Minister, realtors blast new townships
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)