Bappenas: Vertical Housing Development Supports Mass Transportation

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Minister of National Development Planning/Head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Rachmat Pambudy stated that vertical housing development can support the mass transportation system.

“Spatial planning that supports sustainable urban development is important. The experience of various countries shows that vertical housing development can maintain land availability while supporting the mass transportation system,” he said in an official Bappenas statement in Jakarta, Friday.

According to him, housing will determine urban transport patterns. He noted that the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system will not develop without areas of adequate density, while urban area development also requires good transportation.

Therefore, the housing development approach must be integrated with spatial planning and transportation.

“If we do not start now, we will never start,” Rachmat Pambudy stated during a meeting with Deputy Minister of Housing and Settlement Areas (PKP) Fahri Hamzah.

He also conveyed that the housing sector plays a strategic role in the economic cycle and needs to be placed as a national development priority.

“Housing worldwide has always been an economic indicator. When the economy grows, the housing sector is the first to move. Conversely, when the economy weakens, this sector is the first to be affected. Therefore, I hope that after various national priority programmes are underway, housing development can also become a lever that pulls growth in other sectors,” said the Head of Bappenas.

Responding to this, Deputy Minister of PKP Fahri Hamzah revealed that his ministry has formulated a national housing policy based on historical, academic studies and the experiences of various countries. He said housing development is the foundation of transformation from a developing country to a developed one.

“For housing to be truly affordable, the state must hold three main instruments: land, spatial planning, and long-term financing. If these three can be managed in an integrated manner, slum areas can be organised without evictions, urban development becomes more directed, and the public obtains decent housing,” he said.