How to buy a villa in Bali as a foreigner, step by step

A foreigner can buy a villa in Bali but not the land under it outright, only a right with an end date. Choose that right first, then check the developer and the land, sign, and pay in stages.

What can a foreigner legally own in Bali?

Freehold, Hak Milik, is reserved for Indonesian citizens by Article 21(1) of the Basic Agrarian Law of 1960. Foreigners have three legal routes.

Route	Who holds it	Term
Lease (Hak Sewa)	You, by contract with the landowner	Set by the contract
Hak Pakai, the right to use	You, for a residence	30 + 20 + 30 years on state land
HGB, the right to build	Your PT PMA, a foreign investment company	30 + 20 + 30 years on state land

Terje Nilsen, cofounder of the advisory firm Seven Stones Indonesia, told The Jakarta Post in 2024 that leases are “probably 75 to 80 percent of the market”. A lease is a contract, not a land title, so its term and any extension are whatever you sign, according to the Nusantara Legal Partnership guide in Legal 500.

Hak Pakai is registered in your own name. Government Regulation 18/2021 lists foreigners among its holders, asks for immigration documents and limits foreigners’ homes by price, plot size, number of plots and residential use. In Bali a house must cost at least Rp 5 billion under a 2022 ministerial decree.

A PT PMA can hold HGB. Since 2 October 2025 it needs paid-up capital of at least Rp 2.5 billion, and it reports on its investment every quarter, the law firm HBT notes.

Putting the land in an Indonesian friend’s name does not work. Under Article 26(2) of the Agrarian Law, a deal meant to pass freehold to a foreigner is void and the land falls to the State, and the money paid cannot be reclaimed, Nelwan Law explains. The routes are compared in leasehold vs freehold in Bali.

Should I buy off-plan or a finished villa?

Off-plan villas are sold before completion, so they cost less, but the developer or contractor may never finish them, Ade Mardiyati wrote in The Jakarta Post in 2024. Nilsen told her the market has “an awful lot of ‘off-plans’ that did not get completed”. A finished villa can be inspected first. In both cases the Building Law allows a building to be used only once it has an SLF, a certificate of fitness for use.

How do I check the developer and the land?

Search the company by name at ahu.go.id, the government’s company register. One company should sign the contract, hold the building approval and receive your money.

Insist on seeing the original land certificate, as The Jakarta Post’s buyer checklist advises, and the master lease if the developer rents the land. Before a deed that transfers or encumbers land, the PPAT, the official who draws it up, must check the certificate against the land office registers, electronically since 2021. Ask your own notary for that check before you pay more than a booking fee. GISTARU, the land ministry’s planning app, shows the zoning rules of the detailed spatial plans (RDTR). The building approval (PBG) states the building’s function, and changing it needs a new approval, which matters for a villa let to guests.

The checklist also says to use your own notary or lawyer, not the developer’s. More checks are in how to check a Bali developer.

What should the deposit and the contract say?

Government Regulation 12/2021 covers homes sold while under construction. A developer that takes money while marketing must give dates for construction, the preliminary sale agreement (PPJB), and the deed of sale and handover. If it misses the construction or PPJB date, the buyer may cancel and gets every payment back within 30 calendar days. The PPJB can be signed only when the land status, the subject of the sale, the PBG, roads and utilities and at least 20% of construction are certain, and the buyer gets at least 7 working days to study it.

These rules cover houses and apartments sold for ownership, not leases. For a lease, ask your lawyer for similar terms, plus the certificate number, the term, the extension price, your right to sublet and resell, and what happens to the house at the end.

How should I pay?

Until the PPJB conditions are met, Regulation 12/2021 bars a developer from collecting more than 80% of the price. Pay for stages you can check, and hold back part of the price until handover and the SLF. A lease cannot carry a land mortgage: the 1996 law on security rights over land lists the rights that can, and a lease is not among them. Schedules and refunds are covered in paying a Bali developer in installments.

What taxes and fees do I pay when buying?

A buyer of Hak Pakai or HGB pays BPHTB, the duty on acquiring land rights. In Badung it is 5% under the regency’s 2023 tax regulation, charged on the price or the official value (NJOP), whichever is higher, minus Rp 80 million on your first acquisition there. The seller pays a final income tax of 2.5%, and the PPAT may charge at most 1% of the price in the deed. A pure lease is not one of the six rights that trigger BPHTB.

VAT applies when the seller is registered for it, at an effective 11%, or 12% for homes from Rp 30 billion. A seller who is not registered charges none. Worked examples and the 2026 VAT relief are in taxes and fees when buying property in Bali.

What happens at handover?

When a registered right is sold, the title passes when the deed of sale (AJB) is signed before the PPAT, who registers the change with the land office within 7 working days, the Legal 500 guide says. BPHTB must be paid before or on the day the AJB is signed. Inspect the villa and ask for the SLF before the last payment.

What does a villa cost to run, and can I rent it out?

The annual land and building tax, PBB, is capped at 0.5%. Badung has waived it since 2017 for local residents’ homes and land not used commercially, the head of its revenue agency said in 2025. For a rental villa, Nilsen said, a manager takes 20 percent of gross revenue after the platform’s 15 to 17 percent, “so already you’re 37 percent down” before staff and utilities. Badung also taxes hotel services, villas included, at 10%.

Accommodation sold on booking platforms needs a business licence, which the Ministry of Tourism plans to verify. The investment law requires foreign investors to use an Indonesian limited company, but on 1 October 2026 the head of Bali’s investment and licensing office said such companies on Bali may not use the villa business code, because the province gives priority there to small local businesses, detikBali reported. See villa running costs in Bali and, on licences and managers, renting out a villa while you live abroad.

FAQ

Can I buy a villa in Bali on a tourist visa?

You can sign a lease. For Hak Pakai, Regulation 18/2021 asks for immigration documents, which Atyanto Law reads as a visa, passport or residence permit. The 2015 rules it replaced required a stay permit. Regulation 18/2021 also defines a foreigner as someone whose presence benefits Indonesia or who does business, works or invests there, so ask your notary how the land office reads it.

What happens to my lease if the landowner sells the land or dies?

It continues. A sale does not end an existing lease unless the lease allowed that (Civil Code, Article 1576), and a lease does not end when either party dies (Article 1575).

The rules and figures above are as of October 2026. Before you pay a deposit, have an independent notary and lawyer check the land certificate and the contract.

Sunny Development Group is a developer in Bali. It has completed 10 projects on the island, nine of them in North Kuta (Canggu, Tibubeneng and Kerobokan), and three more are under way. Rentals in its projects are run by its own management company or by partner companies, and the company counts its time on the market from 2011.