Jakarta, (Antara) - The Home Affairs Ministry and Public Works and Public Housing Ministry are simplifying the licensing process for housing construction to accelerate the implementation of the One Million Housing Construction Program annually.
Home Affairs Ministry's Regulation No. 55 of 2017 was issued on July 20, 2017, to instruct regional governments to facilitate licensing and non-licensing processes needed by developers of housing projects for people from the low-income group, Diah Indrajati, acting director general of regional development of the Home Affairs Ministry, noted here, Thursday.
The implementation of the One Million Housing Construction Program has been hindered due to various factors, such as complicated licensing procedures, land acquisition, cost scheme, and budget allocation.
As a follow up of the Government's Economic Policy Package XIII, the Home Affairs Ministry issued Government Regulation No. 64 of 2016 on Construction of Houses for People from the Low-Income Group.
In 2015, the housing shortage had reached 13.5 million units. Some 800 thousand new houses need to be built per year to reach the level of housing required.
"As the national population growth rate is recorded at 1.49 percent annually, the national housing backlog will increase from time to time," she pointed out.
Syarif Burhanuddin, the director general for housing provision of the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry, said the housing backlog had decreased to 11 million houses last year.
"The demand for houses reached 800 thousand annually, while only 400 thousand houses are constructed per year," he said.
In September 2017, a total of 623,344 houses have been built under the One Million Housing Construction Program, he noted.
The government has built 805,169 houses in 2016 as compared to 699,770 houses in the previous year.
Last year, the government had managed to build 569,382 houses for families belonging to the low-income group and 235,787 for other members of society.(*)
