Low cost apartments officially opened

Low cost apartments officially opened

JAKARTA (JP): A low cost apartment complex built for victims
of a 1994 South Jakarta slum fire is finally ready to be lived
in.

The apartments in the West Tebet subdistrict, opened yesterday
by Governor Surjadi Soedirdja, covers a 17.3-hectare plot where
the fire razed hundreds of homes.

Following the fire, the governor's decree to build a low cost
apartment complex on the land met resistance from the fire's
victims. However the building of four five-story units worth at
least Rp 13 billion continued.

The victim's complained they would not be able to afford the
monthly installments. The owners now pay Rp 80,000 to 90,000 a
month exclusive of maintenance costs and a Rp 3 million down
payment.

Head of the City Housing Office Onky Sukasah said 137 of 320
units had already been moved into by fire victims. The units were
built by the city-owned PT Jaya Realty and the private-run PT
Setdco Graha Mandhura.

For residents who own tofu and fermented soybean cake (tempe)
businesses there 14 kiosks for them to operate south of the
complex.

Low income residents who operate businesses from home often
resist apartment living.

Repeating earlier warnings to new apartment owners, Governor
Surjadi Soedirdja said residents of the 21-square-meter units
must not be tempted into selling their units.

However, he acknowledged it was difficult to police this
because transactions were done privately.

"The only thing we can do is ask residents to appreciate our
efforts in providing them with good housing," he said.

He said many residents were not aware that they were not
allowed to sell their units.

"We want to provide good homes for low income people but
without their own awareness, we cannot do anything," he said.

Units which are found to be sold are sealed by the housing
agency. But often documents still bear the name of the original
owner even though the unit has been sold.

Onky said given the increasing needs for low cost apartments,
more private developers should build them.

"Out of 70 apartment projects (by private developers), only 14
are low-cost apartments," he said. Only four of the low-cost
apartment projects have been completed.

Onky said developers complain they do not profit from building
cheap apartments.

"Many developers have limited financial resources, so they
build medium and high price apartments to get profit before
building cheap ones," he said. (04)