Officials vow to fight against defiant builders

Officials vow to fight against defiant builders

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Public Housing Akbar Tandjung
will soon gather officials from Jakarta and its surrounding areas
to discuss ways of preventing illicit practices by developers.

"I will soon invite the officials to discuss ways of
preventing delinquent developers from offering 'fictitious
houses' to the public, the minister told reporters yesterday.

As of August, police reported the sales of nine houses that
were paid for but never built.

On Wednesday, the office of a real estate company with the
initials PT MS, was attacked by angry buyers, who had paid down
payments for their houses-to-be.

Almost 1,000 people paid between Rp 300,000 and Rp 1.5 million
each to the developer, who disappeared after collecting Rp 1
billion ($449,400).

Tandjung said that the local authorities in Jakarta, Bogor,
Tangerang, and Bekasi, need to be more selective in issuing house
building permits to developers.

Speaking to reporters during an inspection of 580 low-cost
houses in Bekasi, the minister said that he would take stern
action against the developer and notify the National Housing
Board.

He said the National Housing Board and its regional offices
across the country plan to intensify their control.

The board, an agency overseen by the State Minister of Public
Housing, was set up in October last year. Its members include the
ministers of public works, home affairs, social services and the
state ministers of national development planning (chairman of the
National Development Planning Board or Bappenas) and agrarian
affairs (chairman of the National Land Agency).

It is in charge of supervising private, state-owned and
cooperative developers without interfering in the companies'
activities.

One way suggested to control dishonest developers, he said, is
to ban them from making transactions with buyers before they
obtain licenses for construction. (03)