The Truth About Buying a Villa in Bali 🇮🇩 (BEWARE)

Comments · 184

• IN

  @interchainme · 1 year ago

  21 years I live in Bali, this is the first time I hear someone saying it as it is. Kudos. I will keep the link to this video to be handed to anyone telling me they are "buying" a vill here in Bali.

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• CO

  @CompassPoint6 · 1 year ago

  Cheaper and safer to rent 3 months and move around and Travel.

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• MA

  @mangepanges · 1 year ago (edited)

  Finally someone who tells the truth. The math for a villa in Bali is very bad, is you buy a Bali Villa for 170k USD you will have around 500k back after 30 years, but no more villa or land to show for it. If you put the same 170k USD in the stock market you will instead on average have 1,3 million. So yeah not a good investment.

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• SO

  @SomeRandomGuy0nl1ne · 1 year ago (edited)

  Very good rationale and highly informative video.<br><br>In Bali, agents are not held accountable for hiding crucial information or pushing you into grey areas. You will carry all the risks for decades while regulations change quickly.<br><br>Important correction: The government is now strictly enforcing minimum capital requirements, and many investors are already in trouble. Unpaid minimum capital can be treated as a loan, and you may be taxed on imputed interest, which with penalties and compounded interest can turn into a huge liability.<br><br>These rules are designed to attract cash and to legally push foreigners out when convenient. Not to mention the high cost of maintenance in a harsh tropical environment, combined with poor quality materials and unskilled workers.<br><br>Bali is not a safe place to invest unless you are a developer profiting from smaller investors.

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• AL

  @alechiodakat9057 · 1 year ago

  Lots of guys in Bali and they live in a room coz their ex has the Villas and the kids😂😂😂 Remember her status is with her local community not you. Also Even with a PT PMA you need to contract a company to short term rent. No one cares if you are ripped off and they will try everything to extract from you.😢😢😢

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• JA

  @JassmineUCLA2020 · 1 year ago

  I lived in Indonesia for 5 years as an expat kid, attending Jakarta International School, and loved the people and culture. But the corruption there is unreal—massive scandals like the $12B Pertamina fuel fraud and tin mining schemes show how deep it runs. It’s systemic, not just small-time stuff, and makes investing there a gamble. Still, the warmth of Indonesians made those years amazing!

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• ZA

  @ZahidHasanPradhan · 4 months ago

  The depreciating leasehold point is the one that doesn&apos;t get said enough. Most people see &apos;25-year lease&apos; and think they&apos;re buying an asset. What they&apos;re actually buying is pre-paid rent that loses value every year as the term counts down.<br>The PT PMA route solves that but adds accounting costs and compliance requirements most lifestyle buyers don&apos;t want to deal with.<br>The rental licensing piece is also massively underreported — operating a villa as a short-term rental without the correct permits is technically illegal and enforcement has been increasing.<br>Good honest video. The 10-30% return figures floating around Bali are almost always gross yield before taxes, management fees, vacancy periods, and maintenance — net yield tells a very different story.

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• JO

  @Johnny.africa · 1 year ago

  Great video! <br><br>Also want to add that Bali villas are paid 100% in cash with no financing. You need to think of opportunity cost which no one ever talks about in Bali. Everyone talks about how you&apos;ll make your money back after 5-8y. But a basic s&amp;p index fund doubles every 8y historically. <br><br>Let&apos;s say you buy a 200k canggu villa and youve made your money back in 8y (debatable if this actually happens), you&apos;ve not made any money yet since you were not leveraged at all. What&apos;s that villa worth in 8y? With depreciating land value and a deteriorating villa because of poor construction, what can you even sell that thing for? This isn&apos;t even taking into account potential regulatory changes like youve mentioned or reputational risk (canggu sucks and no one wants to be there anymore). <br><br>Meanwhile if you clicked one button and bought a basic s&amp;p etf, you&apos;re sitting on 400k. No headaches and no work.

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• PU

  @putrisekar1969 · 1 year ago

  Whatever, as a foreigner you will always loose if you get in trouble. Even though all papers are in order, different logics or interpretation might be used. A story in short; an American wanted to sell his leasehold Villa. The landlord demanded 40prct of the selling price, using that he maintained the religious duties on the land. He won the court case.

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• DE

  @defiance1138 · 1 year ago (edited)

  Great video! There are two more arguments which perhaps are missing. And obviously, these are not mentioned by most property companies in Bali.<br><br>1. As a foreigner to rent out a villa on a daily basis, like on Airbnb, you not only need a PT PMA company, but that company also needs an accommodation/&apos;homestay&apos; license. So that your company is licensed to run a (daily) rental business. This license is called an Izin Pondok Wisata in Indonesian language, and needs to be renewed every 5 years. This license can&apos;t be obtained by a PT PMA owned by a foreigner, even though property companies might tell you otherwise. Because this license can only be obtained by Micro, Small, or Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). However, a PT PMA is considered a large enterprise. So what foreigners do is for instance ask the Indonesian landlord, from whom they lease the land, to apply for that Pondok Wisata license. But this again brings in a risk. What if the landlord does not want to do this? And apparently you can only obtain this license if your land is located in a tourism zone. Which brings me to my second argument.<br><br>2. To rent out a villa on a daily basis, like on Airbnb, officially your land zoning should be allocated to tourism (pink zone). The tourism land zone is mostly only the land within say 1 kilometer from the beach. And this land is more expensive. A lot of villas are actually located on land with a residential zoning (yellow zone). Which means it is allocated to residential living, where villas can officially only be rented out on a monthly or longer basis. Currently, the government apparently tolerates these villas being rented out on daily basis because it brings them higher tax revenues. However, it is not clear if this will remain government policy moving forward. So, another risk to consider.<br><br>Maybe one final comment. Which is that most foreigners don&apos;t realise or understand when they want to rent out a villa in Bali, they are actually entering a highly regulated market.

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• FL

  @flyinkiwi01 · 1 year ago

  Most real estate agents are working without work visas (illegally) and offering to sell foreigners villas - you can’t own. All you can do is lease and build a nice building that the land owner will take over when he doesn’t renew your lease. He will say thanks very much and enjoy your investment.

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• TH

  @TheSOTRON · 1 year ago

  This is a great video mate, all true and honest. Well done

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