New ruling on house sales to be issued soon

New ruling on house sales to be issued soon

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister for Housing Affairs Akbar
Tandjung said yesterday that the government would soon enact
regulations governing the sale of partially-constructed houses,
in an effort to protect purchasers from deceitful transactions.

"The ruling is expected to ensure fair transactions in the
housing business," he said during a break in a one-day workshop
on housing development.

Akbar said that the rules on the pre-sale of houses would be
the first of three new regulations now being drafted by his
office.

He said the other two instruments concerned, respectively,
guidelines on the establishment of a low-cost flats residents'
associations, and guidelines regarding supporting business
activities in the real estate sector, such as broking and
property management consulting.

The minister said that the new regulations on the pre-sale of
houses were essential in order to protect buyers from dishonest
transactions.

He said that buyers could easily be cheated in cases where the
purchase transaction occurred long before the construction of the
house had been completed.

"Many documents on the sale of houses are even signed before
the start of construction work," he said, adding that in such
transactions the buyer was in a weak legal position if, for
example, the house was subsequently not built according to the
original plans or, indeed, was not constructed at all.

Streamlining

Akbar said the planned regulations which aimed to streamline
the operations of supporting services in the real estate sector
were important because supporting businesses, such as housing
brokerages and property management consultancies, had grown
rapidly, in line with the fast development of the country's
property sector.

"Such service businesses are licensed by the Ministry of Trade
but their activities still lack supervision," he said.

On the planned regulations on the establishment of
associations of occupants living in low-cost flats, the minister
said that it was needed, not only to help create harmonious
neighborhoods, but also to ensure the smooth transfer of flats
from developers to occupants.

"Without the establishment of such associations, flats might
not be handed over to their occupants," he said. (hen)