Jakpro insists on rent hike

JAKARTA: PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) reaffirmed that it was going to raise the rents on its apartments in Pluit, despite continued protests by tenants.

Jakpro director Ongky Sukasah said on Monday during a hearing with the City Council that the company had to raise the rent on its Pluit apartments, which are six-by-six meters in size, or type 36, by between 50 percent and 70 percent because of new tax regulations and to cover increasing operational costs.

The rent on a ground floor apartment was increased from Rp 392,000 (approximately US$44) per month to Rp 675,000.

Sukasah said the increases were based on, among other things, an October 2001 decree from the finance minister stipulating that type 36 apartments would be subject to a value added tax, as well as a property tax increase. Jakpro, which owns 480 type 36 apartments in Pluit, Penjaringan, North Jakarta, was summoned by the City Council's Commission D for development affairs after tenants filed a complaint last month over the rent increase.

Yohanes BD Widjaya, a tenant coordinator, said tenants had accepted that the rent increases were unavoidable, but would have preferred the increases to be implemented gradually.--JP