40 foreigners buy houses at Bumi Serpong Damai

JAKARTA (JP): Forty foreigners have bought private properties in the upmarket Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) housing complex in Tangerang since the government passed legislation in 1996 that allows foreigners to buy property in Indonesia, an executive said on Friday.

Budiarsa Sastrawinata, president of PT BSD, said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post that the foreign customers came from various countries, including Germany (22 buyers), Japan (three), Britain (three), Taiwan (three), France (two), Saudi Arabia (one), the Netherlands (one), India (one), Italy (one), Canada (one), South Korea (one) and Malaysia (one).

The first house payment by a foreigner was made on July 14, last year, he said.

"It was one of the first house procurements by foreigners in Indonesia, following the issuance of Government Regulation No. 41/1996, which allows foreign companies or foreign nationals with stay permit cards to buy a house, an apartment or a condominium," he said.

Besides buying houses, an increasing number of foreigners who work in Indonesia on a contract basis have rented houses in the housing complex, he said.

"At least 60 foreign families are now renting houses at an average rate of between US$1,250 and $2,500 per month," he said.

Property analyst Panangian Simanungkalit urged the government on Thursday to allow any foreigner to own both private and commercial property in Indonesia to help boost the dormant property sector.

Foreigners are potential buyers of property in the country and this could help local developers and property firms overcome their financial problems, he said.

"Foreigners' interest in buying property here is abundant. The only problem is that they face legal uncertainty in property ownership," he said.

Panangian said the regulation should be amended so that even nonresidents were allowed to buy houses.

Budiarsa expressed confidence that the number of foreigners intending to either buy or rent houses in BSD complex would continue rising mainly due to an increasing number of commercial activities by foreigners there.

"One of the foreigners' activities at BSD include the operation of the German International School with 270 students and 37 teachers," he said.

Moreover, the German Center, which is having the finishing touches done to the building, has partly started operations, Budiarsa said, adding that the center was projected to employ about 850 people.

Information from the office of the State Minister of Public Housing and Settlement reveals that it is time for expatriates to buy houses in Greater Jakarta, which encompasses Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi.

The projection was made under the consideration that a house on a 200-square-meter plot of land sold for an average Rp 250 million or about US$33,333 (based on a rate of Rp 7,500 per U.S. dollar).

Before the economic crisis hit the country in the middle of last year, the house of the above-mentioned sizes reached $104,166 (based on a rate of Rp 2,400 per dollar). (hhr)