The relationship between the sequential sharing of rental homes and the unpredictable housing pathways of kampung residents in Jakarta

Abstract

Buying a home is becoming more difficult in urban areas across the globe, including in Indonesian cities. However, some rental housing remains relatively affordable. Although affordable rental apartments for low-income individuals are being built on many parts of the Indonesian archipelago, the housing supply cannot satisfy escalating demand. Many municipal governments limit tenancy duration to enable more low-income individuals to find housing. However, this policy encourages renters to share rooms. Qualitative content analysis shows that the tenancy durations of low-income renters are longer than the limit established by municipal governments, which indicates that volatile life-course events do not necessarily drive housing pathways. The heads of households conduct a Community Economy Collective in the form of rental home sharing with relatives in a series of rental tenancies in high-density kampung settlements. These findings help identify additional determinants of low-income residents’ unpredictable housing pathways, which implicate the duration of tenancy for their sequential home sharing in the city.

Keywords:

• kampung settlements
• housing pathways
• sharing house
• Jakarta

Acknowledgment

We also express our sincere appreciation for the support of Antony Sihombing, Chotib and Paksi C. K Walandouw, who contributed important insights. Special gratitude goes to the enumerators at the Demographic Institute of the Faculty of Economics and Business at Universitas Indonesia for their thorough data collection and compilation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joko Adianto

Joko Adianto receives PhD degree from the University of Tokyo. He is a lecturer in Department of Architecture, Universitas Indonesia with the housing policy and urban informality as research fields. He is a member of the Research Division in the Institute of Indonesia Architect (2014–2021) and Jakarta Research Council (2019–2021).

Rossa Turpuk Gabe

Rossa Turpuk Gabe obtained her M.Arch from Department of Architecture, Universitas Indonesia with her interest in urban housing and settlement. She is a junior lecturer in Department of Architecture, Universitas Indonesia. Her current research takes particular interest in housing behaviour, particularly for low-income people in urban areas.