Can Foreigners Buy Property in Bali?

A foreigner cannot own land in Bali. Freehold title, called Hak Milik, is reserved for Indonesian citizens by Article 21 of the Basic Agrarian Law of 1960, and no later law has changed that. A foreigner can buy the right to use a property for a fixed number of years. It comes in three forms: a lease from the landowner, a right of use registered in the buyer’s name, or a building right held through an Indonesian company with foreign shareholders.

The guides ranking for this question in October 2026 present those as three equal options. They are far from equal. The lease has no price floor, and we found no rule that requires a stay permit to sign one. The right of use starts at IDR 5 billion (Indonesian rupiah, about USD 280,000) for a house and, on the cautious reading of an unsettled rule, needs a stay permit. The company route changed twice in eight months, and since May 2026 a new foreign-owned company in Bali can no longer be licensed for real estate. A first-time buyer of one villa is choosing between a lease and, if the price and their immigration status allow it, a right of use.

What a foreigner can hold in Bali, and what stays off limits

Each of the four rights has its own rule on who qualifies, how long it runs and where it is recorded, and the last column is what has changed this year.

“State land” in this table means land owned by the State and not by a private person, and HPL is a management right the State grants to a public body or a state company over such land. Weighing these rights against each other as an investment is a separate question, covered in our article on leasehold vs freehold in Bali.

Leasehold (Hak Sewa): a contract with the landowner

A leasehold villa is sold like a property and behaves like a contract. The land certificate stays in the Indonesian owner’s name, and the buyer takes home a deed signed in front of a notary. That deed sets what the buyer can do with the villa for the term written in it.

The Basic Agrarian Law gives the right two short articles, 44 and 45, and sets no maximum term. The 25 to 30 years quoted across the market is a convention. Nothing in the statute stops a landowner agreeing to 40, and an “extension to 80 years” exists only where the deed spells it out. No statute gives a lessee the right to renew, and none sets the price of renewal.

Two rules in the Civil Code protect a lessee by default. Under Article 1576 a sale of the land does not end the lease, unless the lease itself says it does. Under Article 1575 the death of the landowner or of the lessee does not end it either.

Past those two, the protection is the wording. These are the clauses that carry the value:

• Extension. A right to extend, the date by which you must give notice, and how the price is set. “At a market rate to be agreed” leaves the price to the landowner twenty-five years from now. A fixed figure, a formula or an independent appraisal settles it today.
• Assignment and subletting. The right to sell the remaining term and to let the villa without asking for fresh consent each time.
• Who signs. Every person named on the certificate, with the spouse’s consent where the land is marital property.
• Successors. A statement that the lease and the extension right bind the owner’s heirs and any buyer of the land.
• The building at expiry. Whether it passes to the landowner free, is bought at a valuation, or may be removed.
• Permitted use. Residential only, or commercial letting as well.

How well a pre-priced extension holds up against a landowner’s heirs is untested as far as we can tell. The clause binds the people who signed it under the Civil Code’s general rule on contracts, yet we found no published court decision enforcing one against the next generation of owners. The negotiation at the far end of the term is covered in what happens when a Bali lease expires.

The deed itself is in Indonesian. Law 24 of 2009 requires it for any agreement with an Indonesian party, and a West Jakarta court voided an English-only loan agreement on that ground in 2013, a ruling the Supreme Court upheld in 2015 (1572 K/Pdt/2015). The Notary Law, Article 43, adds that a notarial deed is drawn in Indonesian and translated for a party who does not read it, and the Indonesian text is the one a court reads. The English version a buyer studies is that translation. The extension clause and the price formula in it deserve a second translator, one the seller did not hire.

Article 45 lists “foreigners domiciled in Indonesia” among those who may hold a Hak Sewa. Emerhub’s guide reads that as a KITAS requirement. No regulation we have seen turns “domiciled” into a stay permit, and the statute itself names none. Which documents a given notary wants is a question for that notary, before the trip.

A lease cannot be mortgaged. The security right over land, Hak Tanggungan, can sit on Hak Milik, HGU, HGB and Hak Pakai on State land, and Hak Sewa is not on that list.

Hak Pakai: a registered right in your own name

Hak Pakai is a right of use that the land office registers in the foreigner’s name. For a house it is the only route that puts an individual foreigner on a land certificate. Four limits apply, set partly by Government Regulation 18 of 2021 and partly by a 2022 ministerial decree.

A minimum price comes first. The decree sets the floor by province, and for Bali it is IDR 5 billion for a landed house (about USD 280,000 at early-October rates). Size is the second limit: one plot per person or family, up to 2,000 square metres, in the category the decree calls a luxury house.

