The National Building Code, for people building a house
Presidential Decree 1096 of 1977 is the National Building Code of the Philippines. Its title says it revises Republic Act No. 6541, the national building code it replaced. Most of it is written for every kind of building. These are the sections that reach a house, what each one says, and the places where the decree does not say what people assume it says.
The National Building Code sections a house meets
Each row gives the section, what it says, and the page or tool on this site that works it through.
Who the Code covers and who enforces it
| Section | What it says | Work it through |
|---|---|---|
| 103(a) Scope | Applies to the design, siting, construction, alteration, repair, conversion, use, occupancy, maintenance, moving, demolition and addition of public and private buildings, except traditional indigenous family dwellings. | in the text |
| 103(b) Older houses | A building put up before the Code is not affected by it until it is altered, added to, converted or repaired, and then only the portions worked on. | in the text |
| 205, 206 The Building Official | Enforces the Code locally. An appointed Building Official must be a registered architect or civil engineer with at least five years of experience in building design and construction; the Secretary may also designate district, city and municipal engineers to act as one. | in the text |
| 201, 203 The Secretary | The Secretary of Public Works issues the implementing rules and sets the fees the Building Official collects. | in the text |
The lot and the house on it
| Section | What it says | Work it through |
|---|---|---|
| 701 Group A | A dwelling is Group A. Row houses, apartment buildings and similar buildings each accommodating more than ten persons are Group B, under other rules. | in the text |
| 708(a) Lot occupancy | A dwelling may occupy up to 90 percent on a corner lot and 80 percent on an inside lot, and stands at least 2 m from the property line, subject to the Civil Code on light and view. | Lot coverage calculator |
| 708(c) to (i) Other dwelling minimums | At least one sanitary toilet; footings at least 250 mm thick and 600 mm below the ground; floor live loads of at least 200 kg/m² on the first floor and 150 kg/m² on the second; roofs designed for at least 120 kg/m² of wind; one entrance and another exit. | in the text |
Rooms, light and air
| Section | What it says | Work it through |
|---|---|---|
| 805 Ceiling heights | 2.70 m for a habitable room with natural ventilation; 2.40 m with artificial ventilation, with storey figures inside that sentence. | Room size checker |
| 806 Room sizes | 6.00 m² and 2.00 m for a room for habitation, 3.00 m² and 1.50 m for a kitchen, 1.20 m² and 0.90 m for a bath and toilet. | Room size checker |
| 807, 808 Air space and windows | 14.00 m³ of air per person in a habitable room; windows opening at least one tenth of the floor area, unless ventilation meets Section 811. | Room size checker |
Stairs
| Section | What it says | Work it through |
|---|---|---|
| 708(h), 1207(e) Rise, run and width | Rise 200 mm; the run is 200 mm in the dwelling rule and 250 mm in the stairway rule; 750 mm clear width for a house; headroom 2.00 m; handrails 800 to 900 mm. | Stair dimensions checker |
Permits, building and moving in
| Section | What it says | Work it through |
|---|---|---|
| 301 to 305 The building permit | Required before any building work; issued within 15 days of paying the fees once the Building Official is satisfied the plans conform; lapses after a year unstarted or 120 days stopped. | Building permit guide |
| 308, 309 Supervision and occupancy | A licensed architect or civil engineer supervises full time and keeps the site logbook; the Certificate of Occupancy follows the Certificate of Completion and final inspection. | Occupancy permit guide |
| 207, 213 Enforcement | The Building Official may stop work or stop a building being occupied; building, altering, using or occupying a building in violation of the Code is punishable on conviction by a fine, imprisonment of up to two years, or both. | in the text |
Where the decree says something other than what people assume
It gives a house two minimum stair runs
Section 708(h), the rule for dwellings, asks for “a rise of 200 millimeters and a minimum run of 200 millimeters”. Section 1207(e)(2), for every stairway in any building, asks that “the run shall not less than 250 millimeters”, and keeps 250 mm even for a private stairway serving fewer than 10 people. A step between the two meets one section and not the other; a run of 250 mm or more meets both, which is the safe design until your Building Official says which one the office applies. The stair dimensions checker reports both.
