Beaches of Boracay in the Phillipines

Former American Peace Corps worker Don Herrington is one of thousands who approach retirement and decide that a place beside a tropical beach is better than staying put in Hong Kong, or going back to wherever "home" used to be. He is now in what he (and a few others) call the Paris of the Philippines, Cebu.

"Some foreigners are here in the Philippines as investors, staying on tourist visas and extending their stay for long periods of time," Herrington, who has been married three times, each to Filipinas, and has set himself up as a one-man advisory bureau with his own Internet-based membership club ("www.livinginthephilippines.com":http://www.livinginthephilippines.com ).

"Some are tourists who came and forgot to leave the Philippine paradise they found," He told the Hong Kong Standard.But Hong Kong property consultant Tony Arkey cautions there are dangers in succumbing to a pretty stretch of beach or a swank downtown pad in a foreign city without considering investment protection and value for money.

Arkey, of property agency Raine & Horne, says the exotic promise of the Philippines and Thailand might be alluring, but Australia and Malaysia are safer investment bets. Investors will get far more for their money in Australia than in Thailand, he says.

"It's a rising market in Thailand but there is virtually no resale. I know two agencies, both with a thousand properties on their books for resale. I heard about a couple who sold their home there after nine years and made no money on it."

Both Malaysia and Australia permit foreigners to own land and houses, but Thailand and the Philippines restrict outright foreign ownership to condominium leaseholds. Ironically though, the Thai and Philippine governments actively encourage foreigners over the age of 50 to settle in their countries--as long as they see evidence of the size of your bank account.

Those over 50 can get a one-year visa to stay in Thailand--but not work--by producing a letter to the immigration authorities from a Thai bank showing deposits equivalent to HK$160,000 (C$25,000)

It's a slack system. There are stories of people depositing the money just for the duration of the application and then moving it out again; or several people shuffling the same sum around between them.

For some bizarre reason, visa holders have to leave the country every 90 days, even if just to walk across the border into Cambodia or Laos for a beer and then walk back into Thailand again. Failure to do so incurs a fine of 200 baht (C$6) for every day stayed beyond that time.

It's a good enough deal for Roger McKenzie, a Hong Kong-based Scottish manager who has bought two apartments in a condominium in Pattaya on Thailand's northern gulf coast. McKenzie, a single man, says he chose Thailand for three reasons: golf, food and happy-go-lucky Thai attitudes.

Foreigners who want to acquire a house in Thailand or the Philippines must allow a local citizen or company to hold 51 percent. In both countries, people have found ways round the law using specially designated holding companies usually administered by a lawyer.

However, going down that route for some people is too messy and precarious, and outright condo ownership in Thailand--usually restricted to greater Bangkok and seaside resorts such as Phuket, Hua Hin, Samui and Pattaya--is considered a safer bet.

"I am a bit wary of Thai law and the upholding of that law in a Thai court," says a Hong Konger with a two-bedroom condominium flat on Bangkok's fashionable Sukhumvit Road who requested anonymity. "A foreigner is always a foreigner in Thailand, especially under the nationalistic Thaksin regime."

In the Philippines, retiring foreigners come in two classes, well, three if you include foreign ambassadors. A Special Resident Retiree Visa, dubbed by the Manila government a lifestyle visa, offers permanent residence and the right to lease a parcel of land. Between the ages of 35 and 49, bank deposits must total US$75,000 (C$93,500). For those over 50, the required deposit drops to US$50,000(C$62,350).