The third limit is immigration status, and it is the least clear. The 2021 regulation asks for “immigration documents”, which its explanatory notes define as a visa, a passport or a stay permit. The 2015 rule it replaced had required a stay permit. Land ministry officials said in 2023 that a passport and visa are enough to buy; an immigration official at the same event said a stay permit is needed. Until the two agree, a buyer should plan on holding a temporary or permanent stay permit (KITAS or KITAP).

The “80 years” in Hak Pakai listings is the sum of the three stages in the table, and each stage is a maximum the land office grants on application, on State or HPL land only. On land that remains someone’s Hak Milik there is no extension stage. The right lasts up to 30 years and continues only through a new deed of grant before a land deed official, which the landowner has to sign. The notary can tell from the certificate which of the two a house sits on, and that answer decides how far a Hak Pakai offer differs from a lease.

A holder who no longer qualifies, for example because their immigration documents have ended, has one year to transfer the right to someone who does. After that it ends automatically. The house can be inherited, though a foreign heir needs immigration documents too.

How many foreigners in Bali hold a house this way is a number nobody publishes. We found no count from the land ministry or the provincial land offices, and the agencies that market Hak Pakai do not say how many they have closed. Every claim that the route is “rare” or “growing” is a guess, ours included.

PT PMA and HGB: the company route in 2026

A PT PMA is an Indonesian limited company with foreign shareholders. Because it is an Indonesian legal entity it can hold HGB, the right to build, and it can hold business licences. It needs at least two shareholders, and both can be foreign.

Regulation 5 of 2025 from the investment ministry, BKPM, has been in force since 2 October 2025. It cut the minimum paid-up capital from IDR 10 billion to IDR 2.5 billion (about USD 140,000). The money has to stay in the company for 12 months, though it can be spent on assets, construction and operating costs during that time. The larger number did not move. The company must still plan an investment of more than IDR 10 billion (about USD 560,000) per business line per location. For accommodation and property operation, land and buildings now count toward that figure, which makes it reachable for a project that buys land and builds on it.

The other change is specific to Bali. Every Indonesian business licence is tied to a classification code, the KBLI, and each code has a risk tier. In May 2026 the national licensing system, OSS, began refusing new foreign-owned company applications in Bali for low-risk and medium-low-risk codes. Emerhub, a corporate services firm, reported on 18 May that the refusals covered every code in those two tiers, KBLI 68111 (real estate owned or leased) included. In July Governor Wayan Koster announced, with the Investment Minister’s approval, a list of 18 closed classifications that names real estate along with star and non-star hotels (ANTARA, 23 July 2026). The list is narrower than what Emerhub described. The real estate code is closed on either account.

Companies licensed before the block keep their licences and their reporting duties. A PT PMA files an investment activity report (LKPM) every quarter, by the 15th of the following month. In November 2024 the investment ministry revoked the business registrations of 267 foreign-owned companies in Bali for fictitious activity, the wrong sector or investment below the threshold.

A new foreign company can still be licensed in Bali in the higher risk tiers, with an investment plan of more than IDR 10 billion per classification. Whether any accommodation code sits there, and whether a foreign-owned company may hold the villa classification at all, are both disputed among advisers; villas and homestays appear on the national list of activities reserved for Indonesian cooperatives and small businesses. Get both answered in writing before incorporating, and before choosing land. A proposal Governor Koster floated in May 2026, to raise the minimum investment for Bali to IDR 100 billion, remains a proposal.

Nominee agreements and “freehold for foreigners”

A nominee arrangement puts an Indonesian citizen’s name on a Hak Milik certificate while a foreigner pays for the land and holds a set of side agreements meant to give them control. It has no legal force for the foreigner. Article 26(2) of the Basic Agrarian Law voids any act meant to transfer Hak Milik to a foreigner, directly or indirectly, and sends the land to the State. The same article says payments already made cannot be reclaimed.

Supreme Court Circular 10 of 2020 instructs judges that the owner of a plot is the person named on the certificate, even where the purchase money came from a foreigner. If the nominee sells, mortgages the land, divorces or dies, the foreigner’s position rests on documents written to get around the statute a judge will be applying.

What a foreigner keeps after a nominee sells is a claim for money. The Supreme Court has voided nominee agreements at least three times, in decisions 2414 K/Pdt/2009, 1540 K/Pdt/2014 and 424 K/Pdt/2017, as summarised by Hukumonline, and its Circular 7 of 2012 lets the person who paid sue the nominee for damages, with no route back to the land. Circular 4 of 2016 protects a buyer who bought from the nominee in good faith, so the land stays with that buyer. Winning that claim and collecting on it from a private individual are two different cases.

