Councilors want tighter control over apartments
JAKARTA (JP): Councilors urged the city administration Saturday to tighten control over the development of low-cost apartments.
Saud Rachman and Abdoelhamid Notowidagdo pointed out that developers build more luxury apartments and tend to neglect their obligation to build low-cost ones for low-income people.
Saud, from the United Development Party (PPP) faction, insisted that the city administration should keep checking that developers really build low-cost apartments as required by law.
He pointed out that upscale apartments in the city outnumber low-cost ones. "This is an obvious indication that developers ignore their social obligation," he said.
Under a 1990 gubernatorial decree, any developer that intends to appropriate land to build commercial facilities must set aside 20 percent of the property to build low-cost apartments and other public facilities.
For various reasons, including developers objections at having to build the low-cost apartments in the same area as their commercial projects, the decree was revised in 1992. It now allows developers to build low-cost apartments in locations other than their commercial project site.
"It is strange that there are more luxurious apartment projects than low-cost ones because if all developers fulfill their obligations there will be more low-cost apartment projects in the city," Saud said.
Low cost
Several private developers have built low cost-apartments in Bidara Cina in East Jakarta and Pejompongan, Central Jakarta. In Tebet, South Jakarta, a project by PT Sedco Grahamandura has apparently been delayed for unknown reasons.
Meanwhile, councilor Abdoelhamid from the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) said that both the city administration and developers are to blame for the lack of low-cost apartments.
"The city administration fails to perform its supervisory role and the developers take advantage of this failure by forgetting their obligations," Abdoelhamid said.
He proposed that the administration set a deadline for developers and take firm action against those who fail to meet it.
He underlined Saud's suggestion that the government should keep checking that developers honor their obligation to build apartments for the low-income bracket.
Every year the city needs 70,000 houses. Due to the land shortage, 30 percent of the demand should be fulfilled by building low-cost apartments and condominiums.
Abdoelhamid also pointed out that 50 percent of the demand is fulfilled by private developers who build apartments for the middle and upper class group and the rest should be fulfilled by the city administration.
He added that the city administration has planned to build 3,150 housing units every year from the current fiscal 1995/1996 until 1996/2006.
Currently the city administration is constructing an apartment block of 40 units each 21 square-meters in size in Jati Bunder, 152 apartments in Karet Tengsin, 532 apartments in Bendungan Hilir and 288 apartments in Tebet.
Since 1985, there has been a total of 7163 low cost apartments of various sizes built in the city, from 18 square-meters to 54 square-meters. The city administration is still developing more than 1200 apartments which are expected be to finish by next year.(yns)