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ublic Works and Public Housing Ministry still faces problems, ranging from land to regulatory issues, in its flagship one million houses program, hampering its housing development plans for low-income people.

The ministry'€™s director general of housing recorded 7.6 percent budget disbursement as of March 28 from Rp 7.6 trillion (US$569.7 million), with a mere 0.43 percent progress in physical construction. The disbursement was slower than the expected 11 percent disbursement as of March.

The ministry'€™s housing provision plan director, Deddy Permadi, said that most of the issues were sourced from the regional administration. '€œThe biggest hurdle is land, that'€™s the hardest,'€ he told the press on Monday.

Deddy said that with a limited land bank, the regional government had also not set a clear regulation to allocate land in the provincial spatial planning (RTRW) for low-income housing (MBR), resulting in the land being used for other purposes.

Contradicting regulations have contributed to the slow realization of the housing program. The Regional Administration Law stipulates that the central government is in charge of low-income housing, while Law No. 1/2011 says that the central and regional governments are to share the role in building housing.

'€œWe have suggested a revision of the law, or at least a detailed explanation of that particular regulation,'€ he said.

Deddy also urged the regional government to ease the issuance of permits such as location and building permits, as well as housing provision business permits for developers.

The government'€™s one million housing program, introduced last year, aims to reduce the country'€™s housing backlog and provide housing for low-income people. It sets a very low down payment for houses under the program, subsidizes purchases and eases administrative requirements.

The government aims to build this year 112,992 houses with Rp 7.6 trillion in funding from the state budget, comprising 11,642 apartments and 6,350 specialized houses, among others. Last year, the government built around 99,455 housing units from its Rp 7.7 trillion allocation.

The final figure for the one million houses program last year stood at around 699,000 houses, of the total one million planned to be built by 2019, of which almost 40 percent are expected from private developers, while the government is responsible for 60 percent.

The ministry plans to reduce the housing ownership backlog to 6.8 million houses in 2019, from 13.5 million houses in 2014, according to Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data. However, the limited budget continues to hamper the government'€™s effort to reach the goal.

'€œWe can'€™t dream too big considering current conditions and our capacity. But compared to the target, it'€™s really big,'€ he said.