More foreign retirees and their families are choosing to stay in the Philippines, partly due to incentives provided by the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA), an agency under the Department of Tourism.
This year’s target of approving 4,000 Special Resident Retiree Visas (SRRV) is likely to be met, up from 3,850 foreign retirees in 2024, said CEO and general manager Bob Zozobrado.
“I’m now working on getting more Europeans, Canadians and Americans. We’re no longer promoting too much in Asia because we’re already getting a good size of the Asian market,” he told TTG Asia.
Of the 59,000 active foreign retirees in the Philippines, about 85 per cent are from Asia: Chinese (around 40 per cent), South Koreans (around 20 per cent), and Indians (around 15 per cent). US retirees, mostly former Filipinos who became American citizens, make up less than 10 per cent.
“We discovered that there are so many senior-related expos and other events in Europe, Canada and the US and that’s what we’re attending now. When I attended the Salon de Senior 2025 in Paris, 11 French individuals and couples said they wanted to retire in the Philippines and they arrived the following week,” Zozobrado said.
The main appeal for SRRV holders is the ability to become permanent residents while retaining their citizenship, allowing them to travel freely in and out of the Philippines without needing permission from the Philippine Bureau of Immigration, a requirement that previously applied when renewing the Alien Certificate of Registration.
PRA now has 250 merchant partners nationwide, including hotels, resorts, restaurants, wellness centres and spas offering senior discounts of 20 per cent, and in some cases up to 30 per cent, compared with just 14 merchant partners a few years ago.
An SRRV holder must make a one-time US$25,000 deposit in a PRA-accredited bank in their name, covering the whole family. The deposit earns interest and can be refunded if they return home, withdrawn in an emergency, or used to buy or lease property.
