Housing project looks set to fail

Housing project looks set to fail

TANGERANG: An official with the Tangerang municipality cast
doubts on the possibility of success for a low-cost housing
project for civil servants in the city, saying there was no
affordable land available.

Tangerang Settlement Agency director Roetiwi said that the
local administration could not afford to purchase land for the
housing project due to the rapidly increasing price of land in
the municipality.

"There is a lot of vacant land here, but the price is too
high, far above the ceiling price set by the central government,"
she was quoted by Antara as saying on Saturday.

Thus far, the administration had yet to find any reasonably
priced sites.

"We even asked district and subdistrict heads to help us find
sites, but they came up with none that were well located," the
official said.

The Ministry of Settlement and Regional Infrastructure plans
to provide around one million homes for the country's civil
servants at affordable prices. A 21-square-meter house on a 90-
square-meter site will be on offer for Rp 36 million (US$4,235).
-- JP