Minister, realtors blast new townships
JAKARTA (JP): The association of real estate developers and the Ministry of Housing said that self-claimed 'towns' are developed by the private sector without regard to their adjacent poor areas.
Local administrations should tighten supervision of the development of a new town, said Goenadi Haryanto of the Indonesian Association of Real Estate Developers.
"Officials should not always just say 'amen' to every request from a developer to build facilities," Haryanto told reporters during a two-day seminar on the development of self-contained cities which ended yesterday.
State Minister of Public Housing Akbar Tanjung, also the chairman of the National Board on Policy and Control of Housing and Settlement Building, earlier proposed the development of self-contained cities to lessen the burden of metropolitans like Jakarta.
Mission
"Without rules and clarity of regional land use plans, developers have no clear mission of building a new town, and only compete sharply to offer the best," Haryanto said. He added this leads, for instance, to the construction of golf courses in each residential and commercial site in Tangerang.
Slogans like future "environmentally-friendly city" remain hollow slogans, he said, as the developer only builds another estate just like any other residential and commercial area around Jakarta.
An assistant to the State Minister of Housing, Soedarsono Soekardi, also said private developers "still only look after the interests of their own housing sites."
For instance the Lippo Karawaci (formerly 'Lippo Village') and the neighboring Karawaci Perumnas built by the state-owned housing company remain two separate sites, said Soedarsono.
The discussion, organized by the Properti magazine, brought together high ranking officials from the Ministry of Housing, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Public Works and representatives of private developers.
Yesterday's talks elaborated on the problem raised Monday by urban development experts. Djoko Sujarto from Bandung said self- claimed independent towns merely reflect "a sprawling metropolitan" instead of the beginning of the growth of self- contained cities.
Violations of land use plans are also a problem, he said.
To correct the condition, Soedarsono stressed a "partnership" between the government and the private sector, and reminded developers to "understand" the need for them to build low-cost houses in their high-priced areas.
Meanwhile, the frequent complaints of fraudulent practices carried out by developers was brought to the attention of President Soeharto yesterday by Minister of Housing Akbar Tanjung.
"Prospective consumers must be protected against speculation and fraud," said Tanjung after meeting the President.
The Ministry is planning a regulation that prohibits the sale of residential property before all permits are completed. (anr)