Government to Provide Free Land Title Certificates, Here Are the Requirements
Jakarta - The government is preparing a free land certification programme for low-income communities (MBR). The programme, run through a collaboration between the Ministry of Housing and Settlement Areas (PKP) and the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN), targets the issuance of one million free Certificates of Ownership (SHM) this year.
Minister of Housing Maruarar Sirait said the programme is one of the government’s breakthroughs to help low-income communities obtain legal certainty over home and land ownership. “We have also reported the most extraordinary breakthrough, our collaboration, which is free certification for MBR, low-income communities,” Maruarar said at the ATR/BPN Ministry office, quoted on Sunday (16/8/2026).
Meanwhile, Minister of ATR/BPN Nusron Wahid said the programme is part of the Housing Sector Certification for Low-Income Communities (MBR). Overall, the government has prepared a quota of up to eight million certificate recipients by 2028, with a target of one million certificates issued in 2026.
He said that some houses are still not registered with certificates of ownership (SHM). As an illustration, many recipients of housing programmes such as the Self-Help Housing Stimulant Assistance (BSPS) have homes that have not yet been certified. “The number from 2015 to 2024, over 10 years, who have received (BSPS) is around 1.4 million. Of those 1.4 million houses, after we verified, the data that has not been certified is 1.1 million houses,” Nusron explained.
Nusron continued that there are three groups of people who can obtain free land certification. The first group is recipients of government housing assistance, for example through the BSPS programme or house renovation. In addition to BSPS recipients from the Ministry of Housing, the government will also include recipients of house renovation programmes from the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Health. However, data on recipients of house renovation assistance from these two ministries has not yet been found. “But that will later become the target object of the free housing sector certification programme for low-income communities,” he added.
The second group that will benefit from the free certification programme is people participating in the Housing Financing Liquidity Facility (FLPP) programme. Here, the government will waive the process of upgrading certificate status from Building Use Rights (HGB) to SHM. Nusron said the cost of splitting the developer’s master HGB into individual HGBs in the name of each buyer is still subject to Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP). “But what we are waiving is the upgrade from the split HGB to SHM. That is what we are making free,” he said.
The third group that will receive the free certification programme is people who build houses independently but fall into the MBR category. The determination of MBR status will refer to Minister of Housing Regulation No. 5 of 2025. Under this regulation, formal workers can prove they fall into the MBR category by attaching a salary slip. Meanwhile, for people who do not have a salary slip or informal workers, they can also join the free certificate programme as long as their name is recorded in the National Single Social and Economic Data (DTSEN) at a maximum of the eighth decile. “So if they are at most in the eighth decile, they can enjoy this programme. Why the eighth decile? Because based on the explanation from BPS, the income determination reference from Minister of Housing Regulation No. 5 is also equivalent to the eighth decile in that location,” Nusron concluded.