Amsterdam homes to be gas free by 2050

DutchNews, November 17, 2016    

Amsterdam city council has published a plan to rid the city of gas-fired cooking and central heating by 2050, broadcaster NOS said on Thursday. 

Next year, the aim is to remove 10,000 housing corporation homes from the gas network, city alderman Abdeluheb Choho said. 

In addition, two new residential areas are already being built without links to the gas network. 

The city has plans to build 50,000 new homes within the next 10 years and none will have gas heating or cooking facilities. Instead, the homes will be heated by surplus heat generated by industry. Some 70,000 homes in the city are already on district heating networks. 

One condition for making the switch is that there will be no increase in costs for tenants. The city is therefore asking central government for financial support to turn the city into a gas free zone. 

Industrial estate prices 'to remain stable'

Agustina Wayansari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The price of industrial estates is likely to remain stable in Jakarta and Greater Jakarta this year due to slow demand, recent research shows.

"Considering demand is likely to remain slow this year, prices are expected to remain stable at around Rp 554,000 (approximately US$61.5) per square meter," PT Property Advisory Indonesia (Provis) associate partner Arief Rahardjo told reporters Monday.

Citing Provis' first publicized research results, Arief said industrial property in Jakarta was becoming limited and as a consequence industrial estates in Bekasi, Karawang and Purwakarta may develop new clusters expected to enter the market in 2008.

The report said demand for industrial estates after the 1997 economic crisis had slowed, showing a decline since 2006, and may remain weak this year.

The research also indicated the net purchase of industrial land in Greater Jakarta stood at 130 hectares in 2007, down some 32 percent from the previous year at 192 hectares.

"The demand slowed in 2005 with total purchases amounting to 200 hectares, and then declined to 192 hectares in 2006," said Wira Agus, the senior manager for strategic consultancy at Provis.

Arief said industrial land was generally used by automotive and steel-related industries, while industrial buildings were largely absorbed by the logistics industry.

Arief said transactions involving large industrial plots would also remain low in 2008 due to limited foreign investment, while small-scale demand had room to grow.

From 7,800 hectares of available land in 2007, the report indicated that the market only absorbed about 70 percent or 5,500 hectares.

Arief said local investors were likely to remain the main purchasers of land and buildings, followed by investors from Japan, Germany and France.

According to the report, demand for offices increased in the Greater Jakarta area last year, with demand from the telecommunications, banking, finance and insurance sectors the greatest, especially in terms of lease arrangements.

Managing partner David Cheadle said net purchasing in 2007 reached 203,600 square meters, an increase of 63 percent from 124,908 square meters the previous year.

"Most companies have leased the same buildings for some 12 years and now they want to move to better offices. Some companies may also be looking for new places due to business expansion," said Cheadle, adding that it was the right time for businesses to relocate as there were many Grade A buildings in the market.

As of December 2007, Provis reported that cumulative demand for office properties in the Central Business District (CBD) reached 2.9 million square meters, with an occupancy rate of 85.2 percent.

The report indicated that cumulative supply stood at 3.42 million square meters and the total net take up for CBD offices stood at 203,600 square meters over the year, which is the highest figure since the economic crisis in 1997.

Cheadle said the rental rate was relatively stable in the fourth quarter last year, standing at Rp 129,665 per square meter. He said the rate would most likely increase in 2008 as most landlords had decided to raise base rental and service charges by between 5 and 10 percent.

All buildings to self-audit energy efficiency: New law

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With an aim of securing energy supplies, the government is drafting a regulation on energy conservation that is expected to push commercial and industrial building management to start saving energy voluntarily, an official said.

The head of the energy conservation sub-directorate at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Indarti, said Tuesday the draft mandated an energy manager to audit total energy usage for all buildings and report it to the ministry every six months.

"An energy manager must know total energy waste for the building. The ministry will scrutinize it and give recommendations so buildings and plants can save energy without decreasing productivity."

The recommendations will vary with buildings' energy infrastructure in terms of cost implications, she added.

Indarti said the ministry wouldn't require reports from buildings that used only a small amount of energy.

The draft is expected to be completed next year, she said.

At present, energy audit responsibilities fall wholly on government. So far this year the ministry has examined energy usage at 68 buildings and 132 plants. Next year, when the energy audit budget drops to Rp 4 billion (US$431,732) from a current Rp 22 billion, it will examine only 16 buildings and 28 plants.

Tunggul Sirait of the Indonesian Electricity Society said the government would set up a national energy board to promote energy conservation. It will be chaired by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and include representatives from industry and universities, as well as technological experts, he said.

The board is mandated by a 2007 national energy law -- Law 30 -- intended to provide a framework for conservation and renewable energy.

Conservation, according to managing director of electricity management company PT Schneider Indonesia Eddy Tjahja, was the most efficient way to ensure that energy would be there when needed.

"We can save by up to 35 percent of total energy consumption if we use electricity efficiently," he said.

Some industries, including textiles and hospitality, say they have been using special devices and monitoring their utility bills to help conserve energy since electricity costs went up in 2006. (adt)

Jamsostek to build more flats on Batam

SUMENEP, East Java (Jakarta Post): State insurance company PT Jamsostek is planning to develop 100 more low-cost apartments for workers on industrial estates on Batam Island, Riau Islands province, in the next five years.

"Housing is urgently needed in Batam since hundreds of thousands of low-income workers have occupied illegal huts which have raised serious problems for the Batam authorities," Jamsostek president Hotbonar Sinaga said here Saturday.

