Foreigners can buy houses here

Foreigners can buy houses here

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto said yesterday that
foreigners can buy and lease their houses in Indonesia provided
that the lease is arranged by a domestic company.

"Foreigners can now buy houses here. And if they return to
their home countries they can rent them out through an Indonesian
company," Minister of Public Housing Akbar Tandjung quoted
Soeharto as saying here.

Akbar, who met the President at the Merdeka Palace here
yesterday, pointed out that Soeharto was commenting on the newly-
issued Government Regulation No. 41/1996, which allows foreigners
to buy a house in Indonesia.

The minister said that foreigners, however, are not allowed to
buy houses with subsidized loans.

The government only provides subsidies for low-income people
to buy low-cost housing.

Akbar said that in implementing the regulation, the government
will make sure that there will be no foreigner having more than
one house in the country.

During yesterday's meeting, Akbar also reported to the
President on the civil servants home savings fund, which was
begun by the government in September 1993.

The fund, which is derived from money deducted from civil
servants salaries every month, is deposited in state-owned Bank
Tabungan Negara. It is designed to help civil servants buy their
own houses.

"The fund now has Rp 510 billion (US$220.8 million)," said
Akbar.

According to the minister, the government is now trying to
develop a similar savings fund for the private sector.

"We'll soon issue a new regulation on the application of such
a fund to private company employees," he said. (13)