Buying a house in Indonesia: a right of use, not ownership, and on Bali from five billion rupiah

Yes and no. As a foreigner with a residence permit you may buy a home in Indonesia, but not as owner: what you get is a right of use, the hak pakai, of thirty years, with extension. And the government sets a minimum price per province. On Bali it is five billion rupiah for a house and two billion for a flat. The find is in that table: in most provinces the threshold is one billion, on Bali and Java a multiple. The pitfall is in what the rules do not offer: a route to ownership through someone else.

What may you buy as a foreigner?

The regulation of the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning (ATR/BPN) is clear on the basics: a foreigner with a residence permit in Indonesia can hold a home with a right of use. That can be a house on land with a right of use, or a flat in a building on such land. The 2022 decree adds that it may be a new or an existing home, and that the home can be inherited, encumbered with a mortgage and transferred. If the heir is a foreigner, they too must have a residence permit.

Rule	What applies
Right	right of use (hak pakai), not ownership
Term on land with ownership right	30 years, extension 20 years, renewal 30 years
Number	1 plot per person or family
Area	at most 2,000 m², more only with the minister's permission
Minimum price house, Bali	Rp5 billion
Minimum price flat, Bali	Rp2 billion
Minimum price in most other provinces	Rp1 billion

The terms, the plot and the area come from the 2016 regulation; the minimum prices from the 2022 decree. A home a foreigner acquired before that decree falls under the rules that applied before.

What do those minimum prices mean?

That the cheap villa you see on a website is often not for sale to you as a foreigner. A house on Bali below five billion rupiah cannot be acquired in your own name with a right of use. For a flat the threshold is lower, at two billion. That makes a flat on Bali the cheapest route that fits within the rules.

Whoever considers the Second Home route sees the same figure in another form: instead of the deposit of 130,000 dollars, according to the immigration service you may also buy property in Indonesia, such as a flat, worth 1 million dollars. That is a visa condition, not a purchase condition.

A home in the name of an Indonesian acquaintance is not yours. The rules give a foreigner one route: a right of use in your own name, with a residence permit, above the minimum price. What is in the register under another name legally belongs to that other person, whatever the private agreements say. Have your own notary check the register, not the seller's notary.

How long can you live there?

The right of use on a house on land with an ownership right runs for thirty years, can be extended by twenty years, and then renewed for thirty years. That is not automatic: you apply for it, and the right hangs on your residence. A right of use that derives from another land right runs for as long as that underlying right still runs.

What else is involved?

A purchase in Indonesia goes through the official who draws up land deeds, the Pejabat Pembuat Akta Tanah. Which costs and levies come on top at the transfer and afterwards is not in the rules above; ask for a written statement of them before you pay a deposit.

And the order: don't buy in your first year. You need a residence permit for a right of use, and a year of renting shows you whether the place suits you before you tie up an amount that on Bali is at least two billion rupiah. How renting works is in living on Bali; which residence route suits you, in the residence routes to Indonesia. The order of the steps is at /indonesie.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.3: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Indonesia or go straight to step 5.3 in the open plan.