City developers fail to fulfill commitments
City developers fail to fulfill commitments
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Most real estate developers in the capital have ignored their
obligation to construct low-cost apartments for disadvantaged
families in Jakarta.
According to data provided by the Jakarta Housing Agency, 301
out of 367 developers that received permits to construct luxury
residential facilities from 1999 to 2005 failed to fulfill their
obligation to build low-cost apartments.
From 1999 to 2005, developers should have build low-cost
apartments on around 380,521 square meters of land as a
requirement for building luxury apartments, but so far they have
not fulfilled their obligation.
"As the first step to force developers to fulfill their
obligation, the governor will summon them next week. We will take
firmer actions if they still ignore their obligation," city
secretary Ritola Tasmaya said on Friday.
Gubernatorial Decree No. 540/1990 requires all developers
constructing residences on 5,000 square meters of land or a
larger area in the city to construct low-cost apartments on at
least 20 percent of that land.
The developers, however, may construct the low-cost apartments
at other locations or pay a certain fee to the city
administration.
Ritola said the city administration would punish developers,
who still ignored their obligation after being warned. The
punishment could be the suspension of their permits or stopping
on-going projects, according to Ritola.
The housing agency has estimated that there are some 40,000
poor families in the city, which should be relocated from city
slums or riverbanks.
The city has long planned to build some 3,000 units of low-
cost apartments, but it faces difficulty in acquiring land for
such projects. According to the draft of the city's budget for
2006, the city has allocated some Rp 360 billion for low-cost
apartments.
The Jakarta Housing Agency is tasked to acquire 20,000 square
meters of land this year in the city, but up until August 2005,
the agency had not acquired any land in the capital, according to
a progress report.
Data from the agency also shows that there are some 20,000
low-cost apartments in the city built by a number of agencies,
including state housing company PT Perumnas, the Jakarta Housing
Agency and city developer Prasarana Jaya.
Many of those low-cost apartments are, however, not occupied
by low-income families as they are rented out to middle-class
employees by their owners.
Governor Sutiyoso has repeatedly said that his administration
would concentrate on the construction of low-cost apartments here
in order to eliminate slums in the city.
He stressed the need for stronger supervision of low-cost
apartments to make sure that they are not occupied by middle-
class people.