JAKARTA. Property businessmen are watching carefully the Minister of Agrarian and Spatial/Head of National Land Agency Regulation No 29/2016 on foreigners ownership. The replacement Regulation of Agrarian Minister No 13/2015 on foreigners ownerships stipulates the alteration of the amount of value for foreigner housing ownership.

For an example, the minimum amount of value for foreigner housing ownership in Bali has increased fro IDR3 billion to IDR5 billion. Associate Director of Raywhite Indonesia Erwin Karya said that the regulation affects to the property sector. “However, we are still unsure about the scale of the impacts”, Erwin said.

Recently, expatriates tend to look for a house with the price ranging from IDR3 billion to IDR5 billion per unit.

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The regulation has led unease to Ray White, on the grounds that around 30% of Ray White customers in Bali are expatriates. Under this condition, the property broker has to make extra efforts to promote the properties with a minimum price at IDR5 billion per unit to the expats, including by expanding the size of the area or building of the properties. However, Erwin declined to reveal the target of property sales for foreigners in Bali.

However, developers seemed to remain calm in responding to the regulation. According to Marketing Director of PT Agung Podomoro Land Tbk Indra Wijaya, some housing development projects are still match with the price range set under the regulation. For an example, the company sets the price range from IDR2 billion to IDR3 billion per a unit for a housing development project in Medan, North Sumatra.

Foreigners comprise small portion of Agung Podomoro’s customers, except for partnership projects, which involve third party, that specifically target foreigners market. “We prefer to target locals than foreigners”, siad Indra.

Aside of Agung Podomoro, Ciputra Group also seemed to remain calm in responding the new regulation. In Bali, the group manages some housing projects. However, most of the buyers are locals. “Expatriates only comprise small portion of the market shares”, said Managing Director of Ciputra Group Harun Hajadi.

Harun added that the group targets domestic medium-high class buyers for the products with the price standards set for foreigners.

(MUHAMMAD FARID/Translator)