Jakarta. The Athletes’ Village, originally built to house international participants of the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, will be repurposed into residential units for civil servants and low-income families, an official announced on Tuesday.

The 10-tower facility previously served as a makeshift hospital and quarantine center for COVID-19 patients during the 2020-2022 pandemic.

“Three towers at the Athletes’ Village in Kemayoran are ready for immediate use as residential buildings,” said Housing and Resettlement Minister Maruarar Sirait after a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto at the State Palace in Jakarta.

“In the next phase, the remaining seven towers will be revitalized and converted into residential units, with the full launch scheduled for late April. This will bring the total number of new residential buildings to 10,” he added.

Construction of the Asian Games Village began in 2016 and was completed just in time for the games in February 2018.

The 10 towers collectively house nearly 22,000 residential units.

Maruarar is aiming to construct 3 million new homes, as mandated by the president, to reduce Indonesia’s housing backlog.

Affordable Housing Initiative
He said 104,000 new houses have been built with government subsidies, with some already delivered to low-income families at highly affordable prices.

The state budget covers 75% of construction costs for these subsidized housing projects, making homeownership more accessible to low-income families while ensuring profitability for developers.

In Greater Jakarta, subsidized houses are priced at around Rp 170 million ($10,386)—significantly lower than the standard market rates in the metropolitan area.

In a significant move, Bank Indonesia Governor Perry has agreed to substantially increase liquidity subsidies for commercial banks issuing housing loans, raising the fund allocation from Rp 23.2 trillion to Rp 80 trillion ($1.4 billion to $4.9 billion).

Maruarar said this funding boost would enable his ministry to double the number of subsidized houses beyond the current projection of 220,000 units.