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ffordable housing is key to creating efficient and livable cities around the world, as it is strongly related to other factors such as mobility and sustainability.

Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono has pledged that the ministry will provide housing for residents that supports sustainable cities.

Basuki said on the sidelines of the third UN Preparatory Meeting (PrepCom3) themed “Housing and Sustainable Urban Development” in Surabaya, East Java on Tuesday that he had been inspired by the new urban housing agenda.

“Housing should be socially inclusive, economically efficient, environmentally protective and culturally adaptive. I will hold this principle. I even took note during the discussion,” he said.

Basuki elaborated that socially inclusive meant that all people, with no exception, deserved proper housing.

“Housing is a right,” he said.

He said the government had already implemented the 1-2-3 settlement policy, which was in line with the principle.

The policy stipulates that for each house a developer builds for the high-income bracket, it must build two houses for the middle-income bracket and three houses for the low-income bracket. The government, however, has been slow to provide housing to residents. Data said that 80 percent of houses in the country were built independently by their owners.

According to 2014 Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data , the ownership backlog in 2014 stood at 13.5 million houses.

Meanwhile, developers can only build around 300,000 to 400,000 houses annually, according to the Indonesian Real Estate Association (REI). The ministry is also struggling to tackle the backlog through its housing programs.

A study conducted by UN Habitat in cooperation with New York University and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in 200 cities with populations above 100,000 people shows that many households cannot afford to own or rent a house.

UN Habitat III secretary-general Joan Clos said that according to the standard set by the World Bank, affordable housing was if the ratio of the average house price was no more than three times the annual household income, while rent was less than 25 percent of the monthly household salary.

He said, however, that only 13 percent of the cities in the UN Global sample had a ratio of less than three, while only 31 percent of the cities were below the 25 percent threshold of affordability.

“Our median price is 4.9 times the annual salary,” he said, adding that the highest price of proper housing was more than 12 times the annual salary.”