J

an. 31, 2016

Former president BJ Habibie, via his firm Pollux Habibie International, is set to construct Meisterstadt, a superblock worth US$1 billion on a 9-hectare plot of land in Batam.

The construction of the apartment project, which will comprise 11 residential towers and is to be equipped with a hospital, will start in the middle of this year, targeting residents of Indonesia'€™s neighboring countries, particularly Singapore.

Pollux Habibie International commissioner Ilham Akbar Habibie told The Jakarta Post in Batam on Saturday that the Meisterstadt superblock would be built in four stages.

Your comments:

Foreigners can'€™t buy properties in Indonesia! That'€™s it. Anyone willing to buy must remember that the Indonesian government changes laws every week.

Rendang

Just wondering where the money would come from? Personal savings? From where?

Passingthru101

I firmly believe this is just another dream, like building planes, like the high-speed passenger ferries Habibie imported from Germany (at huge overrated cost) and where are they now? PT PAL is the only company that seems to be producing a half reasonable product, but the general public would never see the true costs and or audited profit and loss reports.

Very sad situation and again the taxpayer pays.

Longtime Bule

As a person with German education, I hope he knows that he needs to create an environment with order and the rule of law as a priority for the development to attract more people.

Korstleting

It is a great idea from the man who lives in Patra Kuningan. Somehow doubt he'€™s going to be moving from his ill-gotten house to a 24-square-meter apartment in Batam.

JLC

The man who called Singapore '€œa little red dot'€ when he was president of Indonesia, now wants to make money out of Singaporeans. This man has no shame. What a joke!

Loutaolei

I think he knows that many rich Indonesians buy properties in Singapore, while Singaporeans do have the potential to balance it by buying properties in Indonesia, in this case Batam, which is smart insight from Mr. Habibie.

Jalasveva

It will be a total flop. Vicinity does not equal desire. Just because Singaporeans are close to Batam doesn'€™t mean they would want to live there.

Check out the failure that is Lombok; where are all those promised tourists because Bali is so close?

Lovingthemacet

Batam'€™s architectural landscape is littered with the unsightly shop houses. But then again, such blight, including half-completed buildings, is a common eyesore across the country.

As the law stands at the moment, foreigners are only allowed a leasehold strata property with a minimum value of $375,000 for up to 25 years.

I don'€™t know if Habbibie is aware of this very attractive investment scheme (or scam?). Is this a case of another senior official putting the cart before the cow?

And the target market, the Singaporeans, is a very educated one. They will not fall for this.

Just curious though where is Habibie going to get $1 billion from for this proposed scam?

Abu-abu

Something is ostensibly missing in this article. My friends in Batam say that these blocks will be built up to 100 storys high, and it'€™s undeniably true that the marketing brochures say so.

Put aside the joys, advantages and disadvantages when living in a multi-storied apartment of such size and latitude, what kind of visas will be granted by the local government to foreign owners and tenants of these apartments? The usual 30-day tourist visa? Are the owners granted '€œfreehold'€ land titles or the 30-year ownership currently applied throughout Batam?

How much is the estimated Management fee per month? Do I take it that a multi-story car park will be built to house cars for the 11 towers, which is about 11 blocks times 1500 cars?

Luwanto

One hundred storys? My question would be, '€œhow long are the Batam fire department ladders?'€

Bohongbohong