Low-cost apartment designs on display
JAKARTA (JP): Designs by winners of a low-cost apartment design competition are on display till July 13 at an on-going housing exhibition.
The designs at the Jakarta Convention Center in Central Jakarta include concepts on how to make high-rise living acceptable for those living in densely populated areas.
The use of ramps in an eight-story apartment design was claimed to be "free of cost, free of maintenance" compared to stairs, escalators and elevators.
"Motorcycles can be parked on every floor," a display sign said, along with graphics showing motorcycles and bicycles passing by apartment residents.
"But ramps take up more space, which means added costs to apartments" a visitor at the display said. "And you'd be tired of walking all the way up eight floors."
The competition was held in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the Indonesian Association of Developers (Real Estate Indonesia, REI).
Photographs and graphics comparing slum life with apartment living were part of displays drawing visitors' curiosity.
"By displaying designs we intend to attract developers who might be interested in building low-cost apartments," Yurike Fatmasari, a REI staffing attending the counter said.
The first winner of 217 entries was the Rematha Frottage group which included a public meeting place at the center of an apartment complex.
The second winner by the Ekstensi UGM group used a combination of ramps and stairs. The ramps linked five-story apartment towers with kiosks at each corner.
Ramps were meant to accommodate residents who work as vendors, who might, for instance, go up and down ramps with their carts.
Besides cost, the lack of suitable apartments matching the lifestyle of low-income people has been a major complaint of slum residents, who the city wants moved to apartments.
Budi Sukada of the selection jury said the competition was held in response to REI's concern of the city need to have more people living in apartments.
Meanwhile developers have complained of constraints, including the high cost of land, in building middle-income apartments, let alone low-cost ones.
Budi said designs were judged on "price, sociocultural aspects, technical specifications, acceptable living conditions and construction feasibility."
An architect, Ardiansyah, working with developer PT Jayanursukses, said his company might be interested in building apartments priced between Rp 25 million (US$10,204) and Rp 30 million for people with monthly incomes of around Rp 1 million.
The city is concentrating on building apartments around the same price for slum residents, with a subsidy of 50 percent.
Small homes
As in previous housing exhibitions, the offer of small homes still attracted desperate house hunters. A police woman was considering a 21-square-meter home in Depok, priced at Rp 36.3 million.
"We could get a house with no down payment and very low monthly installments from our cooperative, but the homes are very far away," the police officer said. The policewoman, who requested anonymity, said officers were entitled to buy a house through their cooperative after eight years of service.
"My husband has worked (for the police) for 12 years, and both our salaries would be used up to pay monthly installments of over Rp 500,000," she said of the 21-square-meter home.
A soldier of Army Strategic Command, Kostrad, was asking about a 21-square-meter home in Cibitung, Bekasi, with a 60-square- meter plot. It was priced at Rp 12.3 million with a Rp 3 million down payment.
"I could easily buy a house built in Purwakarta, for Kostrad members, but they're so tiny," the soldier said. The size was also 21 square meters and the plot was around 40 square meters, he said. "I've only got one child now, but what about later?"
He said homes at the new housing complex in Purwakarta did not require a down payment and installments were only Rp 70,000 a month.
Almost all 150 homes at the housing complex in Purwakarta were sold out, he said, while hundreds of soldiers still needed homes. (anr)