Strong short-let returns — and no freehold for a foreigner, at all.
Bali is the only location on this list where a foreigner cannot own land under any structure. Full title (Hak Milik) is reserved for Indonesian nationals. What remains is right of use (Hak Pakai), a long lease of 25–30 years with extension, or ownership through your own PT PMA company with a build right. These are standard, working constructions rather than loopholes — but each has a term and its own renewal conditions, and those, not the view, set what the asset is actually worth.
On nominee arrangements, where the property is registered to an Indonesian by private agreement: such a transaction is void in law and the buyer has no protection whatsoever. No yield calculation covers that hole.
The second thing to understand before any modelling: on Bali the return is produced by occupancy, not by the building. This is short-let with a management company, seasonal pricing and furniture that wears out — an operating business, not passive income. Comparing it directly with a Dubai long let is a category error.
The caveat: The remaining term matters more than the price: leases and use rights end, and that end sits inside your resale value.
What we filmed on location — projects, rules and the things a brochure leaves out.
23:03 At this budget you are not buying a villa in Bali — that is often the cost of the land alone. What you are buying is 35–50 m² of managed apartment, and the ownership structure is the part that decides whether it works.
WatchWritten breakdowns of subjects the English channel has not filmed.
Two popular destinations with almost nothing in common. Freehold against leasehold, a deep market against a niche one, passive income against an operating business — and why the sensible answer is usually a portfolio rather than a choice.
View properties command a premium on Bali and the view itself is usually unprotected. How the lease term, the operator and the neighbouring plot decide the return — before the design does.
Portfolio core
UAE satellite
The Gulf, but not Dubai
Early entry, long horizon
Coastal living and relocation
Fast entry and status
Status inside the EU
Living and letting, not status
Europe close by, a soft entry
Resort letting and wintering
Cheap entry
Capital preservation
Jurisdiction and residency
Jurisdiction and education
Long horizon
Right of use or lease only; freehold is unavailable. The title is a property of the specific project, not of the country as a whole: what the contract says outranks the word "freehold" in a brochure, and that is the first document to read. The detail is in the write-up above.
An operating business. Strong short-let returns — and no freehold for a foreigner, at all. That answers "what job does this market do", which is a different question from "where is the yield highest": markets on this list run on different currencies, different liquidity and different exit horizons, and a single percentage cannot be compared across them.
The remaining term matters more than the price: leases and use rights end, and that end sits inside your resale value. We put that in writing rather than in the small print, because it is usually the thing that decides whether the market suits a particular buyer at all.
Parq Ubud, Alex Villas, Mirah, Canggu, Ubud. That is what we have been to and filmed. Where we have not been, the page carries ownership law and market structure and says nothing about the buildings — we do not rewrite other people's reviews as our own visits.
Because we hold no transaction database for this market, and passing a third-party market summary off as our own analysis is not something we do. We compute figures only where we hold live stock — in Dubai, where medians and entry prices are recalculated nightly and published on the district pages. Here you get the rules, the role of the market and what we have seen for ourselves.
Tell me the budget, the horizon and what the purchase is for. Where the answer is Dubai I will say so with numbers from our own stock; where it is not, I will say that too.
A foreigner cannot hold freehold on Bali at all — only a right-to-use, a lease, or a stake in a PT PMA company. In Dubai, freehold with a title deed is registered directly to an individual. We compare ownership structure, taxes and real, rather than advertised, yield.
A plot in an agricultural zone, no PBG building approval, letting without an accommodation licence, height limits. What to check in the documents before you pay — and why demolitions are real.
A long-term lease on Bali is a contract, not a title — it protects you only as far as it’s written. Eight clauses whose absence most often turns a purchase into a dispute with nothing to point to.
Full land ownership in Indonesia is reserved for citizens. Foreigners can access a right of use, a long-term lease, or ownership through a PT PMA company. What separates the three at the point of exit.
A new second-home visa, a golden visa framework and a long tradition of structures that do not survive scrutiny. The ownership question decides everything.
It is usually described as "the way to buy land in Bali", and that is the first thing to correct. The company does not make a foreigner a landowner — it solves a different problem.
“Buy a villa, let it to tourists” is sold as passive income. Legally it is hotel activity, requiring land rights, a building permit, an accommodation licence and tax registration.
Bali is sold as one place, but the island long ago split into several markets with different economics. A villa in Canggu and one in Ubud are different businesses.
The tax side of Bali is discussed less often than the legal side, wrongly: it is what separates a promised yield from a received one. And the form of ownership changes all of it.
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