Jakarta. A whopping 81 million Indonesian millennials still do not have their own house, according to government statistics.

Aside from the lack of homeownership among the youths, Indonesia’s archipelagic nature, with water accounting for 75 percent of its territory, leads to limited space for housing. Major cities are facing overcrowding as more Indonesians favor urban settings. Not to mention the severe traffic congestion that many Indonesians struggle with everyday.

“About 58 percent of Indonesians are younger than 40 years old. We have 81 million millennials of different statuses that still do not own a house,” State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) Minister Erick Thohir said at the Samesta Mahata Margonda apartment launch in Depok on Thursday.

“And 56.7 percent of our population live in urban cities, while the rural population stood at 43.3 percent. Urban areas are becoming more populated. This makes its transportation and housing planning even more challenging,” Erick said.

Today, the government is aiming to kill two birds —youth home ownership and reduced traffic congestion— with one stone.

They are working on adding more affordable housing that adopts a transit-oriented development (TOD) approach, meaning there is public transport within a walking distance. Seven TOD-based housing projects in Jakarta and Karawang, among others, are now complete with 8,348 units in total. They have sold out over 65 percent of the available units, and 41 percent of the buyers are millennials, according to Erick.

The Samesta Mahata Margonda apartment becomes the latest installment to the program. This 940-unit apartment is at a close proximity to the train station and University of Indonesia (UI). Erick revealed that the apartment had sold out 78 percent of its units.

Speaking at the Samesta Mahata Margonda launch, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said the youth could easily afford living at the millennial housing. 

“It only costs Rp 200 million [$13,539] with the housing financing liquidity facility [FLPP]. The prices range from Rp 300 million to Rp 500 million without the subsidies. The installments are affordable so they are perfect for young people,” Jokowi said.

Jokowi wants this millennial and TOD-based housing to be replicated to other cities, particularly those that deal with traffic congestion. This millennial housing development could also make use of the idle lands belonging to state train operator KAI.

News outlet Kompas previously reported that the Housing Ministry had surveyed Indonesian millennials to find out why they did not have a house.

The 2019 survey found 28.63 percent of the millennial respondents said they had not found the right house.

About 24.92 percent of millennials believed they still did not have enough money to buy a house, while 17.27 percent others felt they were unable to pay the down payment. 

According to the survey, 10.49 percent of the millennials could not afford the housing loan. Some 10.44 percent still had other installments to pay off.

Around 5.46 percent thought they still did not need to own a house. For the remaining 2.79 percent respondents, the thought of owning a house never crossed their minds. 

The survey had 3,007 respondents.

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