How much should I budget for closing costs on a Philippine condo?

The statutory portion (documentary stamp tax, local transfer tax and registration) lands at roughly 2.25 to 2.75 percent of the tax base, so setting aside 3 percent of TCP covers it with room for notarial and incidental costs. Developer processing charges and the condominium corporation's move-in, fit-out and utility charges sit on top of that and are quotable only per project, so ask for them in writing.

Do I pay capital gains tax when I buy from a developer?

No. Developer inventory is an ordinary asset, so the sale is subject to creditable withholding tax and value added tax on the seller side rather than capital gains tax. What the buyer customarily carries is documentary stamp tax, local transfer tax, registration and notarial costs, unless your contract allocates them differently. Read the allocation clause before you sign.

When do closing costs actually become due on a preselling unit?

At the deed of absolute sale, which on a preselling tower is executed at full payment or loan takeout, not at reservation and not at the contract to sell. That is often three or four years after you first paid anything. Budget for it from month one anyway, because it arrives as a lump sum at the same time as your other turnover costs.

Closing Costs on an Alveo Condo: What You Pay After TCP

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buying guide · 8 min read

Closing Costs on an Alveo Condo: What You Pay After TCP

Published 8/14/2026 · By Heinrich Picar

The total contract price is the number everyone negotiates and the number almost nobody budgets around correctly. On a preselling Alveo unit, the TCP buys you the unit. Between reservation and the day a condominium certificate of title is issued in your name, a second stack of payments arrives: taxes fixed by national law, fees set by your local government, charges set by the developer, and charges set by the building's condominium corporation. I have watched buyers who saved diligently for three years get caught flat by that second stack, purely because nobody itemised it for them at the start. Here is the whole thing, and which parts of it I can quote you today versus which parts only the project can.

Two buckets, and only one of them is predictable

Split every peso that lands after the TCP into two piles. The first is statutory: documentary stamp tax, local transfer tax, registration fees, and real property tax. These are set by law and by local ordinance, they barely move, and you can compute them today for a unit you will not receive until 2029. The second is commercial: the developer's processing and title transfer charges, and the condominium corporation's move-in, fit-out and utility charges. These are set by people rather than by statutes, they differ per project and per building, and anyone quoting you a generic peso figure for them on the internet is guessing. For that second pile the honest answer is a checklist plus a written request for the itemisation.

The statutory side, with the rate and, more importantly, the base

Buyers focus on the rates. The base is what actually decides the bill. All three transfer charges are computed on the highest of three numbers: your contract price, the BIR zonal value, and the assessor's fair market value. On a well priced Alveo unit the contract price is usually the highest of the three, so your own price becomes the base, but on a heavily discounted unit or an unusually stale assessment schedule it can flip.

Charge	Rate	Computed on	Set by
Documentary stamp tax	₱15 per ₱1,000, about 1.5%	Higher of price, zonal value, assessor's FMV	National law (NIRC Sec. 196)
Local transfer tax	About 0.5% to 0.75%	Same base	City or provincial ordinance
Registration fee	Graduated schedule, budget about 0.25%	Same base	Registry of Deeds schedule
Notarial fee	Negotiated, no fixed statutory rate	Contract price	The notary public

Add those up and the statutory side of a condominium transfer sits at roughly 2.25 to 2.75 percent of the tax base, before notarial fees and the small incidentals (certified true copies, entry and annotation fees, BIR processing, courier). That band is stable enough to plan against. Set aside 3 percent of TCP and you will be close.

Two large taxes that are not yours

Creditable withholding tax on the sale is the seller's liability, and value added tax at 12 percent applies to the developer as seller. Residential dwellings priced at ₱3.6 million and below are VAT exempt under Revenue Regulations 1-2024, a threshold almost nothing in the current Alveo range falls under. So the only VAT question that matters to you is this one: is the TCP you were quoted VAT inclusive? Ask it in writing before you sign anything. On an ₱8 million unit the gap between an inclusive and an exclusive quote is close to a million pesos, and it is the single most expensive question buyers forget to ask. My walkthrough of an Alveo price computation sheet shows where that line sits.

If you are financing, the mortgage is its own taxable document

A loan adds a second set of charges that have nothing to do with the sale itself. Documentary stamp tax on the mortgage runs ₱40 on the first ₱5,000 secured and ₱20 on each ₱5,000 after that, which works out to roughly 0.4 percent of what you borrow. The real estate mortgage then has to be annotated on the title at the Registry of Deeds, which carries its own fee. On top of that sit the lender's appraisal fee, its processing or handling fee, mortgage redemption insurance, and fire insurance on the unit. MRI and fire premiums are annual and are usually either netted out of the loan proceeds at release or folded into the amortisation, which is exactly why they vanish from most side by side comparisons of a Pag-IBIG quote against a bank quote.

