ITB Expert Exposes Systemic Failures in the 3 Million Houses Programme
JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The 3 Million Houses programme, launched by President Prabowo Subianto through the Ministry of Housing and Settlement Areas (PKP), is assessed as still operating without a clear system.
Housing observer and member of the Housing Expertise Group at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Mohammad Jehansyah Siregar, believes that housing construction to date has merely pursued project quantities without considering the quality of an integrated urban system, let alone the social life of the community.
“Laissez-faire or laissez-faire in housing and urban areas has proven to result in urban social and economic segregation,” said Jehansyah to Kompas.com, quoted on Sunday (26/04/2026).
This is because the dominance of the property business is too strong, resulting in enclave urbanism in the form of pockets of poverty on one side and fortresses of rich settlements on the other.
In line with this condition, city and regional infrastructure is still built partially. Public transport networks and residential needs centres are not synchronised because they follow property business interests.
Jehansyah emphasised that the government needs to immediately conduct a fundamental evaluation of the direction of national housing policy.
To date, the absence of public housing and self-help housing programmes has made the market mechanism the sole determinant of development direction.
According to him, this condition must be changed by introducing the government’s role as an orchestrator capable of designing an integrated people’s housing system.
He also encouraged the government to control state lands in activity centres for affordable housing integrated into the structure of 10 metropolitan cities.
In the context of land control, Jehansyah also highlighted the proliferation of land mafia practices, which he assessed as increasingly developing due to the weak role of the state in managing land.
He stated that state lands to date have not been optimally utilised as an instrument to improve community welfare. On the contrary, the government tends to wait for private investment.
“Land mafia proliferates because the government in various sectors does not make state lands an instrument to advance the people’s welfare,” he said.
He emphasised that if the government wants to regain control of state land for the people’s interests, including for housing development such as affordable rental apartments in city centres, a serious and planned programme is needed.
According to him, the regulatory basis is actually already available, including constitutional mandates. However, field implementation requires institutional strengthening and thorough socialisation so that policies can run effectively.