Types of houses in the Philippines: detached, attached, row houses and the traditional forms

Philippine houses are usually described in three ways at once: how the house sits beside its neighbours, how many floors it has, and what tradition it comes from. A listing for a “two-storey single-attached house” uses the first two. This guide takes each in turn, with the rules that apply where a rule exists.

By how the house meets its neighbours

These are the terms developers, banks and the building office use, and the 2008 rules for BP 220 give the smallest lot each may sit on in a socialized or economic housing project.

Single detached

A house standing on its own lot with open space on every side. It gets light and air from all four walls and is the easiest to extend, and it needs the most land. In a BP 220 project the smallest lot is 72 m² at economic level and 64 m² at socialized level, with a frontage of 8 m on a corner or regular lot.

Single attached

A house built up to the lot line on one side and open on the other three. The wall on the lot line has to be a firewall with no openings, and the neighbour may build against it. It gives up one side of light and air in exchange for a wider usable yard on the other side.

Duplex

Two houses built as one building, sharing a single wall down the middle, each on its own lot. BP 220 treats duplex and single attached together: the smallest lot is 54 m² at economic level and 48 m² at socialized level, with a 6 m frontage, and a firewall is required between the units.

Row house and townhouse

Three or more houses in a line, each sharing a wall with the house on either side, with light and air only from the front and back. BP 220 uses the term row house: the smallest lot is 36 m² at economic level and 28 m² at socialized level, at most 20 units to a block or cluster, and a firewall at every unit. “Townhouse” is the developers’ word for the same arrangement, usually built two or three storeys high. A unit in the middle of the row has no side windows at all, so its plan depends on how well the front and back rooms let air through the house.

Quadruplex

Four units in one building, each sharing walls with two others. It is a developer’s arrangement more than a building code category, and each unit is planned like an end unit of a row house: two open sides, firewalls on the other two.

Firewalls between attached houses

Wherever a dwelling stands on a property line, the BP 220 rules ask for a masonry firewall at least 150 mm thick, rising 0.30 m above the highest point of the roof and extending 0.30 m past the outer edge of the units, with no openings and no ceiling running through from one unit to the next. The BP 220 guide has every figure with its section and page, and the fire code guide covers the rest of what fire safety asks of a house.

By how many floors

Bungalow

A house on one level. No stair, every room on the ground, and the most land for the floor area it gives. The bungalow guide covers planning one.

Two-storey house

Living rooms below, bedrooms above, and twice the floor on the same footprint. It is the usual answer on a subdivision lot. The two-storey house guide covers planning both floors and the stair between them.

Loft house

A single storey with a tall roof and a partial upper floor tucked under it. The loft house guide explains the headroom it needs.

Split-level house

Floors set half a level apart, usually on a sloping lot, so the house follows the ground instead of cutting into it. The guide to choosing a lot covers what a slope does to a design.

Elevated house

A house raised on posts or a tall base, with its main floor above the ground. It is the traditional answer to floods and damp, and the elevated house guide covers how high and what holds it up.

Traditional Filipino houses

Bahay kubo

The one-room house of bamboo, timber and nipa, raised on posts, with a steep roof and walls that let the breeze through. The space under the floor, the silong, kept the living floor dry and was used for storage and animals. The bahay kubo guide names each part and how it was built, the bahay kubo drawing guide has its plan and elevations, and its ideas carry well into a modern house, as the modern bahay kubo guide shows.

Bahay na bato

The colonial-era house of the towns: a ground floor of stone or brick walls, and a timber upper floor where the family lived, with wide sliding windows of capiz shell and ventilation panels below them. It is the bahay kubo’s plan scaled up in heavier materials, with the living floor still lifted above the street and the damp. The bahay na bato guide names its parts and what a modern house can take from it.

Houses for more than one family

Apartments and condominiums put several households in one building. A condominium unit is owned with a share of the common areas under the Condominium Act; the condominium act guide explains what that means for an owner. In a BP 220 condominium project, the smallest unit is 22 m² at economic level and 18 m² at socialized level.

What about R-1, R-2 and R-3?

Those are zoning classes, set by each city or municipality’s zoning ordinance, and they decide what may be built in an area and how densely, not what a house looks like. The labels and their limits vary by place, so the city or municipal planning office, or the zoning certificate for your lot, is where to find the one that applies.

Which type suits your lot

The lot usually narrows the choice before taste does: its width decides whether a detached house fits, its size decides whether one storey is enough, and the flood history of the area decides whether the floor should be lifted. The house design ideas guide shows ideas that suit each type. Our custom house design service starts from the lot you have.