The provision of affordable housing for urban communities remains an international concern. The commemoration of World Habitat Day with the theme Housing For All: A better Urban Future falls on October 5, 2020. In Indonesia, the government plans to "provide 100,000 units of decent housing" for public housing in the 2020-2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN).
However, it turns out that the housing backlog in Jakarta reaches 1.2 million units and the national backlog is around 7.64 million units. To overcome this, the central government plans to provide 100,000 decent housing units. But decent and affordable housing in urban areas is difficult to provide in the form of landed houses. Due to the high price of land, such housing must be built vertically in the form of flats or apartments.
Vertical residential development requires a large amount of land. But the reality is that land in Jakarta is relatively small. Most land in Jakarta only has an area of 200-500 m². Meanwhile, flats require an area of 3,000 m² - 15,000 m².
With the limited land available, small parcels of land must first be consolidated to make them larger. Only then can flats be built. This is a surefire move to facilitate the provision of decent and affordable housing to the community. Consolidating land to be built vertically afterward will provide a large supply of housing to accommodate the demand of the people of Jakarta and other big cities.
Vertical land consolidation also gives Jakarta the opportunity to become a mixed-use city. A mixed-use city is a city that has mixed activities in one area or building. By building vertical housing, one building will create residential, office and trade activities. Unfortunately, land use in Jakarta tends to be dominated by single use.
Currently, vertical land consolidation is still not popular with the people of Jakarta. People tend to reject vertical land consolidation schemes. This is because the current practice is not ideal and tends to be controversial.
When done by local governments, land consolidation tends to take the form of evictions with or without compensation. Meanwhile, when done by private developers, land consolidation tends to be done by buying out the previous owners. As a result, people get money but lose their place to live in the city. Land consolidation by developers also takes a long time because of price negotiations with residents one by one.
In fact, there are many benefits for the community if they want to consolidate their land and build vertical structures on it. One of them is that people will get an increase in property value. This happens because the development will result in more floor space and higher environmental quality. Automatically, the landowner will benefit from the additional number of floors.
In order for the desire for land consolidation to emerge from the community, local governments need to do at least three things. First, pro-actively involve the community. A team of facilitators from the government is needed to go directly to the community to socialize and provide information on the benefits of land consolidation. Continuous communication between the organizers or government and the community is also essential because the process takes place in several stages.
Socialization is also necessary given the potential for conflict. Intensive community involvement will result in the right strategy. Each vertical land consolidation project requires a different business plan and social and environmental scheme. Socialization is also needed to explain the real benefits for landowners of vertical consolidation and redevelopment.
Second, local governments provide incentives to communities that want to consolidate their land. The incentive is in the form of flexibility in the Zoning Regulations while still observing the principles of good urban planning. An example of flexibility is that the residential zone to be consolidated can be changed to a mixed zone. So that people can carry out activities such as trade and services while living on the land.
Another form of incentive can be the size of the building area. An increase in the Building Floor Coefficient (KLB) allows the building to be fully utilized by the community. In addition, the acceleration and simplification of the Building Permit (IMB) process is also a form of incentive.
Incentives provided by the government will also become community capital that is taken into account in developing development project proposals(business plans) that provide benefits to the community.
Third, the government fully supports the construction of vertical flats through land consolidation. Communities that consolidate land can independently build the flats. Guarantee support and endorsement from the government enable the community to obtain construction capital from banks.
In addition, the community can also cooperate with developers for the construction of flats. This cooperation can be a business scheme that benefits both parties, and can also take the form of implementing the developer's obligation to build flats on land that has been consolidated by the community itself.
The benefits of land consolidation are not only seen from the amount of compensation, but also from the additional asset value that will be obtained by the community in the future. In addition, urban conditions will improve due to the increasing number of affordable housing units in vertical flats. Jakarta will no longer be left behind by its citizens because of the towering land prices.
Land consolidation for the fulfillment of housing is not easy, but also not impossible. Initiatives and incentives from the government play a significant role in realizing the ideals of this year's World Habitat Day: decent and affordable housing for everyone in urban areas.
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