For most local residents in Banda Aceh, whose homes survived the recent natural disaster, renting out housing to foreigners has become the main source of income. Former bank employee Aswin Rahman decided to rent out his two-bedroom apartment as an office and move in with friends when the monthly rent jumped from $300 to $1,200. If he had waited another week, he could have rented the apartment for $4,000. As the newspaper notes, for that amount of money one could rent a villa with a pool in an upscale area of Jakarta, Indonesia's capital. In any world capital, including London, New York and Tokyo, one can find good housing for less money, the publication emphasizes.
In Banda Aceh, no one is yet thinking about building new housing. According to the Hong Kong newspaper, at least two more months will be needed to clear the debris left by the tsunami. As local businessmen note, they have almost no qualified employees left. Some died during the tsunami, others are leaving to work in the offices of the numerous charitable organizations that have opened in Banda Aceh over the past month.
According to RIA Novosti, not only housing is becoming more expensive in Banda Aceh. Car repair prices have increased fourfold, salt has doubled in price, and for a goat and chicken at the local market they now ask one and a half times more than usual, the newspaper writes. According to it, only fish and beef are getting cheaper. The state so far regulates only the price of rice, the main food product of Indonesians. Thanks to special reserves made throughout the province, its price remains at about 30 US cents per kilogram.
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