CHANGES in household structure, including an increase in extended and multigenerational households, are reshaping housing demand in the country, according to a government think tank.
The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) noted a deceleration in new household formation as young adults aged 24 to 34 increasingly stay with their parents, delay marriage, or choose not to marry at all.
Data from the Philippines Statistics Authority ( PSA) showed that in 1980, 73 percent of Filipinos were household heads or spouses by age 34, increasing to 90 percent by age 44. However, by 2020, these figures had dropped to 59 percent and 80 percent, respectively.
This trend, coupled with declining fertility rates (from 6.0 in 1970 to 1.9 in 2020) and longer life expectancy, has led to smaller nuclear families but larger household sizes overall.
Additionally, a considerable portion of the population lives in households with six or more members, particularly in urban areas where housing affordability remains a major challenge.
An analysis of household structures in the country showed that nuclear households, while still the most common arrangement, have decreased from 71 percent in 1990 to 61 percent in 2020. Meanwhile, extended and multiple-family households rose from 25 percent to 29 percent during the same period.
“Economic conditions such as rising cost of living and housing prices, economic recession, etc., are causing a rise in shared housing, extended and multigenerational households,” PIDS said.
These trends, seen in developed economies like the United States, where shared households hit 20 percent in 2019, are still more pronounced in the Philippines due to widespread poverty and a large lowincome population.
The mismatch between housing prices and affordability, which has remained unresolved for decades, is also a factor.
“Children, relatives staying longer in parental homes can lead to congestion as larger sized homes are even more difficult to attain in the market,” the report read.
Differences
DESPITE urban migration, a significant proportion of rural residents live in larger households which reflect constrained housing options even outside city centers.
The working population in cities grew from 60 percent in 1990 to 66 percent in 2020, and urbanization rose from 48.8 percent to 54 percent during the same period, according to PSA.
PIDS urged the government to move beyond simplistic population growth-based housing projections and called for a deeper understanding of demographic and socioeconomic trends.
“Understanding whether the housing need is quantitative or qualitative using historical context of household formation and structure is critical as qualitative deficit requires a different intervention from that of adding new housing stock,” it said.
“It is important to have a policy framework that will balance productive environment and housing consumption. For instance, giving incentives to SME employers for workers housing support,” it added.
PIDS also mentioned the importance of addressing the housing needs of an aging population, noting that “housing need is beyond the owner [or] renter dichotomy.”
