Minister Pushes for Housing Microcredit to Counter Loan Sharks in Property Sector
The Minister of Housing and Settlement (PKP), Maruarar Sirait, has stated that the government must be present to provide affordable housing solutions and combat loan sharks in the property sector. This commitment is being realised through the expansion of access to the People’s Business Credit for Housing and a significant increase in the home renovation programme.
“The state must be present. We cannot lose to loan sharks. We are providing programmes that are easy, cheap, and fast,” said the minister, who is familiarly known as Ara, during an inspection of a home renovation programme in Tonja Village, Denpasar, Bali, on Monday.
He emphasised that the state’s programmes, such as the Housing People’s Business Credit, are designed to be easy, cheap, and fast to prevent citizens from resorting to loan sharks. “The advantage of loan sharks so far has been their fast and easy process, but the interest rates are suffocating. We must beat them with our own state programmes,” he added.
Ara stressed that there are no fees or levies for recipients of the home renovation assistance programme. He noted that the nominal assistance per unit is IDR 20 million, with IDR 17.5 million allocated for building materials and IDR 2.5 million for labour costs.
This year, Bali received 4,184 units of home renovation assistance from the Ministry of Housing and Settlement, a significant jump from only 31 units in 2025. The distribution across the island’s regencies and city includes 259 units in Denpasar, 281 in Tabanan, 301 in Bangli, 281 in Badung, 250 in Gianyar, 312 in Jembrana, 950 in Buleleng, 710 in Klungkung, and 840 in Karangasem.
During his visit, Ara inspected the home of Ni Wayan Pageh, a 51-year-old waste picker and one of the beneficiaries in Tonja Village. He expressed admiration for her resilience as a single mother of three. “Her income is only IDR 500,000 per month, and she has three children. She works as a waste picker. She is truly extraordinary,” he said.
Ara instructed technical assistants to accelerate the renovation of Pageh’s house and requested the Bali Provincial Government, represented by Regional Secretary Dewa Made Indra, to monitor the programme initiated by President Prabowo Subianto. “It is President Prabowo who is helping, I am merely his assistant. Keep your spirits up, ma’am,” he told Pageh.
Meanwhile, Pageh expressed her joy at being a recipient of the programme. As the family’s breadwinner, she was grateful that her dilapidated roof was being repaired, with the work targeted for completion by 31 August. “I have wanted this home renovation for a long time, since my children were small. I am grateful it is finally happening, even if it is just the roof,” she said.
With an uncertain income as a waste picker, Pageh and her three children had endured years of living with a fragile roof. “Every time it rained heavily, we had to get ready to place buckets everywhere. The supporting beams were no longer strong and were almost collapsing,” she added.