Backlog falls to 9.6 million, has the Three Million Homes Programme succeeded?

The number of housing backlog, or housing shortages, in Indonesia fell to 9.6 million in 2025 from 9.9 million in 2024. This decline has raised questions about whether government housing construction programmes, including the Three Million Homes Programme, have shown success.

According to Martin Daniel Siyaranamual, Head of the Economic Research Division at PT Sarana Multigriya Finansial (Persero) (PT SMF), the backlog reduction did occur, but the success of government housing programmes cannot yet be concluded comprehensively.

‘The backlog is now at 9.6 million. Last year it was 9.9 million. Does this indicate that the government housing programmes are operating, successful? Yes and no, because the success of the housing programmes currently in Indonesia has not yet been examined in detail,’ he said at a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday, 4 March 2026.

Nevertheless, Martin argues that the decline cannot be separated from the contribution of government programmes in the housing sector.

In addition to the backlog of home ownership, SMF also recorded a reduction in the backlog of housing suitability.

The number of households living in inadequate housing fell from 25 million to 23.4 million households.

Martin emphasised that the backlog of ownership and the backlog of housing suitability are two different indicators and cannot be added directly.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, you cannot simply add 9.6 million and 23.4 million. That is not allowed because there is a sorting or slicing process within it,’ he explained.

According to him, the data originates from the National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas), which is then processed by the SMF Research Institute.

Through this processing, SMF can map housing conditions by household economic status.

The classifications include the poor, the vulnerable, the aspiring middle class, the middle class, and higher-income groups.

Martin explained that, as a business entity, SMF focuses more on the aspiring middle class to the middle class in developing housing financing programmes.

‘SMF cannot possibly operate in the poor and vulnerable segments. After all, we are a business entity. Therefore, the segments we can reach start from the aspiring middle class and upwards,’ he said.