Old buildings unattractive to investors

Agnes Winarti, THE JAKARTA POST, JAKARTA | Mon, 02/09/2009 10:45 AM  

With the increasing destruction of heritage buildings, experts say investors and the public do not understand the importance of conservation. 

“Buying an old building in Jakarta is more like a burden, while abroad heritage buildings are regarded as diamonds,” the city administration’s independent review team for cultural heritage building restoration, Bambang Eryudhawan, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. 

“Here, buildings aren’t valued as much as the land on which they stand,” Bambang said.

According to data of the city tourism and culture agency, there are some 273 heritage buildings around Jakarta in areas such as Menteng, Kota, Condet and Kebayoran. 

“People living in heritage areas like Menteng are burdened with the highest land and building taxes, which amounted some Rp 71 million per year for an 800 to 1,000 square meter property,” Bambang said, 

Arya Abieta of the Indonesian Architectural Documentation Center, said that, “home owners, who are unable to pay such high taxes will sell the property to newcomers, who are less attached to the history of the property. They often demolish the historic buildings and rebuild something completely different.” 

A 1999 bylaw on the utilization and preservation of cultural heritage buildings and areas differentiates heritage buildings into three categories: A, B and C. 

Each category has different rules regarding renovations. Those  violating  the bylaws face a maximum of six months imprisonment and/or Rp 5 million (US$430) in fines. 

Head of the city’s tourism and cultural agency Arie Budhiman said recently the administration did not mind if heritage sites were converted into restaurants, art galleries, or theaters, as long as the construction designs adhered to the regulations. 

“We can not expect heritage buildings to stay sterile, they must be able to interact with their environment and bring economic benefits,” he said. 

“Therefore, we invite the private sector to invest in the restoration of the buildings,” he said.

Bambang said the administration needed to better synchronise coordination between related stakeholders and work out contradictory heritage building regulations. 

He said that the lack of coordination between related agencies, including the spatial planning agency and the tourism and cultural agency, authorized to monitor the development of heritage sites, has created loopholes. 

“There are cases where a category-A-building according to one agency is considered a category B by another,” he said. 

The lack of public order, environmental sanitation and safety, further discourage heritage building owners in the Old Town area from  revamping their properties. 

“We hope that the administration starts directly tackling the social and economic conditions in Old Town, instead of merely focusing on artificial grooming, such as placing lamps in the area,” Ella Ubaidi of the association of the Old Town heritage building owners, said.

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