Residential land development in Jabotabek, Indonesia: triggering economic crisis?

Before the economic crisis hit Indonesia in 1997, land development had been one of the prime sectors for investment. Land development companies were mushrooming. They were basically working together in share holdership or were interconnected through family relationships. They were also related to the ex-First Family of Indonesia. This had given them the possibilities to influence any policy and regulation concerning land development and thus distorting the housing market in the area. The buyers of the houses produced by the developers were mostly young professionals who worked in the private sector, classified as middle and high-income segments. The excessive land development, done by a few developers only targeted a small minority of the riches had been part of the trigger of the monetary crisis and caused calamity of the country as a whole.