New Land in Sarangani After 7.8 Earthquake: What Real Estate Buyers Need to Know

Sarangani’s New Coastline After the Earthquake: Why You Can’t Buy or Build on It Yet

If you’ve seen the photos online of “new land” suddenly appearing along the coast of Sarangani, you’re not imagining things. While it isn’t a new island rising from the sea, the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck offshore last June 8, 2026 physically reshaped the coastline in Glan, Sarangani and Jose Abad Santos, Davao Occidental. Now, let’s discuss why it’s not safe for building based on legal explanations in this article.

​Is This New Land Available for Sale?

Property buyers near General Santos and the surrounding provinces may want to know if this new land is for sale or development. Not yet. And honestly, maybe not for a while. This coastal uplift or co-seismic uplift happens in an instant. A major earthquake releases pressure built up along a fault line, and the ground simply shifts upward. PHIVOLCS has confirmed this was a one-time event tied to movement along the Cotabato Trench, and not a slowly forming island.
The seafloor rose by as much as two meters in some spots. The shoreline pushed outward by up to 200 meters. Coral reefs and seagrass beds that had been underwater for generations are now sitting exposed in open air. Here are reasons it’s not safe to build in the new land:

• The land itself isn’t legally classified. PHIVOLCS researchers have pointed out that newly emerged coastal land like this isn’t automatically considered alienable and disposable property. Government agencies are still working out how to classify and     protect these areas, much like what happened after a similar uplift     in Bohol where the land eventually became a protected geological park instead of a subdivision.
      
  
• There’s the stability question. Newly exposed seabed can shift or settle without warning, and PHIVOLCS has already flagged tension cracks on nearby slopes that raise landslide risk, especially when it rains or aftershocks hit. Uplift doesn’t mean the danger has passed, it just means that particular release already happened.
  

When investing in real estate, consider verified properties with clean titles in established subdivisions. Before signing anything, run the location through PHIVOLCS’ FaultFinder tool to check its distance from active faults. Future decisions on this uplifted land will come from PHIVOLCS and DENR, not from informal claims or social media rumors.

Final Thoughts

Instead of buying new lands that are not safe for building, it’s better to explore other investment opportunities in well-known locations. You may want to get a unit in a prime gated subdivision in Baguio City, or a nice condo in your dream city. Go ahead and visit REALS.PH for our property listings, or list your property on the site so potential buyers can easily find it. Our trusted real estate agents in Baguio are ready to help you achieve your real estate investment goals this year.