BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-CAR) reported that the occupied housing units regionwide increased by 12.5 percent from 347,362 units in 2010 to 390,923 occupied units in 2015.
The PSA-CAR stated that among the Cordillera provinces, Benguet had the most occupied housing units with 106,117 or 27.2 percent share followed by Baguio City with 87,731 or 22.4 percent share and Abra with 51,593 or 13.2 percent share.
Based on the PSA-Car report, Apayao had the least occupied housing units with 25,418 or 6.5 percent, Mountain Province with 31,857 or 8.9 percent and Kalinga with 41,990 or 10.7 percent.
According to the PSA-CAR, the household to occupied housing unit ratio was at 1 percent which means that there were 101 households in every 100 occupied housing units.
Abra and Baguio city had the highest household to housing unit ratio with 103 households per 100 occupied housing units and the lowest ration was recorded both in Ifugao and Kalinga with 100 households per 100 occupied housing units.
The PSA-CAR noted the number of persons per occupied housing unit in the region was recorded at 4 persons per occupied housing unit wherein Kalinga had the most persons per occupied housing at 5 persons per occupied housing unit and the least was recorded in Baguio city at about 4 persons per occupied housing unit.
The PSA-CAR added the single house type of housing units made up three fourths or 75.8 percent of the total occupied housing units in the region; 16 percent were multi-unit residential; 7.7 percent were duplex houses; and only 0.4 percent were other housing units which includes those in commercial, industrial, agricultural buildings, institutional living quarters and others.
In the region, there were 3 single occupied housing in every 4 occupied housing unit and the most common materials used for the roofs and walls were strong materials like concrete, brick, stone, and wood or a combination of the said materials used for outer walls while light materials refer to bamboo, sawali, cogon and nipa.
Of the 390,923 occupied housing units in the region, 183,328 or 46.9 percent units had outer walls made of concrete, stone or brick meaning for every 10 occupied housing units, there were about 5 occupied units with outer walls made of concrete, bricks or stones.
On the other hand, occupied housing units in the region with roofs of galvanized iron or aluminium were recorded at 352,666 or 90.1 percent of the total occupied units or for every 10 occupied units, 9 units had roofs which were made of galvanized iron or aluminium.
In 2015, 270,464 or 68.4 percent of the region’s 395,748 households owned or had owner-like possessions of the house and lot that they occupied, 14.6 percent of the households rented the house or room including the lot that they occupied; 9.2 percent occupied rent-free houses and lots with the consent of the owner and 6.5 percent owned house which were rent-free and with the consent of the owner.
By Dexter A. See
