Govt issues new decree on apartment sales
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Public Housing Akbar Tandjung announced on Saturday that his office has issued a new decree to regulate sales launching of vertical housing, in order to protect consumers.
The new regulation is issued in response to the rising number of property sales of apartments, even though the construction of their facilities have not yet been completed and in many cases developers have not started the projects at all, the minister said.
Many potential buyers were reported recently to over-buy many middle and upper-class apartments in Jakarta regardless of the fact that the facilities have not yet been built.
This can be seen in the Taman Rasuna apartment project, owned by the Bakrie Group. The apartments were sold out because of their "cheap" prices even though the developers had not yet received the proper government permits.
"The new decree is expected to be beneficial to both developers and buyers," Akbar said. Developers can get funds for the construction of apartments and at the same time buyers can pay the apartments on an installment basis.
Speaking at a get-together to inform the issuance of the decree, Akbar said the decree is very important in that it protects buyers against any problems that may arise after agreements for the procurement of apartments are signed.
The meeting was attended by 50 representatives from various government offices, including the office of the Minister of Public Housing, the Ministry of Public Works, regional administrations throughout Indonesia, the Indonesian Real Estate Association and the Indonesian Consumers Protection Foundation.
Akbar said that development of vertical housing in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta, advanced rapidly due to the intention to maximize the usage of lands.
Kosmian Pudjiadi, an executive of the Indonesian Real Estate Association, said at the meeting that the number of apartments, which are expected to reach 4,000 middle and upper-class apartments in Jakarta by the end of this year, will jump to 34,000 apartments by the end of 1997.
Total investments for the construction of all these apartments are estimated at Rp 3.4 trillion (US$1.55 billion), he said.
Soeharto, an assistant to the Minister of Public Housing, said that as part of this buying spree phenomenon, people are willing to buy in advance without understanding their rights.
"Consumers are willing to buy apartments before construction is begun, and in many cases they are even ready to stand in long lines for their turn to sign the purchase agreements," he said.
The new ministerial decree stipulates that developers are obliged to obtain proper government permits first, before starting the sales launching.
Another executive of the real estate association, Herman Soedarsono, said that hopefully this new decree would solve problems which happen at the time of preliminary purchase as well as to protect consumers.
"There are several developers who have no proper government permits but they have already introduced their businesses by participating in a number of real estate exhibitions," Herman said, adding that the decree will restrict other developers from doing so because such actions only gives the real estate association a bad name. (yns)
YLKI -- Page3