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Jakarta Post

City set to take over colonial-era buildings

The city administration plans to take over more than 1,200 buildings from the Dutch colonial era across the capital, as many have been left deserted and without registered owners

Corry Elyda (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, August 26, 2014

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City set to take over colonial-era buildings

T

he city administration plans to take over more than 1,200 buildings from the Dutch colonial era across the capital, as many have been left deserted and without registered owners. The buildings would later become the city'€™s assets and be used for various purposes.

City secretary Saefullah said on Tuesday that he was forming an assessment team to take inventory of the old buildings and to look for the possible owners before taking them over as the city'€™s assets.

'€œThe team will comprise officials from the Housing and Administrative Buildings Agency, the Jakarta Financial Management Body and the National Land Agency [BPN],'€ he said.

Saefullah said the team would have to work fast. '€œWe will give them only one to two months to finish their task,'€ he said.

Housing and Administrative Buildings Agency head Yonathan Pasodung said his agency had identified 1,281 old houses from the colonial era across the city.

Yonathan said most of the houses previously had settlement permit letters (SIP).

According to Yonathan, the buildings are classified into nine categories. As many as 62 buildings belong to the Dutch Citizens'€™ Property Authority Committee (P3MB), while 70 units belong to the Public Works Ministry and 35 units belong to city-owned companies.

Eighty-six buildings are owned by private companies, 53 buildings belong to government bodies, foundations and churches are noted to own 23 units, while 429 units belong to individuals and 10 units belong to the Dutch colonial government.

'€œAs many as 564 buildings are unregistered,'€ Yonathan said.

Yonathan said the team would investigate the ownership of the 564 buildings, adding that the city could also directly take over the certificates of the 10 buildings owned by the former Dutch colonial government.

According to Yonathan, after certifying the buildings, the city could use them for various purposes, including museums. '€œWe also can build parks and renovate the buildings,'€ he said.

The head of the BPN Jakarta office'€™s Land Rights and Registration Department, Andi Tenrisau, said that his team was ready to assist the city administration to make an inventory of the old buildings and their land plots, especially those in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

According to Andi, the certification would be conducted in accordance with the gubernatorial regulation on the authority of properties owned by Dutch citizens. The properties are those that were not affected by Law No. 86/1956 on the nationalization of Dutch companies after their owners left Indonesia.

Jakarta has many old buildings from the colonial era that are now abandoned and unattended. Without proper preservation efforts, most of them are decaying.

The city administration is intensifying its efforts to preserve old buildings, especially those inherited from the Dutch colonial era.

Jakarta Tourism Agency head Arie Budiman said his agency would also disseminate the city administration'€™s policy among owners of old buildings of taking over the buildings if the owners could afford to take care of them.

'€œIf they cannot afford to renovate the buildings, they should let us know, so we can find a solution,'€ he said, adding that all old buildings from the colonial era have been declared heritage sites and that their owners were required to gain approval from the authorities if they wanted to renovate them.

Arie said that one solution was to offer the renovation projects to other parties.

'€œBuildings in the historic city of Kota Tua, for example, can cooperate with the Jakarta Old Town Revitalization Cooperation [JOTRC], which would offer various business cooperation schemes, like using the buildings for business,'€ he said.

Arie said the city administration could also offer to renovate the buildings.

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