JAKARTA (ANN/THE JAKARTA POST) – The government has expanded its subsidised housing criteria to accommodate individuals in a higher income bracket, in a bid to ensure more people have access to owning affordable homes.
The Public Housing and Settlements Ministry has introduced a new regulation that grants eligibility for subsidised housing in Greater Jakarta to unmarried individuals who earn an income of up to IDR12 million (USD708) each month.
The new rule, slated to be issued on April 21, also provides a similar arrangement to married individuals with a monthly income of up to IDR13 million.
The original criteria set an income cap of no more than IDR8 million per month.
“This applies to all groups, but specifically in Greater Jakarta, in line with a suggestion from BPS [Statistics Indonesia],” housing minister Maruarar “Ara” Sirait said on Tuesday, as quoted by Kompas.com.
He emphasised that easing the income cap was aimed at expanding housing access to more people.
BPS head Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti explained that the new threshold for maximum income was formulated to better represent the real condition of income groups per region.
Also on Tuesday, Ara and Communications and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid launched a special programme targeting the provision of 30,000 subsidised homes for journalists.
The housing minister underlined that the government had also increased this year’s quota under the housing finance liquidity facility (FLPP), which he said could significantly boost revenue for banks that offered mortgage loans.
Heru Pudyo Nugroho, commissioner of the Public Housing Savings Management Board (BP Tapera), said the FLPP programme was only available to low-income earners purchasing their first house, though he acknowledged a need for adjustment to ensure that people in big cities could access affordable homes.
“Many [low-income earners], especially in big cities have incomes above IDR8 million, but they can’t access affordable housing. Why? Because land prices are high,” Heru said on Tuesday, as quoted by detikFinance.
During the first day of Idul Fitri on March 31, Ara announced the government’s plan to build 70,000 subsidised homes this year for workers in sectors such as health, education and fisheries.
The project, which is part of President Prabowo Subianto’s ambitious “3 million homes” programme, comprises 30,000 units for health workers, 20,000 for teachers and 20,000 for fishers.
According to Ara, the initiative has received “major funding support” from Bank Indonesia’s liquidity incentive policy for banks in the housing sector.
He also said BP Tapera and state-owned lender Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) would support the disbursement of subsidised mortgage loans (KPR), though the ministry was open to involving other banks as well.
