Many residents of Benhil apartments transfer ownership

JAKARTA (JP): The new apartments in Bendungan Hilir, or Benhil, continue to attract interested buyers.

Those who ask to speak with the management are told to deal directly with residents as units in the ten-story apartment building in Central Jakarta are not supposed to be for sale.

"Visitors come every day, and on Sundays they come from morning until the evening," Sani, a resident, said yesterday.

"I just watch them going up and down and looking around," the mother of three said.

Many residents living there now feel that they cannot afford to pay for the apartments, many of which are already being resold for up to Rp 50 million (US$21,394.95) -- only two weeks after Governor Surjadi Soedirdja inaugurated the apartments on May 30.

Surjadi has told residents not to transfer the ownership of their apartments, which are strategically located close to Jl. Sudirman, Jl. Gatot Subroto and the Slipi area.

Two signs sit in front of the complex, stating that the units were built by the municipality only for victims of the fire which razed 400 slum homes in 1994.

But the signs have largely been ignored. Residents say that transactions began taking place long before the neatly built structures with pink roofs were built.

Many former residents sold the rights to their apartments based on land prices and not the market price for the apartments.

"My neighbor sold her ownership right for only Rp 3 million (US$1,283.70)," one woman said.

"Even if they had looked at the apartment plans, people here wouldn't have understood the value of the land. But they wouldn't have sold their apartments at such a price if they had known the plots would be like this," she said, looking up at the apartment complex.

The government has subsidized 50 percent of the apartment costs, which are priced on average between Rp 20 million and Rp 30 million.

Monthly installments range from Rp 88,000 to Rp 191,000 with service charges totaling up to Rp 39,000.

Sani said her husband has already sold their 21-square-meter unit. His salary as a generator repairman, she said, cannot cover the monthly installments and living expenses. However, trains at the station near Bendungan Hilir make it easy for her to reach her husband's place of work and her daughter's school, Sani said.

She said she did not know how much her husband earns, but that his salary is divided between the five members of her husband's family.

Sani said she can usually earn money by selling food. Such activities, however, are not allowed on the grounds unless residents buy additional space to set up businesses on the ground floor.

Because the units are not for sale officially the ownership documents are still under her husband's name, though the monthly payments are now being paid by the new buyer.

She said that many others have not paid service charges due to the upcoming school year. In the end, she said, her family has already bought a home in Sudimara, Tangerang, where other neighbors have also built new homes.

City housing officials have said that they plan to begin keeping ownership records of the Benhil apartments in order to prevent residents from transferring the ownership of their apartments.

Despite the city's efforts, prospective buyers continue to drop by. Yesterday, a young couple on a motorcycle came by to ask if the units were for sale. They were then allowed to take a look inside. After a tour, the couple was surprised to hear that the apartments were only 18 to 21 square meters without rooms, and that the 36-square-meter units had yet to be built. (anr)