Apartment proposed for city slum areas

Apartment proposed for city slum areas

JAKARTA (JP): About 2,700 hectares of the city's slum areas
should be turned into cheap apartments, a real estate expert said
Friday evening.

Speaking after the opening of a housing exhibition at the
Jakarta Convention Center on Friday night, the chairman of the
Indonesian Real Estate Association's (REI) city branch, Yan Mogi,
said the slum areas that could be improved were in Pademangan,
Tambora and Tamansari.

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja and REI's secretary-general,
Agusman Effendi, attended the seminar.

"REI hopes for the city's cooperation in improving the city's
slum areas to help make the city's program to build cheap
apartments a success," Mogi was quoted by Antara as saying.

Under such a cooperation more cheap apartments could be built,
he said.

He said private developers were reluctant to build cheap
apartments because of high land prices and development costs.

"If developers force themselves to build low-cost apartments,
the prices won't be affordable to low-income people," Mogi said.

Built without any cooperation with the municipality, the
retail price of a 21-square-meter apartment can reach Rp 30
million (US$12,244), he said.

Construction costs alone are between Rp 450,000 and Rp 550,000
a square meter.

He said he was optimistic more developers would soon want to
build cheap apartments using better technology.

"And the improvement of economic welfare will enable more
people to buy low-cost apartments," Yogi said.

In his speech Governor Surjadi said the building of cheap
apartments showed the municipality's determination to help solve
Jakarta's housing problems.

He said the city aimed to build 280,000 cheap apartments by
2000.

The municipality has built only 3,150 cheap apartments a year
because of a lack of money. This is well below demand for cheap
apartments which is about 10,500 a year.

The city has so far built 12,356 cheap apartments for slum
residents.

In an effort to meet demand, the governor issued decree No.
540/1990 requiring developers to set aside 20 percent of
commercial sites for cheap apartments.

The City Housing Agency's data shows that each year, there is
demand for 70,000 new homes.

But because there is not enough land, housing officials say 30
percent -- or about 23,000 homes -- should be highrises.

So far, 50 percent of highrise apartments have been built by
private developers but most of these are expensive apartments.
(ste)