The lower ceiling heights come with a condition
Section 805 sets 2.40 m for a habitable room with artificial ventilation, and gives storey figures of 2.70, 2.40 and 2.10 m inside the same sentence. Read alone, the storey figures suggest a second-storey bedroom needs only 2.40 m. The last sentence of Section 805(a) says rooms “with a natural ventilation shall have ceiling height not less than 2.70 meters”, and names no storey. The room size checker applies the condition.
A house's lot coverage is in the decree itself
Section 803 leaves site occupancy in general to the implementing rules and local zoning, so it is easy to conclude that the decree has no figure. For a dwelling it does: Section 708(a) sets 90 and 80 percent for corner and inside lots and a 2 m distance from the property line. Zoning can still allow less. The lot coverage calculator works it out.
Its time limits date from 1977
The decree gives the Building Official 15 days to issue a permit once satisfied the plans conform and the fees are paid (Section 304), and 30 days for the Certificate of Occupancy (Section 309). The Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018, Republic Act 11032, now requires each office's Citizen's Charter to set a processing time within 3, 7 or 20 working days of a complete application, depending on the kind of application, extendable once by the same number of days. If the office misses its time, an original application with every document submitted and every fee paid is deemed approved (the Act's Sections 9 and 10, as amended). The occupancy permit guide sets the two side by side.
The traditional family dwelling exemption is narrower than it sounds
Section 103(a) excludes “traditional indigenous family dwellings” from the Code. Section 209 separately exempts them from building permit fees, which reads as if a permit were still expected, and Section 301 names no exception to the permit. Section 209 also holds the only definition: a dwelling for the owner's family alone, built of native materials such as bamboo, nipa, logs or lumber, within a total cost ceiling the decree fixed in 1977. The Gazette text prints the defined term as “additional indigenous family dwelling”.
A cost ceiling set in 1977 rules out almost any house built today, and the Building Official decides whether a house qualifies, so plan on a permit. A modern bahay kubo with a concrete frame is almost certainly outside the exemption: concrete is not among the native materials the definition lists, and its cost will exceed the ceiling.
What the Code does not decide
- The implementing rules. The Secretary of Public Works issues rules under the decree (Section 203) that add setbacks, floor area limits and much else. They are published by the Department of Public Works and Highways and are not reproduced here.
- Zoning. Your city or municipality zones the land, and a zone can be stricter than the decree. The zoning office answers for your lot.
- Subdivision rules. Deed restrictions and a homeowners association's rules can set their own limits, and PD 957 governs the developer's side, in the guide for house-and-lot buyers.
- Neighbours. Window distances, drainage and right of way come from the Civil Code, in the right of way and easements guide.
- Structure and services. The structural, electrical, plumbing and mechanical design follow their own codes and are signed by the engineers of each discipline.
- The Green Building Code. This 2015 referral code of the decree applies only to new construction or alteration at or above the total gross floor area its Table 1 sets for each use: 10,000 square metres for most uses, 15,000 for a mall, and 20,000 for a residential condominium, the only dwelling it lists (Section 8.1). It does not reach a house.
- Whether the house is any good. The Code sets minimums. A house can meet every one and still be hot, dark or hard to live in.
That last point is where design starts. A consultation for future home buyers looks at a lot or a plan before you commit, and custom house design takes a house from the lot to a permit-ready set.
Sources: Presidential Decree No. 1096, the National Building Code of the Philippines, as published by the Official Gazette; Republic Act No. 11032, as published by the Lawphil Project; and the Philippine Green Building Code (June 2015), the Department of Public Works and Highways booklet as held by the Asian Development Bank's Law and Policy Reform library.