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State-owned construction company Perum Perumahan Nasional said on Thursday that it is planning to build as many as 30,000 inexpensive, subsidized houses and apartments across Indonesia and that it had secured Rp 1 trillion ($109 million) in government funding to help it do so.

“Our original target would be to build around 15,000 units but it may be increased up to 30,000 units depending on the request from the government,” said Himawan Arief Sugoto, Perumnas’s president director. “Around 70 percent of the units will be houses while the remaining 30 percent will be apartments.”

Himawan said most of the subsidized apartments, called rusunami , would be built in Greater Jakarta, with around 30 to 50 rusunami towers planned for Kemayoran, Pulo Gebang, Bekasi, Cengkareng, and Klender.

Some apartments would also be built in Surabaya, Bandung and Medan, he said.

In late 2009, the Housing Ministry said it would allocate Rp 3.5 trillion for the development of subsidized housing. Of that sum, Perumnas will get about Rp 1 trillion, some of which the company will use to acquire land.

“We need more land banks. Therefore, we may buy around 100 hectares of new land worth about Rp 200 billion this year with the government funds,” Himawan said.

Perumnas is also planning to issue Rp 1 trillion of rupiah-denominated bonds in the middle of this year.

The company has posted significant losses in the past few years, including a Rp 59 billion net loss in 2007, although it still has a positive balance sheet.

Himawan said Perumnas had sold 80 percent of the 13,000 houses and apartments that it built last year but did not give any further details.

Separately, Perumnas is also aiming to build houses for Indonesians working overseas.

“We are looking at several cities in East Java, including Kediri, Madiun, Blitar and Ponorogo,” Himawan said. “Most of the workers are those who work in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. We’re setting a target to build at least 10,000 units for migrant workers in the next two to three years.”

Himawan said there was a lot of potential to build houses for migrant workers, particularly those working in Hong Kong. “We have 150,000 migrant workers in Hong Kong with monthly salaries ranging from Rp 5 million to Rp 7 million. If we can get just 15 percent of that market, that’s huge,” he said.