JAKARTA: Plans are being laid out for the development of approximately one million new urban housing units this year, primarily in the form of vertical housing, as part of President Prabowo Subianto’s three million houses programme.
But experts are unconvinced that simply erecting more residential towers will solve Indonesia’s urban housing woes.
Much of the attention on the three million houses programme has focused on Public Housing and Settlements Minister Maruarar "Ara" Sirait's efforts to finance the project, especially after government-wide budget cuts left the ministry unable to fund more than 10 per cent of the annual construction target from its own coffers.
To secure funding, the ministry has sought support from national and foreign investors as well as local banks and businesses. It also aims to cut costs by using confiscated land and renovating idle state-owned buildings.
After meeting with Ara, State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir announced that 792 hectares of land in Greater Jakarta would be allocated for the project, which will provide 123,000 transit-oriented housing units.
Similar developments are planned for Surabaya in East Java and Bandung in West Java, respectively the second- and third-largest cities in the country.
The Athletes Village apartment complexes in Central Jakarta, as well as various government-built vertical housing projects in and around the capital, are also expected to be refurbished to meet the annual quota.
The government is planning to allocate the housing units to households in the bottom fifth of the income bracket, with data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS) used to identify the exact recipients. It remains unclear whether the recipients will receive the housing units for free or through a subsidised mortgage scheme.
Will the programme work?
Experts have urged the government to proceed with caution, however, warning policymakers of the scale of planning and coordination necessary not only in building one million urban housing units per year but also ensuring that they are all liveable.
“Erecting the structure is one thing. But ensuring that the facilities and supporting infrastructure will also be there in the long run is another thing entirely.
The government should remember it’s not just houses they’re building, but homes,” Yayat Supriyatna, an urban planner from Trisakti University in Jakarta, said on Wednesday.
Yayat warned that poor planning could cause Prabowo’s urban housing project to face the same issues as previous low-cost vertical housing projects, many of which, particularly in Jakarta, remain underoccupied.
In the case of subsidiSed housing, this happens because occupants often end up unable to pay the mortgage over the long term, while in the case of free housing, many buildings are too far from where residents work.
What are the real urban housing needs?
While major cities across the globe, particularly those in developed countries, are struggling with homelessness, Wendy Haryanto, executive director at the Jakarta Property Institute, said Indonesia's urban housing issue stemmed primarily from the abundance of people living in slums.
She said the Prabowo administration’s urban housing project could opt to convert slums in the middle of the city. But to avoid the mistakes of previous vertical housing projects, the new buildings should have dedicated areas for commerce.
“When it comes to urban housing, the most important thing is [residents’ ability] to make a living,” Wendy said.
“It will be a long process, but if [the government] can map out exactly their sources of income, [there will be less resistance] when households are integrated gradually [into new housing units].”
What would a real solution look like?
Elisa Sutanudjaja, executive director at Jakarta-based think-tank the Rujak Center for Urban Studies, also said the key to solving urban housing issues in major cities across the country would be to turn slums into more liveable places.
But rather than building more high-rise vertical housing, low-rise multifamily housing units would better fit Indonesians’ preference for landed houses that can accommodate multiple generations.
To prove the concept, Elisa turned a dilapidated house on a 280-metre-square plot in Central Jakarta’s Menteng area into a four-level mixed-use flat that now accommodates seven households, a bookshop and an office.
Elisa said using a cooperative model made the financial burden of building a home cheaper. But she also encountered some bureaucratic issues since the Jakarta administration previously did not recognise multi-family houses in its building code.
“If the government wants to support this movement, they can play a big role by helping with the permits and helping to make bank loans [more accessible]. This is very achievable, since the government is already doing that with apartments,” Elisa added. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
