Ray White in Indonesia surge ONE of Australia's most successful businesses operating in Indonesia -- Ray White Real Estate -- plans to roll out a further 22 branches by the end of next year in the Asian nation, where it expects the economy to continue to strengthen in the months ahead. Originally attracted to the country because of his love of surfing, chairman Brian White said he had grown his company's Indonesian presence to 135 outlets after initially opening its offices there 15 years ago. Indonesia, Mr White said, frequently was overshadowed by China, but it was a "booming powerhouse" with strong resource and tourism sectors, and the potential of its economy was underestimated. "The market has been outstanding all through this year," Mr White said. Interest rates have been low for Indonesia, although they have only recently gone up slightly. It is a very wealthy country -- people are surprised. Selling real estate in Indonesia 25 years ago was a cottage industry, but now it is a far cry from that, he said. "If you wanted to sell housing, you would almost get your local news agent to sell it," he said. It was all done locally, proper planning and marketing of that property wasn't happening at that stage, and as time's gone on, there's much more professional marketing. While starting off in the country was hard, a turning point for Ray White was when it embarked on work for the Indonesian government 13 years ago, when it struck financial difficulties and assets had to be sold. There were government properties being sold by Ray White throughout the country. "We were formally appointed to handle that program -- that was a great kick along," he said. Today, Ray White had a more dominant position in Indonesia to major US competitors ERA and Century 21, Mr White said. Close to half of Ray White's offices were in Jakarta, while almost a quarter were in Surabaya and also Bali and the remainder spread through different cities. And while most of the business focused on the Indonesian residential market, it had a major commercial business in Jakarta. Mr White said Indonesia had welcomed Australian business, and the national people liked international brands. "You find nothing but support," he said. "They had respect for Australia in the way they go about organised business, they welcome it, and not thinking we want to hold Australians back to help our own -- it is a really fair playing field," he said. They have a lot to overcome in bringing the standard of living up, but since we have been going there, the difference has been really really impressive. There would be six new Ray White offices in Indonesia by Christmas, while a further 16 would likely open next year, mostly in Jakarta. "We have got offices opening all over the place, so we will continue with that," Mr White said. The company also has offices in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul, but Ray White decided to focus mostly on just one market. "We did with Indonesia, and that has given us so much confidence," he said. I think the fact that we go there a lot, with members of my family, has given us confidence in the potential of Indonesia, it is just a fantastic country.