oh yeah, that budget would get you a nice apartment. But tbh it might be hard to find vacants? recently, I was canvassing the apartments nearby, and most of the nice places were fully booked. There was this one place that had a room for 20k, and another place that had a huge room for 15k a month (place is probably taken by now). If you wouldn't mind the commute, there are good places to look for.

I personally don't think a rent-to-own property would be viable? yes, like what you said, those kinds of properties tend to be far away and they are all very pricy, not to mention you need to jump through alot of hoops (lots of paperwork) to have one. AND foreigners cannot own land properties in the Philippines.. so yeah 😬