Text of the provision
Art. 157. The actual value of the family home shall not exceed, at the time of its constitution, the amount of the three hundred thousand pesos in urban areas, and two hundred thousand pesos in rural areas, or such amounts as may hereafter be fixed by law. In any event, if the value of the currency changes after the adoption of this Code, the value most favorable for the constitution of a family home shall be the basis of evaluation.
For purposes of this Article, urban areas are deemed to include chartered cities and municipalities whose annual income at least equals that legally required for chartered cities. All others are deemed to be rural areas.
(231a)
Family Code of the Philippines, Executive Order No. 209, approved July 6, 1987. The Code took effect on August 3, 1988 (Republic v. Orbecido III, G.R. No. 154380, October 5, 2005). Reproduced in full.
What this article means
The exemption protects a home only up to a value ceiling, fixed at the time the home is constituted: ₱300,000 in urban areas and ₱200,000 in rural areas, or such other amounts as a later law may set. The article distinguishes urban areas (chartered cities and municipalities with income equal to that required of chartered cities) from rural areas (everywhere else).
These 1988 figures have never been raised by a subsequent law, so they remain the statutory text. In practice this limit rarely defeats the exemption on its own; its real work is triggering the special execution procedure in Article 160, which lets a creditor reach only the excess in value above the ceiling.
Related provisions
- Article 160 — how a creditor reaches value above this ceiling.
- Article 153 — the exemption "to the extent of the value allowed by law."
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on Article 157 will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.