Property: Sentimental Value vs. Monetary Value

Keep or Sell?

What has more value to you now, Sentiment or Money? 

If you hear family names in Cebu City, Philippines you will immediately say they are “landed” meaning that they owned a large area of land. They have inherited vast lands from their ancestors and left it idle.

Truly they are blessed to have a large value of properties given to them by their ancestors. However, look at these families now – you can’t say they have a good life even with the properties they have inherited. Their house is tattered, with no car, old clothing and children are not studying in private schools (just to name a few).

Why don’t they have a good life despite the fact that they owned properties in a good location in Cebu and the prices of these properties are going up tremendously?

When I ask them why their responses varied. But for the most part, it’s because of the sentimental value. They don’t want to easily let go of the properties they have inherited because their ancestors have worked too hard for land.

There is a difference between monetary value and sentimental value. A monetary value means the value that something has in peso. For instance, a house can be worth Php 27 million pesos. The sentimental value means that something is dear to you because it triggers good memories. 

There are people who opt to keep their properties for sentimental reason over their need for money and as a realtor, we cannot force them to sell their properties even if we see a great real estate property value . 

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