The progressive development of new town projects, which has brought impacts on peri-urban transformations, has become a key element of post-suburbanization in the Jakarta Metropolitan Area (JMA). One such transformation arises from the free-rider phenomenon, referring to the growth of small-scale housing around new town projects that is intentionally built to ride on the city-scale infrastructure they provide.

This study aims to provide an initial understanding of the extent to which free riders influence the post-suburbanization process in the context of new town development. Using the case of the Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) City project, the study highlights how this phenomenon reveals the spatial typology of free riders and underscores both the challenges and opportunities it presents, particularly in promoting more inclusive and sustainable forms of new town and post-suburban development in Indonesia.