Most people who come to us thinking about buying property in Bali have already done a lot of research. They know the area they like. They have seen villas online. They have a rough budget in mind.
What they have not always thought about is the set of questions that never come up in a listing, a sales brochure, or a developer presentation. These are the questions that determine whether a purchase is actually sound, and they are the ones nobody on the selling side has any reason to raise unprompted.
If you are considering buying property in Bali as part of your relocation, whether as a long-term home, a retirement base, or a family residence, here is what you genuinely need to verify before anything is signed.
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Whether Your Broker Is Properly Licensed
Before you talk about price, projected returns, or anything about the property itself, ask whether the company representing you is a legally registered brokerage in Indonesia, and whether the brokers inside it are certified.
This is not a minor administrative point. Indonesia’s property brokerage sector is regulated under the Ministry of Trade, with the current framework set out in Regulation No. 33 of 2025. Under this framework, brokerage must be conducted through a properly licensed and registered business entity. The brokers themselves must hold competency certification issued through the national system overseen by BNSP, the National Professional Certification Agency. A foreign individual, it is worth knowing, cannot legally work as a licensed broker in Indonesia at all. Certification is reserved for Indonesian citizens.
Why does this matter for you as a buyer? Because licensing creates accountability. When a transaction runs through a properly established company with certified brokers, there is an identifiable entity, documented standards, and a formal process for raising a dispute if something goes wrong. When it runs through an unlicensed individual operating independently, none of that exists. If a deal turns sour, there is no regulator to contact, no professional body to complain to, and no formal route to recourse.
This is the same standard buyers are encouraged to apply in Australia, the UK, Singapore, and elsewhere. Indonesia is moving firmly in the same direction. Your job is to confirm the people you are trusting are already inside that framework.
At Our Year in Bali, our trusted network of property contacts includes licensed, reputable buyers agents who work exclusively on your side of the transaction. Learn more about how we can connect you with the right people or read our Housing in Bali page.
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What Is Actually Included in the Asking Price
This question is more nuanced than it sounds, and more than a few buyers have been caught out by it. Make sure to ask clearly whether the quoted price includes tax, and which taxes apply to your specific purchase.
On a standard resale between two private individuals, value added tax does not arise. Buy from a developer or a business seller registered to collect VAT, and the situation changes. VAT of 11 percent applies, and it is the buyer who carries it. It is not unusual for an off-plan price to be quoted before tax, with the 11 percent appearing only at the point of signing. There is some relief available: through 2026, the government is covering VAT on the portion of a new landed house or apartment priced up to IDR 2 billion for qualifying buyers. It is worth checking whether your purchase falls inside that window.
The baseline transaction costs are also worth knowing so you recognise them when they appear. The acquisition duty, known as BPHTB, runs to 5 percent and is paid by the buyer. The seller’s transfer tax, PPh, is 2.5 percent and falls to the seller. These are conventions, not negotiable rules, but some sellers do attempt to slide their 2.5 percent across to the buyer during negotiation. If that happens, you will know what you are looking at.
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The Declared Value on the Deed, and Why It Becomes Your Problem
This one is common, quietly dangerous, and worth understanding clearly before you sit down at any negotiating table.
A seller, sometimes through their agent, may suggest that the value declared to the tax office and the land office be set significantly below the actual purchase price, often close to the government’s assessed NJOP figure. The reasoning offered is usually that it reduces the seller’s tax liability and your acquisition duty today. It gets framed as a shared savings.
It is not. The declared figure goes onto the title deed in your name. Indonesia’s integrated tax system, Coretax, now cross-references declared values automatically and is built specifically to flag this kind of gap. If that number is ever questioned, it is the buyer who holds the deed with the understated value, and the buyer who carries the exposure.
The advice here is consistent and simple: declare the real purchase price. Any short-term saving on acquisition duty is not worth the risk of what follows if the gap is flagged.
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Why a Zoning Colour Is Not the Whole Answer
If you have started researching property in Bali, you have probably encountered the colour-coded zoning map. Green, yellow, pink, red. Many buyers assume the colour settles the question of what they can do with a piece of land. It does not. It is the beginning of the enquiry, not the end.
Two documents matter far more than the colour. The ITR, or spatial-planning information document, is what you check with the local public works office before signing anything. It tells you what the rules are for that specific plot. The PKKPR, the approval of suitability for spatial use, is the confirmation from the OSS system that your specific intended activity is actually permitted on that land. Without it, a project cannot lawfully obtain its building approval.
Two things catch buyers out regularly here. First, not all green land can be built on. Protected green zones will see a permit refused outright, regardless of what the general zoning colour suggests. Second, the right to build is not automatically the right to operate a rental business. If you intend to let a villa, the land and your business licence must support the appropriate classification, or you may build something you are not legally permitted to rent out. Always ask the seller for the ITR, and always check whether a PKKPR can be obtained for what you actually plan to do with the property.
Thinking about which area of Bali makes most sense for your lifestyle and property goals? Our Where to Live in Bali page covers Sanur, Ubud, Canggu, Uluwatu, and more popular expat areas in more detail.
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Whether You Are Free to Appoint Your Own Legal Team
This last point is the simplest and the most revealing. Ask whether you may appoint your own notary and independent legal and tax advisers to run due diligence on the purchase.
A seller who insists that you use their notary alone is waving a flag, however pleasantly the suggestion is made. The reasons offered are always practical-sounding. It will be faster. The due diligence is already done. The notary holds all the paperwork. We have done many of these without a problem.
Sometimes every word of that is true. But in a small number of cases where a seller has pressed buyers to use their notary exclusively, independent legal review has uncovered material issues that were not disclosed. Not every such deal hides a problem. The point is that without your own eyes on the file, you cannot know which situation you are in.
If you love the property, you do not have to walk away. Appoint independent advisers to run a parallel review and proceed based on what they confirm. On a purchase worth several hundred thousand dollars, the cost of that second opinion is small against the cost of being wrong. It is consistently the best money a buyer spends in this market.
How Our Year in Bali Helps You Navigate the Bali Property Market
Buying property in Bali as a foreign expat is genuinely achievable. But the market rewards the people who go in with good information and the right support, and it has a long history of being unkind to those who do not.
One of the most important things we do at Our Year in Bali is connect relocating families and retirees with trusted, verified professionals on the ground, including a buyers agent who is on your side from the very first conversation through to settlement and beyond. A buyers agent in Bali works exclusively for you, not the seller, which means their job is to find the right property at the right price and make sure everything checks out before you commit.
This is not the way property has traditionally been sold in Bali. But it is the way that protects buyers, and it is the standard we hold our network to.
If you are in the early stages of thinking about property as part of your Bali relocation, here are some good places to start:
- Read our Housing in Bali page for an honest overview of the rental and purchase market
- Explore Areas to Live in Bali to understand which neighbourhoods suit different lifestyles and budgets
- Read real stories from families and retirees who have already made the move.
- Or simply book a free 30-minute discovery call with our relocation expert, Simone Collins and start a conversation about what your move looks like
The right property in Bali is out there. Getting there with confidence is what we help you do. Book your free discovery call here.
