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The city administration will commence the renovation of its aged low-cost apartments starting next year to provide better housing for residents.
The first project, according to the city’s Housing and Building Agency head Novizal, would be on low-cost apartments in the Angke subdistrict, Tambora, West Jakarta.
Novizal said on Friday that the agency had finished designing the reconstruction plan, turning the old four-story apartment, which consisted of four blocks and 489 units, into a 14 story apartment, with three blocks and 510 units.
He said that the renovation was needed because the apartment had deteriorated and was deemed
inhospitable.
“The apartment was built in 1985, so it’s only natural that it has been decaying since then,” Novizal told the press in his office.
He cited a non-functioning sewage system, musty walls and tiny spaces as examples of the deteriorating condition of the apartment.
“Most of the units do not have separate bedrooms, so the residents sleep, eat and cook in the same room,” Novizal said. “They only have an 18 meter square space.”
The new apartment blocks will have 30 meter square rooms, enough to accommodate two bedrooms, one living room, a kitchen, a toilet and a veranda.
He said that the renovation would take two to three years to finish and that the residents had agreed to move and rent nearby houses during the reconstruction.
“Since the discussion regarding the renovation started in 2008, we have informed the residents about it and they have agreed to move temporarily,” Novizal said. “We need such a long time because there were many steps we had to take before we started the renovation, such as spatial planning.”
To facilitate residents who wanted to run their businesses in the new apartment, the agency planned to make the first floor into a place for businesses and build a traditional market nearby it, said Novizal.
According to him, in line with the improvement, the agency will raise the rent of the apartments, which can currently be rented for a mere Rp 54,000 (US$5.7) to Rp 70,000 per month.
The project, costing Rp 180 billion, will be the first of many aimed at low-cost apartments throughout the city, many of which have seen better days.
According to Triyanto, head of the agency’s housing development division, his office will start planning the future renovation of other low-cost apartments next year, beginning from the one in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, with 13 blocks and 1,366 units, Karang Anyar, Central Jakarta, with four blocks and 346 units and Cipinang Besar Utara, East Jakarta, with four blocks and 151 units.
“For Penjaringan, we plan to renovate one apartment block first. We are currently looking for available land,” he said.
The agency currently manages 75 blocks of low-cost apartments, which comprise 6,721 units, according to Novizal.
Sixteen of these apartment blocks are now vacant, having been abandoned by their residents. According to the city administration, more than 4,000 new, low-cost apartment units across the city, including the ones managed by private sectors, have long been empty and had begun to deteriorate.
The towers are located in densely populated areas, such as Pulo Gebang and West Cakung, both in East Jakarta, and Pegadungan in West Jakarta. Urban planning experts attributed the vacancies to the characteristics of Jakartans, especially those from lower economic status who were not accustomed to living in vertical buildings. (han)
