Yes, I have that agreement, and it protects the foreigner if your Filipino wife dies unexpectedly. We had it attached to the original title and deed at the registry office. It says no one can take control of the property until I die. So it's a good idea to have.

Expert advice here: After buying the property in a local's name, make a notarized agreement stating that you have a 99-year lease with a real payment plan and full rights to do as you wish with the property. This agreement protects the foreigner's right to live in the house. No one can kick him out, even if the family takes the house or resells it. Plan B (optional) If you have kids, register and transfer the title to them. Extended family can't take the house as long as either parent is alive. On top of that, the house belongs to your kids, so at least you leave them a safe and secure inheritance, and extended family can't abuse it.

If you have kids, it gets split between you and your kids anyway. It only gets complicated if you die without kids. I'm not sure about the legality of using it on land your spouse owns, since technically you and your spouse are the same legal entity. What people have done is have the wife leave you a usufruct in her will, in case she dies without kids while her parents or siblings are still alive. Unless she inherited the home, you technically have financial rights to 50% of it, and no one can kick you out (you just can't have the title in your name unless there are no other mandatory heirs, which is unlikely in a typical expat marriage). They can't kick you out, but they can pressure you into moving out voluntarily and then refuse to pay you your share, and in that case there isn't much you can do. You can't sell without the signatures of all the mandatory heirs, which means it could take a lifetime to get your money back.

It's a useful tool. But be careful with the fructus elements, meaning anything that produces income, because you'd be obligated to comply with all sorts of national and local laws (including an approved AEP for yourself, even for volunteer work). Tax-wise, under the strictest reading of the law, even getting to use the asset could be considered taxable income. Understand that "free" isn't necessarily free.

And guys are still pouring money into no man's land… in some weird cases the family claimed the land and house and asked the guy to leave because it was built on land shared by the heirs..