The construction of the new apartments will start next year.

So far Jamsostek has built two apartment blocks to accommodate some 6,000 workers on the island.

Sinaga said the government has agreed to issue a special regulation on the housing project, worth Rp 300 billion (US$32.37. Jamsostek will put aside Rp 100 billion from its 2007 and 2008 profits to finance the project.

He added that the apartments will be built on 60 hectares of land near the Muka Kuning industrial zone on the island. --JP

Indonesia loses Rp 5.71t through unused lands

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Indonesia loses a potential Rp 5.71 trillion (US$630.40 million) annually from 7.15 million hectares of unused land across the country, or an area 110 times the size of Singapore, an official says.

That (the potential loss) is equal to our GDP or our production value for the whole year, including that produced by foreign companies operating here," head of the National Land Agency (BPN), Joyo Winoto, said here Wednesday.

Winoto made the remarks at a three-day seminar and congress of the Association of Indonesian Soil Sciences (HITI), which he officially opened at UPN Veteran University in Yogyakarta.

Some 500 scientists attended the event, which was held under the theme: Solution to the mismanagement of lands and water to help improve people's welfare.

Winoto said the estimated loss was based on a rough calculation of the existing use of lands across the country.

Winoto said unused land was often unable to be utilized or managed for productive activities as it was usually owned by either individuals or companies.

He attributed this to a lack of adequate regulations, saying Law No 5/1960, that should function as the basis for agrarian affairs in the country, was not effective.
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Another regulation -- Law No 56/1960 -- he said, dealt only with restrictions on land ownership for agricultural purposes for individuals.

"A regulation (on land ownership) for individuals for non-agricultural purposes does not exist yet ... neither does one for companies dealing with both agricultural and non-agricultural industries," Winoto said.

"What we have now is only a regulation set by the BPN head. And this is not enough. We are dealing with concession issuance. It's a state policy. So, a comprehensive law is required."

He said the concentration of private control over resources was unhealthy, especially over land and the economic and political resources of a nation.

"It's really very worrying to learn there is a holding company here in control of more than 400,000 hectares of land. That is seven times (the size of) Singapore," he added.

He said 56 percent of Indonesia's strategic national assets were under the control of only 0.2 percent of the total population of the country, creating gaps in social, economic and political matters.

The problem, according to Winoto, gets more complicated when it is related to the problem of poverty.

Some 39 million of Indonesia's population, he said, were economically poor, including 66 percent that lived in rural areas and 56 percent of which depended on agriculture for a living.

"It's quite interesting to learn that, in this independent country, 90 percent of the economically poor people are hard workers. They work hard but they are poor. Why?" Winoto said.

"I had a team look into this. It discovered that most poor people did not have access to economic and political resources, including land, capital and technology," he added.

Winoto expressed hope the HITI seminar and the congress would go beyond discussions on soil fertility and would also contribute to agrarian reform.

S. Jakarta 'hot spot' for developers

Agnes Winarti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Property developers still regard South Jakarta as the "hot spot" for developing mixed-use superblocks despite water shortages and pollution in the area, a property analyst says.

"Most developers eye South Jakarta for mixed-use development because large plots of land are still available there," Coldwell Banker Commercial Indonesia's research and analyst manager, Dwi Novita Yeni, told reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of a third-quarter report seminar on the Greater Jakarta property market.

Mixed-use development refers to the multipurpose use of a building or set of buildings as residential, commercial, industrial, office and institutional premises.

Dwi said mixed-use apartment complexes needed to be built on at least a five-hectare plot of land, which South Jakarta still had plenty of.

Gandaria City, Kemang Village and Nifarro in Jl. Kalibata, are examples of the latest mixed-use developments in South Jakarta.

Dwi said apartments and office buildings were still the largest contributors to the property businesses in Greater Jakarta.

Besides land availability, South Jakarta also offers cheaper land prices than that in the central business district.

In April, land prices along Sudirman and in Kuningan had reportedly reached between Rp 12 million to Rp 20 million per square meter, while those in areas like TB Simatupang, in South Jakarta, sold for a mere Rp 3 million.

Meanwhile, head of the environmental damage control unit at the Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD), Daniel Abas, told The Jakarta Post the environmental condition of South Jakarta is currently at "a very concerning level".

More than 80 percent of the groundwater and surface water in South Jakarta is polluted, 40 percent of which is highly contaminated, he said.

According to BPLHD, during the dry season residents in South Jakarta need to dig deeper wells, some as deep as 16 meters, just to find groundwater, while in the wet season they need to dig about 8 meters.

"The normal depth of a well is between 8 and 10 meters," Daniel said.

He also commented on the overwhelming traffic conditions in South Jakarta. "Almost every street in South Jakarta suffers traffic congestion."

These factors, he said, are indicators that South Jakarta's environment is at an alarming state.

"Property development is only good if it does not harm the environment."

Dwi said developers should have a good understanding of the city's spatial planning regulations, which stipulate that 40 percent of a municipality's area should be designated as water absorption areas, while the remaining 60 percent can be developed.

South Jakarta's 145.73-square-kilometer area includes three districts designated for water conservation; parts of Cilandak, Pasar Minggu and Jagakarsa.

Eight other districts, which include parts of Kebayoran Baru, Pancoran, Mampang Prapatan, Kebayoran Lama and Pesanggrahan, function as "backup" areas for the main conservation areas.