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Housing task force side-eyes idea to shrink subsidized homes
Though a property association has hailed a draft proposal to downsize subsidized houses as a price stabilization move, the housing task force questions whether this is necessary to provide 3 million affordable homes each year under the President's ambitious program.
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Newly built houses stand in orderly rows in a residential complex on Aug. 4, 2021, in a relatively undeveloped area on the outskirts of Jakarta. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
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housing task force led by presidential adviser Hashim Djojohadikusumo has questioned a proposal to reduce the size of subsidized houses in the ambitious 3 million homes program of President Prabowo Subianto.
Bonny Z. Minang from the task force told the The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that Hashim, the President’s younger brother, had said he had “never heard of the [downsizing] plan or agreed to it”.
A leaked document revealed that the Public Housing and Settlements Ministry proposed reducing the minimum plot size for subsidized homes from 60 square meters currently to just 25 sq m and shrinking the minimum building footprint from 21 to 18 sq m.
Bonny added that the task force was under the President’s order to provide housing in line with the Indonesian National Standard (SNI) and the World Health Organization housing guidelines.
The debate over the draft proposal soon escalated, with some saying it undermined the standards for affordable housing while others argued that an adjustment was necessary to address increasing land prices and house building costs.
Deputy housing minister Fahri Hamzah rejected the proposal in a statement to the Post last week, emphasizing that the housing program must adhere to the standards as set out by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Read also: Govt’s plan to downsize subsidized housing faces internal, public opposition
