Have you ever imagined living on top of a mall? No, we’re not talking about an apartment situated on top of a mall building, which is not uncommon in Jakarta, but an actual housing compound, pavement and all.
Indonesian users on TikTok are all over one such complex located on the rooftop of Mall of Indonesia (MOI) in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, known as The Villas. A video uploaded by user @nita.christina on the platform recently gained traction, showing ever-curious netizens glimpses of the high-end housing.
In the video, Nita said she was visiting her friend who lives at The Villas for the first time.
https://www.tiktok.com/@nita.christina/video/6877884348255751426
The video shows Nita’s journey, starting from the street to the mall entrance, and then going up the parking ramp until she reaches the mall’s rooftop, where dozens of classical style houses lined up.
“Here’s the proof: I’m entering the mall’s parking ramp, going up… you can see that it looks like a regular mall parking ramp, right? But once we reach the rooftop, I thought by home atop of the mall it would mean an apartment, but these are real houses, guys,” Nita said in the video, adding that the streets throughout the complex are paved with asphalt, just like regular housing complexes on the ground.
At the time of writing, her video has been watched more than 5.2 million times and received over 606,000 likes.
The video garnered varied responses from netizens. Some said they wouldn’t be able to live there due to their fear of heights, while others wondered if the mall below could collapse from the weight of the houses on the roof.
Nita uploaded a follow up video in which she googles the prices of houses in The Villas. Despite their elevation advantage (or disadvantage), the houses go for around IDR3.7 billion to IDR5.49 billion (US$248,805 to US$369,173), which are more or less the same as similar-sized houses on the ground.
https://www.tiktok.com/@nita.christina/video/6878262633359805698
As unique as this residential type might be, The Villas isn’t the only housing compound in Jakarta to be located on top of a mall. In June of last year, a tweet from a Malaysian user went viral for asking Jakartans about Cosmo Park, which is located on top of Thamrin City mall in Central Jakarta.
Good morning Jakarta. Macam mana lah diorang terfikir nak develop taman perumahan atas bangunan? pic.twitter.com/TNQrnEQ8eA
— shahrirbahar (@shahrirbahar1) June 24, 2019
“Good morning Jakarta. How can you possibly come up with developing a housing complex on top of a building?” the tweet reads.
Following the hype surrounding Cosmo Park, local news outlets also covered The Villas, which was not widely known at that time. Among the things reported by the outlets, they also wrote on how to access the rooftop housing complexes as they’re not open to the general public. For the curious minds: residents can access their homes through special lifts situated at a lobby in the mall, while guests and couriers must report their visit in detail to security officers once they reach the entrance.
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