Bali added a layer in the last week of February 2026. Provincial Regulation 4 of 2026 bans the transfer of land ownership by nominee and bans acting as an intermediary or facilitator for one. Its sanctions are administrative, running from written warnings and closure to licence revocation, demolition and fines. For criminal liability it points to existing national law and sets no penalties of its own.

We don’t know how the regulation will be applied to arrangements signed before it. As of early October 2026 the governor has issued no implementing rule, and the Bali press has reported no certificate cancelled or nominee deal unwound under it. Nor is there an official count of nominee-held land; the figure a member of parliament quoted in February, about 10,500 parcels, is an advocacy group’s estimate.

Zoning and land status: what the plot is allowed to be

Three enforcement cases from 2025 show what gets a building closed, and in none of them was it the type of title. Parq Ubud was sealed for good on 20 January 2025 because it stood on protected rice land without a building approval. At Bingin Beach, 48 structures came down from 21 July 2025; they sat on land belonging to Badung Regency and had no permits. Thirty villas in Canggu were sealed on 30 December 2025 for standing on protected rice land. A valid lease on that land would have protected nothing.

Zoning is set in the regency’s detailed spatial plan (RDTR), and the zone decides whether a house or a rental villa may be built on a plot. Villas let by the night need the tourism zone, the pink area on the maps agencies circulate, or a residential sub-zone whose RDTR entry lists accommodation as a permitted or conditional use. “Pink zone” in a listing is a claim; the document behind it is the zoning extract for that specific plot, called an ITR, or the spatial conformity confirmation (KKPR) if a business licence is being sought.

For Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar the detailed plans have been fully loaded into the OSS licensing system since July 2026, which is why a KKPR there comes back automatically, and the same plans can be previewed on the land ministry’s RDTR Interaktif map before anyone is paid. The map is for orientation; the ITR for the plot is what a notary will file. The colours on the map and what each permits are explained in our guide to the Bali zoning map.

Bali’s rice-field area fell from 70,996 hectares in 2019 to 64,474 in 2024. A governor’s instruction of December 2025 stopped new permits that convert farmland, and Provincial Regulation 4 of 2026 wrote the ban into a regulation, with demolition and restoration of the land among its sanctions. A plot mapped as protected rice field (LSD) or sustainable food land (LP2B) is unbuildable whatever the listing says.

Then the building’s own paperwork. Its approval (PBG, which replaced the older permit known as IMB) has to match what was built and what it is used for, since a residential approval does not cover tourist accommodation, and the certificate of function (SLF) confirms the finished building is fit for that use. Province-wide, buildings are capped at 15 metres and kept 100 metres back from the high-tide line. The land needs a certificate as well: since 2 February 2026, old customary papers such as girik no longer count as proof of title.

Owning a villa is not a licence to rent it

A lease or a Hak Pakai gives the right to occupy a property. Letting it to tourists by the night is a business activity, which Indonesian law licenses separately, and the licence attaches to an operator. The operator needs a business identification number (NIB) with an accommodation classification and a tourism standard certificate. The plot has to be zoned for tourist accommodation, and the building needs a PBG and SLF issued for that function. The operator also registers for the regional accommodation tax, capped at 10% of room revenue on stays under a month.

As far as we can establish, a foreign individual has no route to that licence. No provision says so expressly; the conclusion follows from who each classification is open to, and Emerhub, Exotiq and Coco Development all reach it in their guides. The homestay category that looks like a fit, pondok wisata, is defined for an individual letting part of the house they own and live in.

The arrangements those guides describe are a licensed Indonesian operator or management company that holds the licence for the villa, or a company eligible for the classification. With new real estate PT PMAs blocked, a newcomer will find the second hard to set up.

Enforcement arrived in 2026, through the booking platforms. On 5 January the Tourism Ministry gave every property listed on an online travel agency until 31 March to be licensed. In late May it announced that about 1,600 unlicensed operators had been identified nationally and that delisting would start on 1 August. The ministry’s survey from October 2025 counted more than 29,000 non-hotel units listed in Bali, of which about 14,500 were registered.

No count of listings removed since 1 August has been published, so we can’t say how hard the rule is biting yet. The ministry has set June 2027 as its target for automatic licence checks between OSS and the platforms.

What buying costs, and how the money has to move

A lease buyer owes no acquisition duty. BPHTB, up to 5%, applies to Hak Pakai, HGB and strata title only. The table gives each tax and who owes it by law; a contract can move any of them to the other side.

The 10% on a lease is the landowner’s income tax, and where the buyer is a private individual the landowner pays and reports it personally. The contract can move it to the buyer. A price quoted “net of tax” does that, and adds about a tenth to the cost. The taxes that follow during ownership and on resale are set out in Bali property taxes for foreigners.

