Demands for low cost houses far outweights current supply
JAKARTA (JP): Low cost apartments built on Jl. Penjernihan, Central Jakarta, by PT Kuningan Persada are being swamped by potential buyers.
Prita Kartika, the apartment building's project architect, said yesterday, "The number of buyers who have registered with the subdistrict administration office alone is more than three times the amount of apartment units available here."
The project consists of 296 apartment units with each apartment size being 18 square meters, Prita said.
"Actually we planned on building various sized units, from the 18 square meter type to 36 square meters, but then we decided to build as many units as possible by building the 18 square meter type only," she said.
Prita said 70 apartment units have been reserved for the former residents of Jl. Penjernihan, whose land was appropriated by PD Pembangunan Sarana Jaya, the city-owned housing company, to make way for the apartment building's construction.
"The former residents will move into their apartments at the end of this month," she said.
She said the state minister of youth affairs and sports has also asked the city to reserve 40 apartment units for top national athletes who do not have houses yet.
Willy Prananto, the apartment building's project manager, predicted that the apartment price for former residents will be set at Rp 10 million per unit, while the athletes would only pay 35 percent of the price set by the city administration.
Willy said the price of the remaining 186 apartment units will be set by the city administration because the apartment building's ownership will be transferred to the city at the end of this month.
The construction of the apartments was aimed at fulfilling PT Kuningan Persada's obligation to build low cost apartments in Jakarta after the city administration granted the company a permit to use a land plot in the Kuningan area, South Jakarta, for a superblock project
He said PT Kuningan Persada has spent Rp 10 billion for the construction of the apartment building.
One of the shareholders of PT Kuningan Persada is noted businessman Soedwikatmono.
Prita said the marketing procedure of the apartments will not be handled by PT Kuningan Persada because the company is giving the apartment building to the city administration at the end of this month.
She said the city housing office will likely handle the marketing arrangement of the apartments.
Tight screening
She also hinted that there will be tight screening for all potential buyers because the city is giving priority to low- income citizens of Jakarta who do not have houses yet.
"The construction of the apartments is 95 percent completed. Several public facilities including a kindergarten, a health clinic and Musholla (place of worship for Moslems) will also be built there," Prita said.
Each apartment will have tap water, 450 watts of electricity, but no telephone line.
The apartments are built on 6,232 square meters of land.
She said Governor Surjadi Soedirdja is scheduled to inaugurate the apartment building in December.
During the past two years the governor has been tirelessly promoting the vertical housing concept to the people of Jakarta.
Since 1985 there have been 7,163 varying types of low cost apartment units built in the city, from 18 square meters to 54 square meters, and the city administration is currently developing more than 1,200 units to be completed next year.(mas)