Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (JP)

Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama has revealed his ambition to construct 50,000 apartments in the capital city by 2017.

'€œBoth types of low-cost apartments '€“ rusunawa [for rent] and rusunami [for ownership] '€“ are set to be built in Jakarta,'€ said Ahok as quoted by Antara news agency on Wednesday. According to Ahok, the apartments are not just for the poor and needy, but also for the middle class.

'€œNowadays, there are plenty of middle-class citizens who cannot afford to buy houses in Jakarta, and opt to live in areas surrounding Jakarta. With the apartments, they can stay there during the weekdays, and go home during the weekends,'€ said Ahok.

He said that from the total 50,000 units, 12,000 (around 24 percent) would be rusunami, built for middle to higher class citizens.

This plan is in conjunction with his current plan to convert the land in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, [formerly used as city airport] into 7,200 apartments, which would be used temporarily as an athlete's housing complex during the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.

Ahok also revealed his plan to build 2,300 rusunami in Pasar Rumput, South Jakarta, and another 2,500 in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, as well as other locations like Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta and Grogol in West Jakarta.

'€œ[Soon] there will be plenty of apartments in central areas of the city,'€ said Ahok.

With a total population of about 10 million, developing housing for city dwellers is one of the major concerns the Jakarta city administration is focusing on. Other ongoing urgent problems include the seasonal floods and stagnant traffic. (rad/bbn)

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