JakartaPost-Oct 31, 2024
President Prabowo Subianto wants to build 1 million apartments per year to address the country’s urban housing backlog, but experts warn the plan may come up short if those properties are out of reach for the middle class. Jakarta Property Institute (JPI) executive director Wendy Haryanto said adding 1 million apartments a year, from land procurement to construction and occupancy, was feasible, but the real challenge was to ensure these properties were affordable for Indonesians in search of a home. “The difficult part is making sure these units are priced to meet market demand, particularly among young middle-class buyers,” she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. The growing supply of high-rise apartments, especially in Jakarta, remained largely unaffordable, Wendy pointed out, hampering uptake even as demand for urban housing soars. The housing backlog amounted to 9.9 million units in 2023, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data, with an annual increase of about 700,000-800,000 units. Meanwhile, Jakarta’s cumulative apartment supply reached 386,000 units, with an occupancy rate of 64.7 percent, largely driven by secondary-market stock, according to a third-quarter report from property consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield Indonesia. Apartment absorption rates had stagnated since the pandemic but showed improvement in the third quarter, reaching the highest level in three years, according to the analysis. This uptick occurred despite a slower take-up rate for projects still under construction. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/business/2024/10/31/1-million-apartments-wont-solve-urban-housing-crisis.html.
