Apartments offer friendly living too

T. Sima Gunawan, Contributor, Jakarta

A baby usually brings joy to the parents and makes the house warm. As for Maya Carpenter, a resident of Four Seasons Apartments in Jakarta, having a baby also means having new friends.

"After I had my baby, I made new friends, as I often meet other tenants when I take my baby to the swimming pool," Maya said.

A swimming pool is among the facilities commonly found in an apartment building that allow the tenants to socialize with each other. They can also meet at the gym, in the coffee shop, at the business center or at the mini market, which may also be found in most upmarket apartments.

Maya said that living in an apartment is just as friendly as living in an ordinary housing complex. "The residents in the apartments are friendly and helpful. So I think there is no problem with socialization," she added.

In the 1980s, there were only a few apartment buildings and most of the tenants were expatriates. But today many Indonesians also live in apartments. They enjoy the new lifestyle because it offers comfort and they do not have to worry about the city's high crime rate because most have 24-hour security systems.

In addition, some people prefer to live in an apartment because it is located near their offices; they can save time and energy as they don't have to experience terrible traffic jams as much.

Some say that living in a house allows people to know the neighbors better. They have more of a chance to see others, chit- chat or just say hello, while those who live in an apartment building may lead an exclusive life, barely socializing with the others and tend to be individualists.

Such an idea, however, is not entirely true. People become unsociable not because they live in an apartment. Snobbish persons can be found everywhere, especially in a big bustling city like Jakarta, where most residents are busy with their work and must struggle to survive.

"The is a different attitude among the people. This happens because of the changing culture," Ryan Adrian, General Manager of PT Jakarta Setiabudi International Tbk, said.

People now enjoy practicality, and this is reflected in the design of their place: living rooms become smaller and people no longer consider a verandah as an important part of the house, he explained.

His company is now constructing Setiabudi Residence in South Jakarta. The construction began in January this year and is scheduled to be completed in December 2006. There will be two towers with a total of 300 units that cost between Rp 800 million (about US$80,000) and Rp 4 billion each, and 80 percent of them have been sold.

A sky lounge measuring about 1,000 square meters, located on the top floor or the 28-story second tower will serve as a meeting place for tenants.

There will also be other facilities, which they can share like a gym, a sauna and a meeting room.

"We also plan to have a small garden, which consists of various kinds of plants," Adrian said.

Merry Utami, General Manager of The Pearl, said that even though people who live in an apartment might have a different way of meeting others, this does not necessarily mean that they do not socialize.

The Pearl, which is located on Jl. Gatot Subroto, is under construction. The construction of the building, which will have 200 units, began in January 2005 also and will be completed in August 2006. So far, half of the units have been sold.

It will have jogging tracks and other sports facilities, as well as a playground and a laundry service, which allow the tenants to meet each other.

"They can also have a garden party together," Merry said.

While such parties are usually held by the tenants themselves, the apartment management company might organize it so that they have the chance to get to know each other better, as is regularly done by the company that manages the Garden Wing Apartments, which is part of Hotel Borobudur.

Most of the tenants are expatriates, who stay for an average of four or five years, Fika Kansil, a public relations manager with the hotel, said. A program called the "long-stay guest party" is often held for the tenants, who enthusiastically come to enjoy themselves and meet others.

The number of high-rise apartment buildings here continues to mushroom, not only in the center of the city but also in suburban areas. There are more than 110 apartment buildings throughout Jakarta at present.

People prefer to live in an apartment also because it allows them to have their own privacy. That, however, might be mistakenly taken as being individualist, according to Maya.

"This depends of the person. You can live in an apartment and socialize a lot, but you can also live in a house and become an unsociable,"," she said.

Maya, who used to live in the elite neighborhood of Jl. Pakubuwono, South Jakarta, said that she has more friends now compared to when she lived in a house.

"Frankly speaking, when I lived there, I didn't know my neighbors. If we met, we would smile at each other, but that's all," she said.

At the beginning, when she moved to the Four Seasons early in 2004, she did not know the other tenants. But she did not have any problem as the staff were quite helpful and extended their hospitality.

"Now we often invite each other over. On the 29th, we will break the fast together at my place," she said, adding that sometimes they had a party by the swimming pool.