Ombudsman Urges Indonesian Consumers Not to Buy Meikarta Property
The Lippo Group continues to aggressively promote its ambitious Meikarta project in Indonesian media and in various strategic locations. In fact, the group claims that pre-sales of apartment units has already reached 130,000 per August 2017, an impressive number. However, the project is controversial because the developer reportedly did not obtain all necessary permits and land that is required to construct the integrated township.
Meikarta is a grand 500-hectare property development project with 100 hectares of open green space, 250,000 units of prime residential property, and 1,500,000 m2 of prime commercial space located about 34 kilometers to the east of Indonesia's capital city of Jakarta.
James Riady, Chief Executive of the Lippo Group, said the Meikarta project will help the government to tackle Indonesia's housing backlog of 13.5 million units. However, we assume that most Meikarta units that have been sold so far were bought by investors or second-home buyers and therefore the project should help little to combat the housing backlog.
Read more: Meikarta, One of Indonesia's Troubled Property Projects?
Meanwhile, Ombudsman commissioner Alamsyah Saragih urges Indonesian consumers not to buy property at Meikarta because the Lippo Group has not yet obtained all permits and has not acquired all land in the Meikarta area. Saragih also advises the Lippo Group to stop its marketing activities related to Meikarta.
