Karet Tengsin residents ambivalent over apartment construction

P.C. Naommy The Jakarta Post Jakarta

Some residents of Karet Tengsin subdistrict, Central Jakarta, are happy with the Jakarta Housing Agency's recent plan to build another 267 low-cost apartments in the area as they have been promised one since 1993, but many are not.

A total of 600 families who resided in community unit RW 7 lost their homes in a fire in 1993. But the low-cost apartment block built where their homes stood before the fire, could only accommodate 152 families, leaving others homeless.

Zaenal Abidin, along with other residents, opted to build a semi-permanent house near the existing apartment compound.

He said that, soon after the fire, the administration paid compensation ranging from Rp 515,000 (US$60) to Rp 550,000 per square meter for their burned houses. They used the money as a down payment for an apartment which was completed in 1996.

"I even had deposited Rp 500,000 as down payment for a new unit...but the administration said the existing low-cost apartments were already full," he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Zaenal laughed when being asked about his chances of getting a unit in the new apartment block.

"No developer would want to take on the project...they would suffer major losses as we only paid Rp 500,000 for the deposit. It was quite a sizable amount at that time, but now, the price of one sack of cement has reached Rp 25,000," added Zaenal.

"What I want is a guarantee that I will have a unit," he said.

Earlier on Monday, head of the housing agency, Jaender Sagala, claimed that the city would build 1,406 low-cost apartments for squatters living along riverbanks and in slums in Karet Tengsin; Kapuk Muara, North Jakarta; and Tipar Cakung, East Jakarta. The construction is expected to be completed in December.

He said apartment units would be made available for poor people at a monthly rental of between Rp 100,000 and Rp 150,000.

A rental scheme is not usual, because, by law, the housing agency only provides an ownership scheme. But, according to Sagala, the scheme will prevent the commonplace practice of people reselling units for their own profit.

Many of the residents are eager to have their apartment soon, learning that many of the apartment occupants have leased their place to get extra income.

"The lessee pays me Rp 2 million a year. This way, I can send my son to Atma Jaya University," said a resident who opted to return to the slum, adding that his son's college fee is Rp 2.95 million a semester.

"My job sinking wells cannot cover our daily needs, I have to find extra work."

Sadar, who is in charge of managing the apartment complex, said that about 20 percent of the area residents had leased their house to get extra income.

The rent of each of the 21 square-meter studio apartments on the first floor, he said, is Rp 3.62 million per year, Rp 2 million for the second story, Rp 1.45 million for the third story, and only Rp 400,000 for a place on the fourth floor.

"I don't think we need more apartments, because people like us, who have businesses like making tempeh (fermented soy bean cake) or selling chickens need a more spacious residence," Sabar added.