Developers not monopolizing lands: Minister

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Agrarian Affairs/Chairman of the National Land Agency Soni Harsono denied yesterday that 10 leading property developers have monopolized land in Jakarta and surrounding areas.

"The developers have acquired the land not for possession purposes but to develop commercial housing complexes on it, " Soni told reporters after attending a plenary meeting with the House of Representatives which discussed a draft law on mortgages.

The United Development Party faction in the House told the minister in the meeting that most of about 60,000 hectares of land in Jakarta and its surrounding areas have been acquired by 10 giant developers.

Yudo Paripurno, the spokesman of the faction, said that the total land holding of the developers was almost as large as the capital city: 65,000 hectares.

Minister Sony said: "All we have to do is to control the land acquisition so that the developers will not acquire the land at low prices but then sell the houses they build on it for very high prices."

He said the government let the private companies build houses because the government alone cannot do it.

He denied that land acquisition by giant developers had become monopolistic, arguing that most of the developers are public companies.

"A company that has already gone public belongs to the people," he said.

He said that there is regulation limiting land acquisition by developers. "We still refer to the old land regulations," he said.

Sony said that there is already a mechanism which regulates acquisition of land by a developer: land can only be purchased after a "site permit" has been obtained from the local administration.

The minister said high land prices had been caused by unauthorized brokers.

"Their presence and activities are the cause of the mark-ups," he said, adding that both the developers and land owners suffer as a result of their activities.

Yudo Paripurno, who read the faction's position on the draft law on mortgages, said that such monopolistic practices by certain developers were not in line with President Soeharto's speech at a National Land Agency meeting in February, in which he said that nobody is allowed to acquire land excessively.

"Land cannot be speculated in for obtaining great profits," the faction said, quoting Soeharto's speech.

The head of state also said that land speculation, which has nothing to do with the people's welfare, is against the 1945 Constitution.

Soni said that the developers have paid enough attention to social welfare.

"The government has come up with the balanced housing concept for the developers to follow," he said.

"They have implemented the government's balanced concept on housing, which stipulates that if a developer builds a luxury house they must also construct three middle-class houses and six low-cost houses," he said.

The rule was promulgated in 1992 by the ministers of home affairs, public works and public housing. (imn)