439 Kemayoran families to move into apartments

JAKARTA (JP): Four hundred and thirty-nine families in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, are ready to move into new cheap apartments.

The apartments are in the New Kemayoran Township, a State Secretariat project.

Township authority head Hindro T. Soemardjan symbolically presented the keys Wednesday.

A township official said 704 residential units and 178 business spaces on the ground floor were ready, but only 439 families were ready to move in.

The remainder's administrative procedures were still being processed, the official said.

The apartments are prioritized for residents who were evicted to make way for the 454-hectare project.

The 439 families were the second group to move into apartments. The first group was in 1992 when 1,472 apartment units were ready.

The project, which began in 1990, affected 5,000 families.

Compensation disputes and complaints about a lack of dialog between township authorities and residents have been among the constraints in developing the apartments. A residential and commercial center is planned for the township.

The official said of the 5,000 families affected, the land status of 2,400 had yet to be determined.

The families do not have to live in the apartments.

They could either enlist for a land consolidation program, or have their plots exchanged for other plots in Kemayoran, Hindro said.

The apartments, subsidized by the township, are between 18 square meters and 42 square meters, depending on a family's size. The apartments were built by the state housing developer, Perumnas.

A 36-square-meter apartment on the second floor was sold to residents for Rp 20.3 million although it real price was Rp 36 million.

Subsidy levels differ depending on several factors, including the amount of compensation residents got for their property.

Residents pay for the apartments in monthly installments. For the above 36-square-meter apartment the residents have to pay Rp 290,000 per month for 10 years.

Hindro said the township had paid Rp 8.5 billion of subsidies to the end of last year.

Subsidies range from Rp 14.2 million to Rp 65.6 million, Hindro said.

The official said the township conducted sweeps to ensure owners did not sell their apartments.

If an apartment is found to have been sold "we stop the subsidy so it can be given to someone else who needs it," the official said. (anr/05)