Bank Indonesia Regulation 17/3/PBI/2015 requires transactions settled in Indonesia to be paid in rupiah and prices to be quoted in rupiah. A dollar figure in a listing is a conversion for reference, and the deed states the price in IDR.

Converting rupiah back into foreign currency got harder in 2026. Bank Indonesia lowered, in steps, the amount a person may buy against rupiah without supporting documents, and since 1 July it stands at USD 10,000 a month. Larger conversions are still allowed with paperwork behind them. A foreign seller converting sale proceeds above that amount will need documents for the bank, and the purchase deed and the tax receipts are the first ones it will ask for.

Indonesian banks may lend to foreigners for housing, and the guides that cover financing (Propertia, Balitecture, Emerhub) agree that a mortgage takes a KITAS or KITAP and income in Indonesia. A non-resident buyer pays cash or in stages.

How a purchase runs, step by step

The first four steps belong before any deposit.

1. Decide the use. Living in the villa and renting it out lead to different rights, zones and licences.
2. Check the plot. Get the zoning extract (ITR) and confirm the land is outside protected rice-field mapping.
3. Check the title. The PPAT, in Bali usually the same person as the notary, runs a certificate check (pengecekan sertifikat) at BPN: the owner’s name, the boundaries, and any mortgage, dispute or block on it.
4. Check the building. PBG and SLF, as above.
5. Agree the deed. For a lease, the clauses listed above and the split of the 10% tax. For Hak Pakai or HGB, a sale and purchase deed (AJB) before a land deed official (PPAT). Where money changes hands before the checks are done, a preliminary agreement (PPJB) holds the deposit and says what happens to it if the title fails the check.
6. Pay and settle taxes. In rupiah, with a receipt for each tax from whoever owed it.
7. Register. Hak Pakai and HGB are registered at BPN in the holder’s name. A lease is complete at signing, and its original deed is the document to keep safe.

In a developer project the deed comes last. A sale and purchase deed can only be signed once the unit has a certificate of its own, split from the parent plot, and once the building has its PBG and SLF. Until then the buyer holds a PPJB, a contract against the developer, and the stage payments go out against that contract. A buyer who “bought” in 2024 and registers in 2026 has had the normal experience. Who holds the parent certificate, and whether it is mortgaged to the developer’s bank, is the question for the certificate check in that case.

Emerhub quotes two to four weeks for a lease and four to eight for a Hak Pakai registration; Propertia puts a standard deal at four to twelve weeks from accepted offer to deed. Both put the certificate check inside that window, and paying a deposit before it does not shorten it.

Can foreigners buy property in Bali: FAQ

Does buying property in Bali give you residency?

No. The Second Home visa, the one most often linked to property, asks for USD 130,000 deposited in an Indonesian state-owned bank, or an apartment held under Hak Pakai and worth at least USD 1 million. The Golden Visa’s individual route takes USD 350,000 in government bonds, listed shares or deposits for five years, USD 700,000 for ten, or the same USD 1 million apartment. A leased villa meets none of these conditions.

Do I need to be in Bali to sign?

No. A notarial deed can be signed by an attorney holding a power of attorney (surat kuasa) that names the property and the act, because under Article 1796 of the Civil Code a power worded in general terms covers management of the principal’s affairs and a transfer needs express words. A power signed outside Indonesia needs an apostille from the country where it was signed, which Indonesia has accepted since 4 June 2022, or consular legalisation if that country is outside the Apostille Convention. The notary will say whether they want it in Indonesian or with a sworn translation. Payment still has to arrive in rupiah through an Indonesian bank.

What changes if I am married to an Indonesian citizen?

Property bought during a marriage is joint property by default, which would make the foreign spouse a co-owner of Hak Milik land, and the law does not allow that. An Indonesian spouse can hold land like any other citizen once a notarial agreement separates the couple’s property. Since a 2016 Constitutional Court decision (69/PUU-XIII/2015) that agreement can be signed during the marriage as well as before it. A foreigner who acquires Hak Milik land by inheritance, or through marriage without such an agreement, has one year to transfer it to a citizen before it falls to the State.

Can a foreigner own an apartment in Bali?

On paper, yes. The 2021 regulation lets foreigners hold strata title (SHMSRS), the ownership right over a unit in a multi-storey building, in designated zones that include tourism areas. The floor in Bali is IDR 2 billion. Two Indonesian law firms, ABNR and Leks&Co, have questioned how such a certificate can be issued when the block stands on HGB land, and we found no confirmed case of one issued to a foreigner here.

This article describes the rules as they stood on 7 October 2026 and is general information, not legal advice on a specific purchase. It leaves out prices by area and rental returns. Horizon Estate has Bali real estate for sale under both leasehold and freehold title, and the listings are priced in rupiah with the title type shown.