Post-Disaster Permanent Housing Construction Cost Proposed to Rise to Rp80 Million per Unit

The government has proposed increasing the construction cost of permanent housing (huntap) for disaster victims from Rp60 million to Rp80 million per unit. The adjustment is deemed necessary to ensure the assistance amount better matches the requirements for building liveable homes while accelerating the rehabilitation and reconstruction process in disaster-affected areas. The proposal was delivered by the Chairman of the Task Force for Post-Disaster Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (PRR) for Sumatra, Muhammad Tito Karnavian, following a ministerial-level coordination meeting at the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Cultural Affairs (Kemenko PMK) office in Jakarta on Thursday (3/7). According to Tito, one of the main agendas of the meeting was discussing the acceleration of post-disaster recovery in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra, including the adjustment of huntap construction costs funded through the Ready-to-Use Fund (DSP) scheme of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB). He explained that the current huntap construction cost of Rp60 million per unit no longer reflects the needs for building liveable homes in various regions, particularly in disaster-affected areas. Therefore, the ministers attending the meeting agreed to propose an increase in the huntap construction assistance value, for both in-situ and ex-situ schemes managed by the BNPB. Tito stated that the proposal was compiled based on various inputs, including the experiences of several ministries and local governments in building aid housing. He noted that the Director General of Regional Administration Development at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Safrizal ZA, who previously served as Acting Governor of Aceh, reported that the cost of government aid housing in Aceh reached approximately Rp95 million per unit. Meanwhile, houses built by the Ministry of Housing and Settlement Areas (PKP) cost around Rp120 million per unit, while construction by the Buddha Tzu Chi Foundation was approximately Rp75 million per unit. “Taking into account these various experiences, we are proposing the huntap construction cost to be around Rp80 million per unit,” Tito said. According to him, the adjustment in assistance value is expected to improve building quality while accelerating the completion of permanent housing for communities affected by disasters. In addition to discussing the construction cost amount, the meeting also highlighted the huntap financing mechanism through the BNPB’s Ready-to-Use Fund (DSP). Tito explained that this scheme will be used for independent in-situ and ex-situ huntap construction, which is considered to have a higher level of complexity compared to centralised huntap area development. “The independent in-situ and ex-situ huntap, which are the responsibility of the BNPB, are more complex because they are individual. Therefore, we propose using the Ready-to-Use Fund mechanism because the BNPB has flexibility in its use,” he said. According to Tito, the use of the DSP mechanism is expected to accelerate the construction of permanent housing so that disaster-affected communities can immediately obtain safe, liveable, and permanent shelter as part of the recovery process. All outcomes of the discussions in the meeting, Tito continued, will be submitted to President Prabowo Subianto through the Ministry of State Secretariat as material for consideration in policy-making for the acceleration of post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction. The coordination meeting was chaired by Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs Pratikno and attended by Head of BNPB Suharyanto, Director General of Regional Administration Development at the Ministry of Home Affairs Safrizal ZA, as well as representatives from relevant ministries and agencies.