Determinants of vacant subsidized house in Greater Metropolitan Jakarta Area, Indonesia

This paper explores the determinants of vacant subsidised housing in Jakarta. In a long race with the ever-growing housing backlog in Indonesia, in 2010, the government in partnership with private developers and banks, launched a subsidised housing provision programme. Affordable fixed-price houses with very low interest rates and down-payments were made available to individuals with low incomes. However, between 2010 and 2016, approximately one-fifth of the total purchased subsidised houses remained vacant. A snowball sampling method was used to recruit respondents in the Greater Metropolitan Jakarta Area, with whom semi-structured interviews were then conducted. The focus of this paper is the determinants that make low-income families reluctant to move into subsidised housing. The research has identified socio-cultural context and mistargeted beneficiaries as determinants, complementing existing literature on vacant housing and housing provision policy.