JLL research teams around the world recently updated our biannual transparency index which scores markets based on variables including corporate governance and legal frameworks
Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo was elected as president of Indonesia in 2014 and one of his administrations’ key aims was easing bureaucracy and cutting red tape. Indonesia’s rise up the World Bank’s ease of doing business rankings from 109th in 2016 to 72nd in 2018 is testament to success in this regard. – with further improvements likely before we move into the next election year (2019) – and while results are not yet out, we also expect the JLL transparency index to show improvements since the last survey.
Data availability is another key component of the transparency index and this is one of the major challenges my team faces each quarter. Unlike in other markets around the region, there are no publicly available data for any of the major real estate sectors, so we rely heavily on information from JLL transaction teams as well as good relationships with developers, investors and other market players.
We have long data series for the condominium, office and retail markets in Jakarta and because of this, while by no means straightforward, collecting quarterly data for these core sectors is relatively routine for the team. However, client interest extends beyond Jakarta boundaries and in response to this, we have expanded our coverage to include regular updates of the Greater Jakarta township markets as well as Surabaya and Bali. Interest in the immature but emerging logistics sector has grown exponentially in the past couple of years – with a focus on Greater Jakarta and Greater Surabaya – where we had to build databases from scratch.
So while we expect the transparency index to positively reflect government policy, any improvements in score due to data availability would be due to private sector initiatives like those mentioned above. Publicly available real estate data sources remain extremely limited and would be extremely helpful for both JLL and our investor clients. Government data would also enable a more aligned government policy not to mention improve Jakarta’s score in the 2020 transparency index.