81 million Indonesian millennials without housing: government

In Indonesia, around 81 million millennials still do not own their own homes, according to government data. In addition to the lack of ownership among the youth, Indonesia's archipelagic nature, where water makes up 75 percent of its territory, leads to limited space for housing. Major cities are facing overcrowding as more Indonesians prefer urban environments. Not to mention the serious traffic congestion issues that many Indonesians face every day.

"About 58 percent of Indonesians are under 40 years old. We have 81 million millennials of various statuses who still do not own their homes," said State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir at the opening ceremony of the Samesta Mahata Margonda apartments in Depok on Thursday.

“And 56.7 percent of the population lives in urban areas, while the rural population makes up 43.3 percent. Urban areas are becoming increasingly populated. This makes transportation and housing planning even more challenging,” Eric added.

Today, the government aims to hit two birds with one stone - to provide young people with their own housing and to reduce transportation issues. They are working on creating affordable housing based on the concept of transit-oriented development (TOD), which means having public transport within walking distance. Seven residential projects based on the TOD concept in Jakarta, Karawang, and other cities have already been completed, offering a total of 8,348 apartments. According to Eric, 65 percent of them have already been sold, with 41 percent of the buyers being millennials. Samesta Mahata Margonda is the latest project under this program. These 940 apartments are conveniently located near the train station and the University of Indonesia (UI). Eric reported that 78 percent of the apartments have already been sold.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, speaking at the opening ceremony of Samesta Mahata Margonda, stated that young people can easily afford to live in millennial housing.

The Ministry of Housing has preliminarily reported that it conducted a survey among Indonesian millennials to find out the reasons why they do not own their homes. As a result of the 2019 survey, 28.63 percent of millennial respondents said they had not found a suitable house. About 24.92 percent of millennials felt they still did not have enough money to buy a home, while 17.27 percent believed they could not afford the down payment. According to the survey, 10.49 percent of millennials cannot afford a mortgage. 10.44 percent are still paying off other monthly payments. About 5.46 percent feel that they still do not need to own a home. The remaining 2.79 percent of respondents have never considered buying a home. The survey was completed by 3,007 respondents.