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)