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.