Lilies Surjono, chief marketing officer (CMO) of Mahkota Sentosa Utama, the Lippo Group company that is developing the Meikarta project, said on Tuesday that it was hoping to sell about 1,250 apartments this year, from 1,000 total units in 2019.

“In total, we have sold about 80 percent of about 20,000 apartments in Meikarta,” she said at a press conference in Jakarta. 

Lilies said the company had finished constructing 22 of 28 apartment towers as of the end of last year and was aiming to finish the remaining six by February, concluding the construction of all the residential towers in Meikarta’s District 1. 

In the meantime, Meikarta is also committed to expediting the construction of its District 2 area this year, she added. 

Publicly listed property developer Lippo Cikarang advisor Henry Riady said District 2 would consist of 30 apartment towers, along with other facilities that would cater to the millennial market such as entertainment and lifestyle centers, co-working spaces and gyms.

Lilies added that the company could finish the new district’s towers in 2023. "We hope we can finish all the towers in two to three years, just like we did in District 1," she said.

Despite the completion of those districts, Lippo Group still has a long way to go to develop Meikarta, designed to become the "Shenzen of Indonesia", as it sits on 22 square kilometers of land in Cikarang, Bekasi, West Java.

The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) reported that complaints about the development of the satellite city Meikarta were at the top of the list for 2019. Customers requested refunds following a bribery case that sent Lippo Group executive Billy Sindoro to three-and-a-half years in prison and Bekasi regent Neneng Hasanah Yasin to six years.

Lilies also acknowledged there had been a public perception that the Meikarta project had stalled along with a significant decrease in marketing efforts after an aggressive advertising and marketing campaign in local media and shopping centers.

“We did not advertise too much last year because we focused on the development of roads and finishing construction. The reason behind waiting until January 2020 [to announce progress] is to wait for all the proof to be evident,” she added.