Buying property in Bali as a foreigner: what you can own, the steps, and what it costs

Most villa and land listings in Bali are written as though the buyer will own the property. For a foreign buyer that is rarely what the law allows, and the gap between the listing and the deed is where the expensive mistakes are made. This page reads the Agrarian Law, the 2021 land regulations, the land registration rules and the regency tax Perda in the order a purchase runs.

Can foreigners buy property in Bali?

Yes — but not the thing most listings describe. Freehold (hak milik) is for Indonesian citizens; any act meant to pass it to a foreigner, directly or indirectly, is void by law, and the land falls to the State (UU No. 5 Tahun 1960 (UUPA), Pasal 26 ayat (2) (1960)). Since February 2026 Bali's own Perda also bans acting as intermediary or facilitator, or providing the means for nominee ownership (Perda Provinsi Bali No. 4 Tahun 2026, Pasal 14 (2026)), with administrative: warning, suspension, closure, permit revocation, demolition, restoration, fines (Perda Provinsi Bali No. 4 Tahun 2026, Pasal 20 (2026)). What a foreigner can lawfully hold is one of three things below; which one decides the term, the tax and what happens when the buyer leaves Indonesia. The 2026 nominee Perda.

The rules turn on being a foreigner, not on nationality: an Australian, British, American or Korean buyer meets the same routes. A holder who stops qualifying — a hak pakai owner who leaves Indonesia, a company that stops being Indonesian — has one year to transfer, or it lapses (PP No. 18 Tahun 2021, Pasal 50 (2021)).

Seven terms a buyer meets

The rights and the people on a Bali property transfer.

What a foreigner can actually buy

Not freehold

The Agrarian Law voids any sale, gift or other act meant to transfer freehold to a foreigner, directly or indirectly; the land falls to the State and payments made cannot be reclaimed (UUPA Pasal 26(2)). A “freehold” villa sold to a foreigner through a local name is that.

A lease

The right to use someone else's land for a building, for rent; foreigners resident in Indonesia may hold one, and the law sets no maximum term (UUPA Pasal 44-45). What the buyer is buying is the term in the contract and its extension clause.

A house on hak pakai

A foreigner with immigration documents may own a landed house on hak pakai, over freehold for at most 30 years, renewable by deed (PP 18/2021, Pasal 52, 69-71), within limits on minimum price, plot size, number of plots and residential use (Pasal 72): one plot per person or family, up to 2,000 m² (Permen ATR/BPN 18/2021, Pasal 186). Pasal 187(3) has a freehold or HGB plot bought by a foreigner changed to hak pakai; but in 2025 Permen ATR/BPN 2/2025 revoked the 2021 provisions on changing hak milik into HGB or hak pakai, except at auction, so on freehold land that step no longer runs as written — PP 18/2021 itself also allows hak pakai over hak milik by PPAT deed (Pasal 71). How a change of right runs since 2025.

Through a PT PMA

An Indonesian company, including one with foreign shareholders, can hold HGB. It comes with capital, reporting and its own taxes — and the villa license code is allocated to cooperatives and small businesses. The PT PMA rules.

The rules turn on being a foreigner, not on nationality: an Australian, British or Korean buyer meets the same routes. The routes compared, the certificates you will be shown, and which stay permit an owner can get.

Buying property in Bali, step by step

1. Pick the route from the table above, before the price. A lease, a hak pakai house and a company's HGB are different purchases with different paperwork.
2. Check the certificate at the land office. The PPAT must refuse a deed on a certificate that does not match the land office register, or an absolute power of attorney (PP No. 24 Tahun 1997, Pasal 39 ayat (1) (1997)). Once a certificate has stood for 5 years in a good-faith holder's hands, earlier claimants lose the right to challenge it (PP No. 24 Tahun 1997, Pasal 32 ayat (2) (1997)). The due diligence checklist.
3. Check what may be built and let there: the zoning (KKPR), the building approval (PBG) and the certificate of fitness (SLF). Zoning, PBG.
4. If it is not built yet, the pre-sale agreement (PPJB) is signed before a notary, the buyer may study the draft for at least 7 working days (PP No. 12 Tahun 2021, Pasal 22K (2021)), and the developer may draw no more than 80% of the price before the PPJB conditions are met (PP No. 12 Tahun 2021, Pasal 22L ayat (1) (2021)). Off-plan purchases.
5. Pay the taxes: the seller's 2.5% of the gross transfer value (PP No. 34 Tahun 2016, Pasal 2 ayat (1) huruf a (2016)) and the buyer's BPHTB, owed by the signing of the sale deed (Perda Kab. Badung No. 7 Tahun 2023, Pasal 15 ayat (4) and Pasal 16 (2024)).
6. Sign the deed before a PPAT. A transfer can only be registered if proved by a PPAT deed (PP No. 24 Tahun 1997, Pasal 37 ayat (1) (1997)).
7. Registration. The land office records the transfer; new certificates are increasingly a certificate issued as an electronic document, its data held in the electronic land book (Permen ATR/BPN No. 3 Tahun 2023, Pasal 1 angka 9 (2023)). Electronic certificates.

Through a PPAT

A transfer of land rights by sale, exchange, gift or contribution to a company can only be registered if proved by a deed made by an authorized PPAT (PP No. 24 Tahun 1997, Pasal 37).

What the PPAT must refuse

The PPAT must refuse to make the deed if the original certificate is not produced or does not match the land office's registers; if a party is not entitled to act; if a party acts on an absolute power of attorney that is in substance a transfer; if a required permit is missing; or if the land is in dispute (Pasal 39(1)). The refusal is in writing, with reasons. A buyer who is told a PPAT “cannot” do a deal has learned something.

Taxes before the deed

The seller's 2.5% final tax and the buyer's BPHTB are both paid before the deed is signed; the PPAT signs and the land office registers only on proof. The taxes in detail.

What the buyer pays

On a freehold or HGB purchase at IDR 8,000,000,000 — an illustration, not a price — BPHTB is IDR 396,000,000 in any of the three. The base is the price, or the NJOP if that is higher. A lease is not among the rights BPHTB taxes (UU 1/2022, Pasal 44(3)). Notary and agent fees are not set by these regulations and are not given here.

Once you own it

Ownership brings the annual land and building tax (PBB-P2), capped at 0.5% of the taxable NJOP (UU No. 1 Tahun 2022, Pasal 41 ayat (1) (2022)) and payable by whoever actually holds or benefits of the property, not by the name on the certificate (UU No. 1 Tahun 2022, Pasal 39 (2022)). Letting it adds the hotel tax on nightly stays, and income tax on the rent. Property tax, tax on rental income.

What this page does not cover

• The minimum price for a foreigner's house in Bali. Set by ministerial decision; not read.
• Lease taxation on the buyer's side. The landlord's 10% is on the rent.
• Buying through an Indonesian spouse. Mixed marriage and freehold.
• Buying before it is built. Off-plan purchases and the PPJB rules.
• Financing. Mortgages and what a foreigner can borrow against.

Common questions