Ineligible people own many low-cost houses

Ineligible people own many low-cost houses

JAKARTA (JP): Housing experts have urged the government to be stricter in selecting which people should be given priority in renting the low-cost houses in view of the fact that many cheap houses built with subsidies from the government have been bought by "house brokers or speculators".

Suradi Wongsohartono, a former president of state-owned housing company Perumnas, said in a seminar on housing on Monday that the government should take stern action against such people because many cheap houses and flats in Jakarta and Depok, intended mainly for low-income consumers, were owned by middle- income people.

The seminar, attended by about one hundred officials from Jakarta, Bekasi, Tangerang and Bogor administrations was held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Perumnas this year. The state-owned company, which was established on July 20, 1974, has constructed about 293,000 low-cost dwellings, including apartments, and is planning to build as many as 250,000 more dwellings over the next four years.

These middle-income owners later rent their apartments to other people.

"Many people living in the Kemayoran low-cost apartments in Central Jakarta are tenants, who already have their own houses outside the city," Suradi said.

He said many people, who have houses outside the city, preferred to live in the rented dwellings so as to be closer to their workplaces.

Prabowo, an inhabitant of the Kebon Kacang flats in Central Jakarta, concurred that many of the flats are owned by "small investors."

"The flats are rented to low-income foreign workers and cohabiting couples. This is raising `social jealousy' among people living in slum areas near the flat complex," he said.

He said that many apartment and housing complexes built by Perumnas end up looking like slums because of their poor maintenance.

Prabowo also said that almost all flat complexes in the city have no social and public facilities such as mosques, churches, recreation and sports centers.

"This is clearly against the regulations issued by the city administration requiring developers to build such facilities in their housing projects," he said.

Responding to the complaints, head of the city's office in charge of housing affairs Ongki Sukasa said the government should issue a regulation barring people from selling low-cost houses built with subsidies from the government.

"People making such transactions should be brought to court on criminal charges," he said.

In a related development, the city administration in cooperation with Perumnas, has started building low-cost flats for rent for low-income people.

"Perumnas is constructing 2,000 units of low cost flats for rent in East Cengkareng, West Jakarta, and they will be marketed as of next July," Ongki said .

Chief of Perumnas' Jakarta branch office, M. Latief Malangyudo, said the flats would be rented out for Rp 60,000 per month each and only low-income people were eligible to rent them.

"This is a pilot project... if it is successful, more such flats will be built in other parts of the city and the rental may be raised in accordance with the inflation rate," he said.

He said it was unlikely that his company would build houses located inside the city and its outskirts, such as Tangerang and Bekasi, because of the high price of land in those areas.

Ongki said the flats were being built on state land because of the soaring price of privately-owned land in the city.

"It is now impossible to build low-cost flats in the city because the land price has reached Rp 500,000 at the lowest per square meter. The only way of providing cheap housing for low- income people is to build flats for rent," he said.

He said Perumnas was permitted to utilize state land in the city for housing, but the land would revert to the government after 20 years. (rms)