What the developer charges, and why the number is project specific

Expect a documentation or processing fee, and a title transfer service charge if the developer is handling the BIR and Registry of Deeds legwork on your behalf. That last one matters more than it looks, because developers structure it in two very different ways. Some quote a single bundled transfer charge that already absorbs the statutory taxes above. Others bill the statutory taxes at actual cost with receipts and charge a separate service fee on top. Those are not the same deal, and the paperwork rarely says which one you are in unless you ask directly. There may also be utility connection and meter deposits, and a one time contribution to the association's working or reserve fund.

The condominium corporation is a separate organisation from the developer

This catches almost everyone. Once a building is turned over, a condominium corporation runs it, and its charges are set by its own board and house rules, not by Alveo. The core list looks like this.

Charge	Usual trigger	Refundable
Move-in fee	Booking your move-in date	No
Fit-out or construction bond	Any renovation work, including simple cabinetry	Yes, after certificate of completion
Fit-out permit and processing fee	Submitting plans to property management	No
Advance association dues	Turnover, commonly several months up front	Applied to your account, not returned
Utility meter and bill deposits	New electricity and water service	Yes, under the applicable utility rules

The bond is the one worth understanding properly, because it is refundable and people forget to claim it back. It is released after the property management office issues a certificate of completion and confirms no damage and no deviation from your approved plans, with deductions for overruns and damage. Even light work (built in cabinetry, a shower enclosure, rewiring for an air conditioner) will normally trigger a fit-out permit and a bond. Utility deposits come back too. A Meralco bill deposit is set at your estimated monthly billing and can be refunded early if you pay on or before the due date consistently.

Real property tax, the one that never stops

From turnover onward the unit is yours to declare and to pay for. Basic real property tax in Metro Manila cities is capped at 2 percent of assessed value, with a further 1 percent for the Special Education Fund. Assessed value is not market value: it is the assessor's fair market value multiplied by an assessment level, capped at 20 percent for residential property. Run the arithmetic and the effective ceiling is about 0.6 percent of the assessor's FMV per year, and that FMV is usually well below what you actually paid. Most LGUs also discount the full year if you pay in January. I go through the computation and the deadlines in the Philippine property tax guide.

The timing is the part that surprises people

On a preselling unit, nothing on the transfer side happens for years. Documentary stamp tax, transfer tax and registration are triggered by the deed of absolute sale, and on a preselling tower that deed is executed at full payment or at loan takeout, not at reservation and not when you sign the contract to sell. That is why a buyer who reserved in 2026 can be handed a transfer bill in 2029 and feel ambushed by it. The condominium corporation's charges land later still, at move-in and at fit-out. The reservation to turnover timeline maps where each payment actually falls.

Why the same checklist produces very different numbers

Take two preselling Alveo towers. Portico in Ortigas sits in Pasig. Cerule at Solinea sits in Cebu Business Park. The checklist is identical for both. The peso amounts are not, for three reasons: local transfer tax is set by a Pasig ordinance in one case and a Cebu City ordinance in the other, BIR zonal values differ by location and move the base, and the move-in and fit-out charges are set by two different condominium corporations that have nothing to do with each other. Scale matters as much as location. Cerule at Solinea's published range runs from about ₱6.4 million to ₱28.7 million across units of 25 to 104 sqm, so the statutory band alone spans roughly ₱144,000 at the bottom of that range to roughly ₱789,000 at the top. Same percentage, very different cheque.

What to ask for, in writing, before you reserve

Six questions cover it. Is the TCP VAT inclusive? Is there a bundled transfer charge, and does it absorb documentary stamp tax, transfer tax and registration, or are those billed separately at cost? What is the developer's processing or documentation fee? What are the current move-in fee, fit-out bond and fit-out permit fees for this specific building? How many months of association dues are collected in advance at turnover, and at what rate per square metre? And what utility deposits will be collected, and by whom? Any agent worth their licence will chase those down in writing rather than telling you to worry about it later. Send me the project and unit type and I will pull the current itemisation for you.

Buyer case studies

From real buyers

Names and identifying details changed at buyer request.

The transfer bill that arrived three years late

A typical case: a dual income couple reserves a preselling one bedroom, computes the equity schedule to the peso, and pays it perfectly for three years. At full payment the deed of absolute sale is prepared and the transfer costs land as a single lump sum, along with the developer's processing charge. Nothing was hidden and nothing was wrong, but it was never on their spreadsheet because it was never quoted at reservation. They ended up borrowing short term at a worse rate than their housing loan to cover it. The fix costs nothing: add three percent of TCP to your monthly savings target from the day you reserve, in a separate account you do not touch.

Turnover week, four bills at once

Another common one: a buyer takes turnover, then discovers within a fortnight that the move-in fee, the fit-out permit, the construction bond and several months of advance association dues are all payable before a single contractor can be let into the building, with utility deposits on top. None of it came from the developer. All of it came from the condominium corporation, which is a different organisation with its own board and its own house rules. Two of those items are refundable, which almost nobody realises at the time. Asking for the condominium corporation's current schedule of fees at reservation, not at turnover, would have moved the whole conversation two years earlier.

Frequently asked questions