Jakarta (ANTARA) – Deputy Minister of Housing and Settlement Areas (PKP) Fahri Hamzah has urged state housing developer Perumnas to strengthen its role as a national housing offtaker to accelerate housing supply and address the housing backlog.Speaking at the groundbreaking of the Samesta Alonia subsidized housing tower by Perumnas here on Friday, Hamzah said Perumnas holds a special mandate that differs from other state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as its role goes beyond building houses to also serving as an offtaker.”Perumnas itself is not an ordinary SOE. It is still a state company, but it is actually mandated not only to build houses but also to serve as a housing offtaker,” Hamzah said.He said the mandate is clearly stated in the government regulation on Perumnas, which positions the company as an offtaker within the national housing supply ecosystem.”The government regulation on Perumnas literally states that Perumnas is an offtaker. So without an offtaker, it is difficult for us to build,” he said.Hamzah said the presence of an offtaker is important because housing development, as a fulfillment of people's rights, requires certainty of demand for the output so that contractors and developers are encouraged to expand construction.He likened Perumnas' role to that of state logistics agency Bulog in the food sector, which buys unhulled rice from farmers so producers do not face uncertainty before increasing their production.Therefore, Hamzah encouraged Perumnas to purchase housing units from contractors and developers so that the housing ecosystem has demand certainty and housing construction can be accelerated to reduce the backlog.He said his side expressed hope the plan can be discussed together with the State-Owned Enterprises Management Agency (BP BUMN), Danantara, and the Ministry of Finance to strengthen Perumnas' role as a housing offtaker.”So that people do not get scattered and move out of the cities, especially young people, many of whom work in urban areas,” Hamzah said.