The Covid-19 pandemic that hit Indonesia in 2020 had a very bad effect on the property sector. This sector is one of the most affected by the pandemic. In Jakarta, there is “ghost apartments” phenomenon, which is the name for apartments left by expatriates who return to their country due to restrictions.
Now, after the pandemic has slowly been contained, the ghost apartment term is starting to disappear. This is because the expatriates have returned to Indonesia and the property business is starting to return to normal. The apartment began to be crowded with fans.
Colliers Indonesia’s Division Head of Residential Services Lenny Sinaga revealed that they were back to work and activities in Jakarta, no more ghost apartments.
“Currently, since the end of last year, the condition has started to pick up, and expatriates come mostly looking for apartments. Mostly couples or singles. But some come with family children. But singles, couples are looking for a lot in the city, SCBD area, Kuningan,” he was quoted as saying Friday (24/6/22).
He emphasized that it was not a massive wave of expatriates that came, but that the trend of foreign workers coming to Indonesia was starting to be seen. Their arrival leads to service apartments or those under the building operator.
“On average, single companies put service apartments, like Ascott, they have Ascott, Somerset, Citadine and those at Ritz Carlton Pacific Place, service apartments and several other places,” said Lenny.
Meanwhile, unservice apartments are apartments owned by individuals. They usually rent out the unit at a lower price, but in terms of service, it is not as complete as a service apartment. terms of the average rental period of at least one year. Meanwhile, service apartments also have flexibility in rental times.
“On average they are 3-12 months, rent a service apart where they can daily, Sunday and monthly so it doesn’t matter and they are all in the full furnish, service dealing, housekeeping service, breakfast comes in too. So it’s more comfortable to put expats in service apartments, ” he said.
Previously, the Director of Research Consultancy Savills Indonesia, Anton Sitorus, said that the western area of Jakarta is currently one of the targets because it has advantages that are supported by infrastructure such as toll roads. This condition makes the western area of Jakarta still a target.
“Development in the west, both commercial and supporting facilities, is more advanced. And some locations are still very busy developing,” said Anton, Tuesday (21/6/2022).
On the other hand, he said, in the last three years, the most prominent trend in buying property is the landed house. The factors of comfort and health are the drivers of increasing demand, either in ordinary housing or in independent cities.
So it is not surprising that currently many large developers have new projects whose sales are quite high and most of them come from independent urban housing. “There are several top developers who posted record sales,” he explained.
