PHOTO COURTESY OF OHMYHOME

THE percentage of single-detached homes owned by their occupants was 62.1%, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

The PSA’s 2022 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS) said the rate of owner-occupied houses was three out of every five of the 26.94 million families. The single-detached home market segment is known in the Philippines as a “house and lot.”

Some 15.3% of families own houses built on land owned by someone else, and pay no rent with the consent of owner; 9.5% rent the house and lot; and 8.3% occupy the house and lot rent-free with the consent of owner.

The rest occupy houses they own on rent-free land without the consent of owner (2.5%), own houses on lots which they pay rent on (1.9%), or occupy houses and lots rent-free without consent of the owner (0.3%).

In nine out of 17 regions, the percentage of families who own the house and lot they occupy was higher than the 62.1% national average. In three of these regions, the ownership rate was at least 70%. These are the Cagayan Valley (86.5%), the Cordillera Administrative Region (79.8%), and Central Luzon (76.6%).

Rural families posted a house and lot ownership rate of 65.8%, while the rate for urban families was 58.7%.

In 2022, 90.3% of families were living in single-detached houses. The rest occupied apartments/accessorias/row houses (6.0%), duplexes (2.1%), other multi-unit residential buildings (0.9%), condominiums/ condotels (0.5%), and commercial/industrial/agricultural buildings or houses (0.2%).

In the National Capital Region, about 76.1% of families occupied single-detached houses, 12.9% apartments/accessorias/ row houses, 2.1% duplexes, and the remainder in some other type of housing unit.

Some 93.7% of houses were built with “strong materials,” while about 2.3% of the families lived in houses made of concrete/clay tile and cogon/nipa/anahaw materials.

The APIS is a nationwide survey conducted by the PSA, it is intended to provide a snapshot of non-income indicators related to poverty. It also compiles data on the socio-economic profiles of families and other information related to their living conditions.

In the 2022 APIS, the sample consisted of 44,000 households. — Lourdes O. Pilar