Apartment living: Good security, privacy and convenience

Joseph Kirschke, Contributor, Jakarta

In 1998, as mass rioting swept Jakarta, heralding the fall of strongman Soeharto, more than a few city residents -- particularly those without adequate home security -- paid a very dear price.

From the wholesale looting of homes and businesses to even injury, rape, and death, those chilling days will be forever etched into the minds of many Jakartans.

This is one of several reasons that many residents, and expats in particular, cite when explaining why they live in an apartment building rather than a house.

True, life in one of Jakarta's many high-rise apartment buildings and complexes can be a bit sterile at times as there is reduced community contact. Overriding advantages, however, include tight security, which is almost always a given.

Jim, a copyeditor of a prominent Jakarta daily, says the events of 1998 were something of a wake-up call, not just for Chinese-Indonesians -- who were heavily targeted by rampaging looters -- but for expatriates as well.

"If an apartment is properly run, it should have 24-hour satpam (security guards)," said Jim, who lives in Apartemen Semanggi, Central Jakarta. "All you have to worry about is locking your front door."

Convenience is a plus, too. "You have access to a gym and a pool -- you just go down in the lift and you're there," added Jim. Many apartments in Jakarta, he said, are in a "strategic location -- close to work, and close to the road to the airport."

Apartemen Semanggi also has a helicopter landing pad on the roof -- just in case.

Another advantage, noted Jim, who has lived in Apartemen Semanggi for three years, is the lack of noise, "It's so isolated (from the ground) that you sometimes don't know what the weather is like," he said.

The same thick walls reinforce the structure against things like fire and earthquakes, added Jim. "My next-door neighbors have a baby and I haven't heard the baby except when I'm outside and their front door is open," he mused.

In addition, "Its hassle-free" in the sense that "you don't have salesmen or strangers turning up at your front door unexpectedly".

There are of course, disadvantages. Jim said lack of space was an issue, "If you want extra space, you must consider a larger unit."

Some extended families, he noted, are so enamored of apartment living that they live in units on three different floors, rather than together in a house.

Waiting for lifts can be a hassle, but one disadvantage Jim cited is that life in an apartment building can be somewhat impersonal. "Still," said Jim, a UK national who lives on one of the upper floors, "that doesn't worry me, to be honest; expats tend to come from countries where you don't have the same level of socialization as you do here."

One thing really does get under Jim's skin, however. There are laundry rooms for residents on every third floor, he explained, but when the tumble dryers break down, all hell breaks loose. "You can't imagine the problems it causes," he said. In the smaller apartments, "there's nowhere to dry anything."

Jim, who pays Rp 3 million (about US$350) per month for his studio, says his apartment is home to largely middle-class Indonesians along with a wide variety of expats, including families and people from other Asian countries like Japan and South Korea.

For Tom McCawley, an Australian freelance journalist, the benefits of living in an apartment in Jakarta come down to two things. "Privacy and convenience," said McCawley who has written for The Far Eastern Economic Review, The Financial Times and The Christian Science Monitor.

"I've lived in houses and in a Kampung," said the 31-year-old. "And living in a Kampung brings with it a lot of pressure and for a young westerner that's actually pretty stressful."

In a Kampung "every single move you make is commented on and as a bule (foreigner) you basically become a form of entertainment," added McCawley who has been paying Rp 2 million to live in a shared, two-bedroom apartment on the 17th floor of Taman Rasuna Apartment for six months.

"An apartment," he added, "allows you to create your own haven against the relentless stress of urban life."

And while McCawley appreciates the degree to which they protect the apartment from intruders, having satpam around can be a disadvantage, too. "The only problem is the security guards who constantly monitor what's going on," he said. "Sometimes there's subtle pressure for cigarette money, for example."

Nonetheless, he noted, "having your own space is soothing for the spirit."

Stephen E, another editor of a major Jakarta daily newspaper who lives in an apartment in Kuningan, south Jakarta, finds having to pay up-front rent for a year or six months can be a major difficulty. Also problematic, he said, is the maintenance of communal facilities.

Stephen, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment on the 10th floor, regrets that his lifestyle is not more community orientated. "I guess it's like apartments anywhere else," he shrugged.

Still, having moved two years ago after eight years in a boarding house, Stephen says he enjoys the panoramic view, as well as the fact that the apartment is spacious and fully furnished.