a share in the common areas. You do not buy the land the way a house-and-lot buyer does. That is why a foreign buyer can own a condominium unit, inside the project’s foreign-ownership cap, while a subdivision lot is a different rule.

The Condominium Act, Republic Act 4726, is the statute that sets up that form of ownership. The title you eventually want for the unit is a Condominium Certificate of Title. You do not receive it on reservation day. Keep every official receipt while the papers catch up.

The 40 percent cap

Foreign ownership of condominium units in a project is capped at 40 percent. A seller should be able to say whether the unit you want still sits inside that cap. Filipino buyers are not blocked by the cap, but they should still ask, because a project that is careless about the cap is careless about other papers too.

Land under the building is not part of what a foreign buyer takes home. If the goal is a titled house and lot, look at a project that a Filipino citizen or a former Filipino under Republic Act 8179 can own. Do not force a land purchase into a condo conversation.

Pre-selling still has a schedule

Pre-selling means you are paying before the building is finished. A first home can still be the right buy in pre-selling if three things are written down: a DHSUD License to Sell that matches the project, a turnover window you can live with, and an equity schedule you can pay without guessing.

Ready for occupancy is a different product. The unit is offered as complete. It can still have a punch list. Pre-selling is not “worse” by itself. It is simply a longer wait, and the equity is how you pay during that wait.

Ask where the reservation goes, whether it is credited to the price, and what happens to your payments if turnover slips. A flyer that shows only a monthly sample is not those answers.

The Aurelia Residences sample

Aurelia Residences is a fictional 18-storey condominium on Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong, used on this site so a first-home buyer can see exact pesos. It is a sample listing. It is not a unit you can reserve.

The sample lists units from ₱5,980,000 to ₱12,900,000. The featured one-bedroom, 42 sqm, is ₱8,450,000. The reservation fee is ₱25,000. The page marks the project as pre-selling, with a sample turnover window of October to December 2028, and it says foreign buyers may own a unit within the 40 percent cap. The License to Sell line is a sample number, not a live DHSUD record. Financing options listed on the page include Pag-IBIG, bank, in-house, and cash.

Use those figures to practice a budget. Then throw them away when you look at a real building, and ask for that building’s own price, fee, license, and turnover.

What to do next

Walk Pioneer Street if you can, or book an online presentation and share the computation you were given. A first condo is easier to judge when the reservation, the equity, and the balance are three separate lines.