Three Million Homes Program Lacks Implementation System
President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship Three Million Homes Program is stalling nearly two years into his administration, with no formal institutional framework yet established to accelerate its delivery, according to Deputy Housing and Settlements Minister Fahri Hamzah. In an interview with Tempo journalists last month, Hamzah acknowledged that bureaucratic hurdles within the ministry—including the delayed formation of the Public Housing Development Acceleration Agency—have impeded progress on the government’s pledge to construct three million new homes by the end of the term.
The agency, first proposed earlier this year under Hamzah’s leadership, remains unimplemented as of late April, despite the president’s direct scrutiny of the program’s slow rollout. “He has been exceptionally sharp in assessing the performance of institutions handling housing because this is one of the priority programs,” Hamzah said, referencing President Prabowo’s repeated inquiries into the program’s delays. The ministry’s internal challenges, he added, have been compounded by coordination gaps between regional and central authorities, leaving thousands of planned housing projects in limbo.
While the government has not disclosed a revised timeline for the agency’s establishment, officials have signaled that its creation is a prerequisite for scaling up construction. The program, announced during Prabowo’s 2024 campaign, aims to address Indonesia’s chronic housing deficit, which officials estimate affects over 10 million households. Yet with less than half the target homes delivered in the first 18 months, critics and analysts have questioned whether the administration’s housing targets can be met without structural reforms.
The delays come as Indonesia’s urbanization accelerates, with demand for affordable housing outpacing supply in major cities like Jakarta, Surabaya, and Bandung. A recent report by the National Development Planning Agency highlighted that only 1.2 million of the three million planned homes had been allocated or commenced by March 2026, a figure Hamzah confirmed in the interview. The ministry has attributed the shortfall to land acquisition disputes, financing bottlenecks, and delays in securing permits for large-scale developments.
President Prabowo’s office has not publicly commented on the program’s status since March, when Hashim Jusuf, a senior aide, briefed the president on the ministry’s challenges. At the time, Hashim told reporters that bureaucratic inefficiencies—including overlapping approval processes—were the primary obstacles. The absence of a dedicated enforcement body, Hamzah noted, has left local governments to navigate complex regulations without centralized support, further slowing progress.
As of May 2026, no alternative mechanisms have been proposed to replace the stalled agency, leaving the program’s future contingent on internal ministry reforms. The next critical juncture will be the agency’s formal establishment, though no official date has been set. In the interim, regional housing officials have expressed frustration over the lack of clear directives, with some districts pausing new projects pending central guidance.