Pagebluk COVID-19, Can I Buy A Virtual Home?

PUPR Minister, Basuki Hadimuljono. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - In the midst of COVID-19, which requires everyone to maintain physical distancing in their activities, the use of information technology plays an important role. For this reason, this becomes a challenge for all parties to be adaptive in improving business processes, including the distribution of housing subsidies.

Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimuljono said President Joko Widodo had prepared a large digitalization program in the field of government services to welcome the new normal.

"New normal is basically activities by reducing physical contact (less contact society), all with digitization. We must start preparing the instruments such as virtual signing for housing contract transactions. For this reason, developers and banks, especially BTN, must be able to facilitate this," said Minister Basuki. in his written statement, which was quoted on Friday 5 June.

In addition to the virtual signing, Minister Basuki also hopes that all other transaction stages in the housing sector starting from application, house search, to credit agreement will also be in digital form.

"Currently, with the COVID-19 pandemic, meetings do not mean having to be physically present," said Minister Basuki.

Director of BTN Hirwandi Gafar stated that his party has prepared a virtual account for customers to be able to make transactions ranging from property search access to credit applications through btnproperti.co.id.

"For customer interviews, we have also done it in a virtual manner, but what is still an obstacle is when the credit agreement transaction is carried out, the notary still wants to meet face to face. Then we will submit it for virtual contracts only," he said.

SiKasep application

Responding to this need, the Ministry of PUPR itself through the Public Service Agency for Housing Financing Fund Management (BLU PPDPP), the Directorate General of Public Works and Housing Infrastructure Financing has launched the Housing Subsidized KPR Information System Application (SiKasep) in December 2019.

This mobile application can be downloaded for free via the Playstore. The system is structured to make it easier for the community, especially Low-Income Communities (MBR) to find and determine the subsidized housing they expect.

Minister Basuki said, with the SiKasep application, it is expected to meet the needs of the millennial generation who want speed and ease of information in choosing and buying the house they are interested in. SiKasep is also expected to make MBR no longer an object, but the subject of housing provision.

Through SiKasep, online users connect with the government, implementing banks, and developers using a host to host system. Meanwhile, for the user verification process, SiKasep is connected directly to the Ministry of Home Affairs which is also connected to FLPP data managed by the PPDPP BLU so that subsidies can be right on target.

For Implementing Banks, SiKasep makes it easy to identify prospective debtors, where the prospective debtors who submit have met the criteria for receiving subsidies with the housing unit they have chosen so that the KPR application process is more efficient.

Meanwhile, registered housing developers can contribute to the system by collecting complete housing data, both those that are already available, under construction, and future development plans.