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)