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)