Bekasi, Tangerang get ‘rusunami’

The Jakarta Post, BEKASI, TANGERANG | Thu, 02/12/2009 12:00 PM  

State-owned housing company Perumnas has started building four towers of subsidized, low-cost apartments (rusunami) in Bekasi, the company’s director said Wednesday. 

Center Point Apartment will occupy 1.4 hectares of land near the Jakarta-Cikampek tollgate, said Perumnas marketing director Tedy Robinson.

“We expect to complete construction of the first tower by the end of this year,” Tedy said, as quoted by Antara news agency. 

Each of the four towers will comprise 16 levels with 870 units of type-22 and type-36 apartments, which will be sold at Rp 88 million and Rp 144 million, respectively. 

Even though the apartments will be sold at low prices, he said, Perumnas would provide facilities similar to high-class apartments.

“We will build a swimming pool, hospital, shopping center and playgrounds, as well as a café and restaurant in the area.”     

He said the strategic location of Center Point Apartment had attracted many customers, with 80 percent of the units to be constructed in phase one already sold.

The apartments are located across from Bekasi Mitra Keluarga Hospital and next to the Islamic Center building and Pondok Gede boarding house for pilgrims, he said.

Tedy said the Bekasi administration supported the construction by issuing a building permit.

A Tangerang official said the administration supported the government’s program to build subsidized, low-cost apartments by building two towers in the region.

The construction of the two towers, located in Cireundeu Ciputat Timur in South Tangerang, is pressing ahead, said Muhammad Hidayat, the head of the Integrated Agency of Service and Licensing (BP2T).  

Hidayat said the Tangerang administration issued a permit on the construction and another permit on spatial planning for the two towers.

“In building the apartments, we have complied with the regulation on water reservoir areas,” he said.    

He said that the construction was responsible so long as it complied with of the analysis of environmental impact (Amdal).

The development of low-cost apartments in Bekasi and Tangerang are part of the central government’s plan to construct 1,000 towers, or 600,000 units, of subsidized apartments nationwide within the next four to five years.

The apartments are sold at a maximum price of Rp 144 million per unit to people earning less than Rp 4.5 million per month.

Half of the towers will be built in Greater Jakarta, 30 percent in cities throughout Java and the remaining 20 percent in urban areas outside Java.

The Public Housing Ministry has estimated that Jakarta will be home to around 51,000 subsidized apartment units by the end of this year.

To encourage more developers to take part in the projects, the government has offered incentives such as tax breaks and subsidies.