Land Ownership | Should it be for sale or lease?

Hard to say but it is kind of annoying to know that land prices continue to rise every year. For people who already owned a land, congratulation for them. And for people who do not have it yet, you have to work very hard guys so that you will be able to purchase one too in the future. The question that we all may ask (particularly for those who do not own a land) deep in our heart, how hard should we work so we can afford it? 5 years, 10 years, or 20 years perhaps? It is quite a long time, right pals?

Therefore, on this simple personal writing, I would like to offer another alternative that perhaps can answer this problematic event. I will begin from what stated in the 3rd point of article 33 of UUD 1945 (transl. Ayat 3 Pasal 33 UUD 1945), "Earth, water and natural riches contained therein are controlled by the state and used for the greatest welfare of the people." This article clearly describes that it is the right of Indonesian government to control and use earth as a part of state assets to accommodate the needs of its people. This is the first clue to our alternative answer.

The next clue comes from business model that will become one of mega trends for the next decade. Manoj Menon, the partner and managing director of Asia Pacific for Frost and Sullivan, has revealed his 10 mega trends that will shape and define the next decade in GES Summit 2010 in Singapore (7-8 October 2010) as reported by SK Zainuddin of Globe Asia magazine in November 2010 edition. According to Menon, asset ownership will be replaced by asset-leased so people can swiftly move from one industry to another. Hereby, the keywords are flexibility and minimum cost. In the upcoming  decade, people are unlikely to own some assets but to lease for some periods of time. As a result, the big cost for purchasing and maintenance will be transferred to the leasing company, and tenants only have to pay for leasing fee.

Now, if these two clues are combined and brought together into the land issue, we will have a brand new perspective to consider. According to the first and second clues, state or government shall play a new role to lease land to its people in affordable price. The advantage of this uncommon step is about to bring justice to all people where everyone will have right to lease a land to build a place for living. No one will have to buy land anymore. Another advantage is to support the rapid mobility from region to region. As the system runs, people will feel no worry to move to other region in Indonesia because local government will provide them land to be leased. For that reason, this leasing system really suits some people with high mobility and no intention to stay in an area for a long time.

However, to keep everything run well, government shall make some restrictions to prevent the system from breaking down. The policies are likely as follows,

1. One person can only lease one area for one purpose. For example, Donovan can lease 100 x 100 m2 area for building a house. He cannot lease again in the same region to build another house, but he can lease a place to do his business.
2. One person shall be limited in acquiring permission to lease in different region. This policy will limit how many one person can lease outside his living area. For example, Donovan can only lease one area in one region.
3. Every tenant who intentionally causes damage to leasing area and its surrounding will be considered violating the law and therefore that person will be charged officially in court.

This short writing may not fully answer the problem of land ownership in the next decade. Its effectiveness must be scientifically proven though. However, the attempts to never stop innovating and finding another solution are definitely better than just sitting and complaining. I do believe that the one who can solve every problem of this nation is its people, no one else can.