Landco's Philippine Lifestyle Visa Offers Permanent Residency Path as Philippines Named World's Top Retirement Destination for 2026
Key Takeaways
- •The Philippines has been named the world's No. 1 retirement destination for 2026 by the Expatriate Group, following its recognition as Best Retirement Destination in Asia at the 2025 TripZilla Excellence Awards.
- •The Philippine Lifestyle Visa is a branded pathway created by Landco Lifestyle Ventures into the government's Special Resident Retiree's Visa, operated through a formal partnership with the Philippine Retirement Authority rather than issued directly by a government agency.
- •PLV holders gain access to Landco's coastal developments, including beachfront condotels The Spinnaker at Club Laiya and The Nautilus at CaSoBe, as well as The Residences at Terrazas de Punta Fuego.
- •Philippine property rules allow foreign nationals to own condominium units but not land, a framework that has shaped the condotel model common in the country's resort destinations.
- •Tourism Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay stated the Department of Tourism will continue working with the Philippine Retirement Authority and stakeholders to strengthen the country's competitiveness as a retirement and tourism destination.

Landco Lifestyle Ventures (LLV) is promoting a pathway to permanent coastal living in the Philippines through its Philippine Lifestyle Visa (PLV), a residency program that arrives as the country draws fresh international recognition as a leading retirement destination.
The offering centers on LLV's beachfront communities in Calatagan, Nasugbu, and Laiya, which the company describes in terms of beachfront mornings, exclusive sunsets, and an active coastal lifestyle. For a growing number of global retirees and digital nomads, LLV says, the prospect of making the Philippines home is no longer a distant aspiration but a practical choice — one framed around waking to the sound of waves, stepping onto a sea-facing balcony, and spending retirement or remote-work days unhurried and sun-drenched.
World's No. 1 Retirement Destination
The Philippines has been named the world's No. 1 retirement destination for 2026 by the Expatriate Group, adding to a series of recent recognitions for the country's long-stay tourism push. The Department of Tourism welcomed the ranking, highlighting the country's continued efforts to strengthen retirement and long-stay programs through the Philippine Retirement Authority's Special Resident Retiree's Visa (SRRV) — the government's long-stay residence program for foreign nationals, and the track into which private offerings like the PLV are built to feed.
“Beyond our natural attractions, the Philippines offers warm hospitality, affordable living, quality services, and vibrant communities that allow people to live, travel, and thrive,” said Tourism Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay. “We will continue working with the Philippine Retirement Authority and our stakeholders to further strengthen the country's competitiveness as a world-class retirement and tourism destination.”
Her remarks point to the arrangement at the center of that effort: government retirement programs working in tandem with the private stakeholders that build the communities long-stay visitors would actually live in.
Philippine Retirement Authority General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Bob Zozobrado likewise described the recognition as a reaffirmation of the country's growing reputation as a preferred destination for retirees seeking a fulfilling and comfortable lifestyle abroad.
The latest ranking follows another recent milestone: the Philippines was named Best Retirement Destination in Asia at the 2025 TripZilla Excellence Awards. The consecutive recognitions arrive as long-stay travel — retirement and remote work alike — has become a competitive category among destinations, with residency programs increasingly part of a country's tourism toolkit rather than niche paperwork.
“These distinctions reinforce the Philippines' growing appeal as a place to live well, stay longer, and feel at home,” said Janine Huang, Head of Brand Experience & Hospitality Commercial, Landco Lifestyle Ventures. “Through Landco's Philippine Lifestyle Visa, we invite global residents to experience some of the country's most celebrated coastal communities featuring iconic beachfront condotels The Spinnaker at Club Laiya and The Nautilus at CaSoBe and the exclusive seafront residential community The Residences at Terrazas de Punta Fuego. Together, these beach destinations offer Landco's signature Life on Vacation lifestyle, and warmth that makes the country one of the world's most desirable places to call home.”
Condotels — condominium developments operated with hotel-style services — are a familiar format in Philippine resort destinations, a structure shaped by property rules that allow foreign nationals to own condominium units even though they cannot own land.
More Than a Visa
What sets the Philippine Lifestyle Visa apart, according to LLV, is what it leads to. Among the recognized routes to the Philippine Retirement Authority's Special Resident Retiree's Visa, the PLV stands apart by combining government-backed residency eligibility with exclusive access to LLV's award-winning portfolio of resort communities. The PLV itself is not issued by a government agency; it is LLV's branded pathway into the SRRV, with the developer providing the guidance and the PRA supplying the official status.
Through LLV's formal partnership with the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA), PLV holders are guided along a government-supported pathway to permanent long-term residency. LLV describes the program as a rare offering that pairs the security of official status with the lifestyle infrastructure of its resort developments, making what it calls both the practical and the beautiful feel effortless.
Reimagining the Philippines as Home
“Landco brings ‘Life on Vacation' into everyday living by creating communities where nature, wellness, leisure, and relaxation become part of daily life,” said Joyce L. Benigay, Sales Director of Landco Lifestyle Ventures. “The Philippine Lifestyle Visa is how we invite the world to live that life — not just visit it.”
At a recent luncheon hosted by the Business and Professional Women (BPW) Ayala Makati Chapter, LLV gathered members of the diplomatic corps, business leaders, and professionals to the Philippines not as a destination to pass through, but as a place the world is increasingly choosing to call home.
As more global citizens seek out destinations that offer genuine quality of life, wellness, a competitive cost of living, and the assurance of long residency, LLV is positioning the Philippine Lifestyle Visa — and the Philippines — at the heart of that conversation. The thread to follow from here is whether the string of recognitions converts into durable long-stay infrastructure: the Department of Tourism has committed to working with the PRA and its stakeholders, and developer-led programs like the PLV are already positioning themselves as the bridge between a ranking and a resident. The life many imagine, the company suggests, is already here; the visa is simply the way in.
More information about the Philippine Lifestyle Visa and Landco Lifestyle Ventures' resort communities is available at www.landco.ph and facebook.com/LandcoPacificCorporation.
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