Sri Mulyani Dissected Property Business Problems, Turns Out There Was A Problem In Supply And Demand

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Ministry of PUPR)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani conveyed her views related to issues in the housing or property business sector that occurred in Indonesia. According to him, the complexity of the problem arises in a balanced way on both sides of this industry.

“The housing problem in Indonesia is on both the supply side and the demand side. Markets only exist when supply and demand meet. We can meet at a certain equilibrium level, but it doesn't reflect the needs of an economy," he said when he was a keynote speaker at the 2022 Securitization Summit forum on Wednesday, July 6.

The Minister of Finance explained that the problem on the demand side exists because most people do not have sufficient income to offset the price tag of property.

"They actually have the ability but the house price is high so they can't," he said.

Meanwhile, from the supply aspect, the state treasurer explained that the problem that is often faced is the increase in land prices and also material supporting development which continues to soar.

"This creates a gap. Therefore, the government has a housing subsidy scheme to bridge the gap between purchasing power and high property prices. Some of these subsidy schemes are FLPP or Housing Financing Liquidity Facility. Then, there is also the Interest Difference Subsidy (SSB), as well as savings-based financing assistance," he said.

Citing the report on the realization of the first semester of 2022 APBN that was launched by the Ministry of Finance, it is known that the value of housing subsidies that have been given by the government is Rp. 400 billion. This figure is equivalent to 7.1 percent of the ceiling in Presidential Decree No. 98 of 2022.

Meanwhile, the housing loan interest subsidy until last June was used for interest payments for the previous year's housing loan agreement, and the housing down payment assistance subsidy was used for 63,200 housing units which are credit contracts for the 2022 period.