Foreign property ownership in Indonesia

Hak Milik, Indonesian freehold, is closed to foreigners. No structure opens it. Three routes are legal: a lease, Hak Pakai, and a PT PMA holding a right to build. Hak Pakai runs 30 years plus 20 plus 30 under PP 18/2021, over a price floor set by decree on 12 September 2022. The nominee title everyone offers you is void.

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

Three routes are legal, and none of them is ownership

Only Indonesian citizens hold Hak Milik. You buy the right to use land for a term.

Say it twice: Hak Pakai is not ownership. People misread it as freehold with extra steps. A landed house is capped at 2,000 m² per family (detik.com, 21 December 2024).

Indonesia sets no foreign quota per building, where Thailand caps a condo at 49%. That one point helps anyone moving to Bali.

CHECK The term is disputed. PP 18/2021 grants 30 plus 20 plus 30 (kinnara.asia, April 2026; emerhub.com, 1 June 2026). Bali land offices report first grants of 25 years (house research, September 2026). The regulation sets a ceiling. The counter sets the grant.

The floor price is the money test, and it runs in five bands

Kepmen ATR/BPN 1241/SK-HK.02/IX/2022 fixes a minimum purchase price by province. Signed 12 September 2022, it was in force on 28 August 2026 (paralegal.id, read 10 September 2026).

Jakarta's landed floor is IDR 5bn, not the IDR 10bn some copies of the decree still show. That IDR 10bn figure is the superseded Permen ATR/BPN 13/2016 house floor (Kepmen ATR/BPN 1241/2022, signed 12 September 2022).

The law asks only for a passport plus a visa or stay permit. A KITAS is not required (Permen ATR/BPN 18/2021, articles 125 and 185). Land offices and notaries ask for one anyway (kinnara.asia, April 2026; detik.com citing the ATR/BPN ministry, 17 May 2023). Get the Indonesian remote worker KITAS before you see a notary. Registering with your embassy does not replace it.

What none of these routes will let you do

You may not hold freehold, at any price, through any structure. You may not hold a second property on Hak Pakai. Indonesian banks rarely lend to a foreign buyer. So budget for cash (house research, September 2026).

Letting is not prohibited. PP 18/2021 limits a Hak Pakai home by price, size and category, not by use (article 72). Rental income is withheld at 10% if you are an Indonesian tax resident. It is 20% if you are not (PP 34/2017; UU 36/2008, article 26). Your home country's tax treaty with Indonesia decides which one applies, and this guide gives no tax advice.

The company route is narrowing. BKPM shut new foreign registrations across 18 Bali business codes from May 2026, including real estate.

The nominee title is void, and in Bali it is now criminal

Someone will offer to hold freehold in an Indonesian name for you. Article 26(2) of the Basic Agrarian Law makes that void from the outset, not voidable (emerhub.com, 1 June 2026). Your side agreement binds nobody, and if the nominee dies the heirs inherit. Losses run US$100,000 to US$500,000 a case, and prosecutors have treated these disputes as fraud since 2025.

Bali went further. Perda Bali No. 4 of 2026 bans nominee ownership and reaches all three parties: the foreigner, the nominee and the facilitator. The Satpol PP can freeze a licence or tear the building down (indo-ned.com, 29 July 2026).

CHECK The penalties are single-sourced. One source gives up to 5 years in prison and fines to IDR 1bn ($56,657). It dates the signing to 24 February 2026 (emerhub.com, 1 June 2026). Another confirms the number, title and subject, with no penalties and no date (indo-ned.com, 29 July 2026). One has the text, the other advisory copy.

CHECK The scale is single-sourced too. About 10,500 Bali parcels sit under nominee structures, with roughly US$7bn of exposure. That is per a national working group on the crisis (search consensus, read 10 September 2026). No source names the group.

Zoning is the other live risk. On 21 July 2025 the province demolished 45 businesses at Bingin Beach for spatial-planning breaches. CHECK Bali News and emerhub.com counted 48 structures (14 June 2026; 1 June 2026). No list was published. A business is not the same unit as a structure.

The round trip costs 6.5 to 9 per cent before the clock shrinks

VAT on a non-luxury new build is 11% effective. The headline rate rose to 12% on 1 January 2025. PMK 131/2024 sets the taxable base at 11/12 of price for goods outside the luxury list, though (pajak.go.id, read 10 September 2026).

Through all of 2026 the state pays 100% of the VAT on a ready-built home. That applies at IDR 2bn ($113,314) or less (pajak.go.id, read 10 September 2026).

Nothing renews itself. A lease hands the land and the building back. A Hak Pakai extension is an application, not an entitlement. A PT PMA renewing HGB is no better placed. A 25-year lease is a 10-year lease by year fifteen. Chapter 4 of Living in Southeast Asia 101 prices that clock against the tenure ceiling in 7 countries.

Buy only if losing the money would not change your life

Four readers should stop here. Under the provincial floor, a lease is your only route. Buying for yield, the 10–20% withholding above cuts into it. Planning a Bali villa business, the 2026 code freeze closed that door. Holding no stay permit, get one first.

Nobody should buy off-plan. Jakarta's stalled towers have names — LRT City, The Lana, Gayanti City — and an unbuilt unit has no title (detik.com, August 2026; kompas.com, 5 September 2026).

For everyone else the answer is no. It turns on the term. You are buying prepaid rent on a clock you do not control. Buy only if you will be here past fifteen years and hold a permit. Have the zoning in writing, and be ready to lose the lot.

Related

The rule lands differently on the ground. Buying property in Bali has the leasehold arithmetic and the yield claims agents make. Priced out by the floor? Renting a villa in Bali covers the upfront year. Compare all ten cities on tenure and rent.