Land ownership in Bali, for foreigners

Six things get sold to a foreigner in Bali. Only two end with your name on a certificate at the land office, and only above Bali's floor. That is IDR 5,000,000,000 ($283,286) for a house, IDR 2,000,000,000 ($113,314) for an apartment, set by decree on 12 September 2022. A third certificate exists, in a company's name. One ends in a notary's file, one in someone else's name, and one is closed to you outright.

Current at 9 September 2026. Dollars at IDR 17,650 to US$1, the rate of 8 September 2026.

Getting this wrong costs everything paid, not a discount off it

This is where moving to Bali gets expensive fast. Indonesia's 1960 land law, Article 26(2), makes any deal that puts a foreigner's name — even indirectly, through someone else — behind an Indonesian freehold certificate void by law. The land goes to the State. The money already paid cannot be reclaimed. That is not a risk estimate. It is the statute, unchanged since 1960.

At the Bali median, a single are (100 m²) of Canggu freehold land asks IDR 1.65bn ($93,484); a three-bedroom freehold villa there asks IDR 11.8bn ($668,555) (Bali Home Immo, 8 September 2026). That is what a nominee deal risks in full, not at a discount.

Only two of six routes put your name on a certificate at BPN

BPN, the National Land Agency, either has your name in its land book, or it does not. That single fact is what separates these six.

What you're offered	Whose name is on it	Registered at BPN?	Typical term	Bali price floor
Hak Milik, "freehold"	An Indonesian citizen. Never yours	Yes	Perpetual	Closed at any price
Hak Pakai, "right of use"	Yours, in your own name	Yes	25–30 yrs granted; 30-yr ceiling per term, 80 aggregate	IDR 5bn landed / IDR 2bn apartment
HGB, via a PT PMA company	The company's. You hold shares	Yes	30 + 20 + 30 years	None on the property; IDR 10bn investment plan
Hak Sewa, "leasehold"	Yours, as a contract party	No certificate exists	20–30 years	None
SHMSRS, strata title	Yours, in your own name	Yes	Follows the Hak Pakai term	IDR 2bn apartment; almost no stock in Bali
Nominee "freehold"	Someone else's	Yes, in their name	Ends at their death, divorce, sale or change of mind	—

Source: Undang-Undang No. 5/1960 (UUPA), Pasal 21(1) and 26(2), read verbatim on id.wikisource.org, 10 September 2026. Bali's price floor is set by Kepmen ATR/BPN 1241/SK-HK.02/IX/2022, quoted by a Bali ministry official, The Bali Sun, 9 April 2024.

The 25-versus-80-year gap is not a contradiction. PP 18/2021, Pasal 52(1), caps a first Hak Pakai grant at 30 years, an extension at 20 and a renewal at 30. Eighty is the sum of all three, never a single term, and 25 sits comfortably under a 30-year ceiling. What a foreigner can own in Indonesia, 9 September 2026, has the full renewal math.

Two certificates carry your name: Hak Pakai and SHMSRS. A third carries the company's. One route ends in a notary's file, one in someone else's name, and one is closed outright. The one the market sells hardest is the one with no certificate.

No price, permit or marriage opens Hak Milik

Anyone who wants their name on a land title. Not the E28 Golden Visa holder who staked US$5,000,000 for ten years. Not a thirty-year KITAP holder. Not a foreigner who marries a Balinese partner to get around it — provincial officials call that contract-marriage fraud, on the record (The Bali Sun, 11 April 2025).

Anyone buying under the floor. The Canggu one-bedroom leasehold median is IDR 2.23bn ($126,346). The two-bedroom medians in Canggu, Ubud and Uluwatu run IDR 3.89bn to 4.21bn ($220,397 to $238,527), all under the IDR 5bn landed floor (Bali Home Immo, 8 September 2026). Only the three-bedroom band clears it: Canggu's leasehold median is IDR 7.6bn ($430,595). That is a market median, not the floor, and a lease carries no certificate. Below the floor, Hak Sewa is the only route.

Anyone who needs a mortgage. No Indonesian bank lends to a foreign buyer, so the whole amount is cash.

Anyone whose family already holds one Hak Pakai home. The cap is one residential property per family, on land of 2,000 m² at most (detik.com, 21 December 2024).

Anyone planning to let the place. Letting a Hak Pakai home may be barred outright, and 18 Bali KBLI codes — villa accommodation, KBLI 55203, among them — are closed to new foreign registrations from May 2026 (sevenstonesindonesia.com, 2026).

Anyone in a green or conservation zone, whatever the certificate says. Zoning sits above tenure. Bingin Beach lost 45 businesses to demolition from 21 July 2025, with about 500 workers on site, for exactly this (The Bali Sun, 22 July 2025 and 26 November 2025). Governor Wayan Koster counted 48 buildings on site that day — a different tally, not a rival count. Badung's enforcement queue continues next at Balangan (about 20 businesses) and Melasti (8), per Dinas PUPR's Nyoman R Karyasa (The Bali Sun, 15 August 2025).

The cash number for each route, from renting to nominee

Rent three months at Airbnb rates. About $11,100 — three months at the Canggu Airbnb monthly median, not a villa rate (Nomads.com, September 2026). The wet season is what you go there to see; it does not move the price. Use the time to check zoning before you commit capital.
Rent, monthly or yearly. A one-year Canggu two-bedroom asks about IDR 265M ($15,014) (Bali Home Immo, 8 September 2026). No certificate risk touches your money, because none of it is capital.
Take a lease, with the zone and the remaining term in writing. The Canggu two-bedroom leasehold median is IDR 3.89bn ($220,397), plus up to 1% to the notary, the statutory ceiling, not a market rate (PP 37/1998, Pasal 32; balivillasales.com, read 10 September 2026). You still hold no certificate, and the listing will not say how many years are left — ask before you sign.
Buy Hak Pakai at or above the floor. IDR 5bn ($283,286) plus registration costs, about IDR 5.30bn ($300,283) all-in, puts a sertipikat in your own name. No stay permit is required first: PP 18/2021 asks for a visa, passport or stay permit, any one of the three (Pasal 69(1) and its Penjelasan). Stop qualifying and you get one year to sell or transfer before the right lapses by law (Pasal 50).
Set up a PT PMA to hold HGB. IDR 2.5bn ($141,643) paid up on a IDR 10bn ($566,572) plan buys a certificate in the company's name, not yours. Buying property in Bali has the lease arithmetic and the yield claims this route gets sold on.
Skip the nominee. It costs nothing extra up front, which is the entire appeal, and it is void from the moment you sign.

Bali, honestly maps all six land zones and names which ones ban paid accommodation outright — see what's inside.

What this page does not cover

The full 80-year Hak Pakai run — 30 plus 20 plus 30 — worked in cost against a 25-year first term, for the same IDR 5.3bn
The three KITAS routes that actually open Hak Pakai, with the income and deposit each one needs
The named villas and listing codes behind every median on this page

All of it is in Bali, honestly — 23 pages, $29. See what's inside

Priced out of the floor? Renting a villa in Bali covers the year-up-front arithmetic and the deposit scams that come with it. Still choosing a city at all? Compare all ten cities on tenure, rent and visas before you sign anything here.