Govt issues 13th package on housing for the poors

Ayomi Amindoni & Arif Gunawan Sulistiyono

The government has released the awaited 13th economic policy package on Wednesday, set to provide mass-scale affordable housing for the low-income people with simplified procedures.

Coordinating economic Minister Darmin Nasution said only 78.7 percent of families in Indonesia owned house, including 31 million families who have more than one houses. Ironically, 11.8 million families were yet to have a house and forced to be lessee for life.

“Meanwhile, the developers are reluctant to develop affordable houses for them, therefore the government must make a breakthrough to provide housings for the low income people in a 5 hectares residential complex each,” he said in the press conference in Jakarta.

Currently, developers must pass through 33 permits before working on the project and takes 769 to 981 days to complete, leading to high cost. “Thus, we will simplify them to lower the cost […] and improving business climate in affordable houses [development],” Darmin said.

The government is drafting regulation government (PP) and soon to be conveyed to the President for signature. The new measure will revoke unnecessary permits and issue recommendation to build housings for low level income people

“We will deregulate the 33 permits, cut them into 11 permits. The 981 days processing time will be reduced into 44 days,” Darmin said. (ags)