Australia's Crown Group to tap RI property market

JAKARTA. Crown International Holdings Group, an Australia-based property developer, has opened an office in Jakarta — its first overseas sales and marketing agency — in a bid to capture the country’s growing upmarket property customers.

Crown Indonesia country director Michael Ginarto said the archipelago has become a very important market to the group as demand gets stronger every year.

“We are experiencing enormous success in Sydney where the majority of buyers are Australian residents. However, the number of Indonesians who have bought our apartments in the past six months has exceeded our expectations,” Michael said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The group is aiming to book AUS$100 million (US$96.69 million) in sales annually for the next three years from Indonesian customers, following a successful exhibition earlier this year. 

“We have secured many new clients and have been able to book AUS$20 million in sales from our customers here in the first few months of 2013 for our apartment projects in Sydney. By looking at this performance, we are very excited about our sales and marketing plan in Indonesia,” he said.

In order to reach the target, he said the group will be working with property consultant Ray White Indonesia, which has more than 100 branch offices to market their products.

The firm has a AUS$2.8 billion project development in the pipeline in Sydney including the much anticipated Skye by Crown in the northern part of the city. The luxury apartment building is set to be launched next month.

Crown is currently marketing three of its popular projects to Indonesians: V by Crown, superblock Top Ryde City Living at Top Ryde and Viking by Crown at Waterloo, with prices ranging from Rp 3.5 billion (US$357,000) to Rp 30 billion.

“On average, every [Indonesian] customer spends around Rp 7 billion on our properties, with some of them paying in cash, which surprises us too,” he said, adding that between 25 to 30 percent of their buyers are Indonesians.

According to global management consultant firm McKinsey & Company, Indonesia is projected to be the world’s 16th largest economy largely due to a combination of domestic consumption and productivity growth.

By 2030, the country could become the world’s seventh largest economy, overtaking Germany and the United Kingdom.

In addition, unlike typical Asian economic tigers, McKinsey says that the nation has grown as a result of consumption, not exports and manufacturing. Indonesia is also urbanizing rapidly, boosting incomes.

By 2030, it is expected to add 90 million people to its consuming class — more than any other country except Asia’s large economies China and India.

However, Michael said the group is yet to consider developing projects in the country despite positive response from local customers.

“We are open to any project, including a joint venture with developers here. But we do not have such a plan at the moment. If we work with other parties, we have to make sure that our partners have a good track record,” he said. 

Crown is one of Australia’s fastest growing property groups, active in property development and investment in Sydney.

It was co-founded by Iwan Sunito and Paul Sathio in 1996.

(Nurfika Osman/The Jakarta Post)