Public Lecture: Speculative Rents Driving Land and Property Prices in Nusantara: A Departure from Capitalist Surplus Value

The Interdisciplinary Faculty of UKSW held a seminar on “Land Price, Building Rent, and Indonesia’s New Capital City Development” on Tuesday, August 22, 2023. The seminar was part of the opening of the academic year 2023/2024 for the Master and Doctoral Programs in Development Studies (MSP and DSP).

The speaker was Dr. Bosman Batubara, a postdoctoral researcher in International Development Studies at Utrecht University. The critical respondent was Dr. Theofransus Litaay, a senior expert at the Presidential Staff Office and a lecturer at the Faculty of Law of UKSW. The moderator was Aveanty Miagina Sumtaki, S.E., M.M., a DSP student.

Dr. Batubara explained the drastic increase in land prices and building rents in the new capital city (IKN), located in Sepaku District, Penajam Paser Utara Regency, East Kalimantan Province. The increase was caused by the policy of relocating the capital city to that area.

He used the theoretical framework of “speculative rent” to explain how the increase occurred due to policy, not through productive processes (of value and surplus value) in capitalism.

His presentation was mainly based on fieldwork that he conducted for two weeks in mid-2022 and for five months from December 2022 to May 2023.