Government Accelerates Home Renovation Programme to Reduce Uninhabitable Housing

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The government is intensifying efforts to reduce the number of uninhabitable homes (RTLH) by accelerating the self-help housing stimulus assistance programme (BSPS), or home renovation scheme, targeting 400,000 units by 2026.

Minister of Housing and Settlement Areas (PKP) Maruarar Sirait stated in Jakarta on Friday that the government is significantly scaling up the home improvement programme. He cited the example of Jakarta, where the number of homes renovated surged from 158 units last year to 10,000 units this year.

According to him, accelerating the programme requires support from various parties, including local governments and relevant agencies, to ensure it can be optimally expedited. Maruarar, known as Ara, also expressed appreciation for the Ministry of Home Affairs’ support in issuing several policies that benefit the public.

Furthermore, he said the government relies on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) to ensure assistance is provided to groups that truly need it, particularly communities in the 1st to 4th deciles.

Maruarar further emphasised that the home renovation programme must be carried out transparently because it uses public funds. To that end, material requirements and budgets are disclosed to the public, and multiple building material suppliers are involved to foster healthy price competition.

“I think this is how it should be; the people’s money must be truly transparent, no beating around the bush. Just open it up, what the budget is, what the needs are, what the prices are, then the cheapest can win,” he said.

Looking ahead, the government hopes the number of uninhabitable homes can be reduced significantly. “Hopefully, by 2026 it can drop significantly. Earlier, the 2025 figure was 18.8 million (uninhabitable housing units),” he stated. He has also proposed increasing the BSPS target to 2 million units by 2027. “This means the programme is in high demand and highly anticipated,” he said.

Meanwhile, Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian assessed that the home renovation programme is showing significant progress. He also encouraged local governments to actively support its implementation, including through the exemption of Land and Building Title Transfer Fees (BPHTB) and Building Approval Levies (PBG).

Separately, Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti revealed that, based on the agency’s records, there are approximately 824,000 uninhabitable homes in Jakarta.