Tenants of middle-income apartments face difficulties in finding parking for their vehicles due to limited space, but they have managed to adapt to the situation.

Diplomat Muthia Amalia, 30, has trouble getting her car out of the Kalibata City apartment parking lot every morning. She and her husband have lived there since 2011.

'€œI find it difficult to pull my car out of my parking space because at least four cars are lined up parallel behind my space,'€ said Muthia. She complains that her car often gets scratched because of this.

She said that she would rather learn to accept the situation, scratches and all, than to deal with the crowds of a commuter train to her workplace in Central Jakarta.

Geologist Dayinta Adi Dyaksa, 25, who has lived at Kalibata City apartment since 2013, said she could barely find space for her car after office hours, especially past 8 p.m.

She said that she often had to drive around the apartment compound for an hour to find an empty parking space.

Both Muthia and Dayinta said that they came to Kalibata City apartments with cars because the contracts allowed them to bring a car and a motorcycle. Despite the crowded parking lot, they still use cars for '€œsafe and comfortable commuting'€ in Jakarta.

Parking space has increasingly become a problem in the capital, which has seen considerable development of middle-income apartments and a growing number of cars.

Kalibata City general manager Evan T. Wallad acknowledged the problem, explaining that the parking lots had a capacity of only 4,000 vehicles although there were now 9,000 apartment units.

He said that management wanted to improve parking by building a high-rise parking ramp on its property, which is a designated green space. However, the city administration rejected the plan.

He said Kalibata City apartments were middle-class apartments designed in accordance with Public Works and Public Housing Ministerial Regulation No. 5/2007 on technical guidelines for low-middle-income vertical residential housing.

'€œClassified as apartments for low-middle income residents, these apartments have been built with a ratio of units to parking slots standing at 5:1, meaning that every five apartment units are provided with only one parking space,'€ Evans said.

At Green Pramuka City apartments in Central Jakarta, there are now 4,000 units from 13,000 set to be built, but only 1,300 parking spaces provided for all unit owners.

Sales and Public Relation manager Joko Sumariyanto said that Green Pramuka City residents had not faced parking problems because the units had yet to be fully occupied and only around 400 cars used the parking lots.

He said that in the future, the management was considering involving residents in solving parking problems. One idea is for residents to take turns using the parking lot.

Film director Wregas Bhanutedja, 23, who currently resides in Green Pramuka City apartments, said that if the time came he would agree to it. He said he was fully aware that sharing things, including parking space, was a part of apartment living.

'€œI am planning to live here for the next seven years. If the parking lots get crowded, that'€™s a risk of living in an apartment that I will have to face,'€ Wregas said. (agn)

Popular

More jobs, less value: Indonesia’s labor efficiency gap

Indonesia condemns Israeli demolition of UNRWA buildings

Prabowo’s $6 billion rescue plan leaves textile industry puzzled