In a film, when a family moves into a new house, the color schemes radiate a warm and cool tone but suddenly change into an eerie atmosphere and darker hues when it's night. Despite everyone being asleep, the floor creaks and the lights flicker — not because of someone but because the house is believed to have spirits or supernatural creatures as its residents as well.
In Maslow hierarchy of needs, shelter is one of the basic needs but having a house is one of the expensive things to have.
Based on the Construction cost Handbook Philippines 2020 by Arcadis Philippines Inc., the construction costs for terraced and average standard homes range between P52,668.16 to P64,521.2 per square meter.
"Our company offers house and lot, and lot only. For lot, pinaka-mura namin nasa P800,000 para sa isang 80 sqm na lote lang 'yun. Mas malaki ang lote, mas nagiging mahal ang value," said JC Poblete, sales consultant and real estate agent at Filinvest Land, Inc.
Poblete shared that in his company, it depends on what type of projects the client wants. For example, for affordable housing, they have Futura, which ranges from P800,000 to P3 million.
With thousands to millions of money needed to afford a property, a family or a person could choose a property that has a lower price.
Based on films, usually haunted houses are a lot cheaper compared to its usual pricing but it's actually a myth.
In real estate, "walang decreasing na value, palaging tataas, kahit ano pa ang state ng bahay," said Poblete.
"Hindi mo kasi maba-brand na haunted ang isang bahay, it's a person's instinct," he emphasized.
Meanwhile, for abandoned houses, subdivisions have their own rules that depend on the homeowners association.
"Once kasi na-turnover na sayo ang bahay, dun ka na mag-comply lahat ng rules and restrictions, kumbaga sa mismong developer, dadaanan ka muna sa HOA," he added.
There's a standard appearance of houses for subdivisions so, if a house encountered certain problems or physical changes, everything will be handled by the HOA.
Haunted houses don't necessarily mean there are coffins, dungeons, or molds, usually the state of the house is still livable and pleasing.
If one could remember the films, Haunted Mansion (2015), White House (2010), and Bahay na Pula (2022), a property remains a property no matter how many stories are engraved into its walls and lot.