Very cheap dream villa for sale to foreigners - Bali

Low price
Easy to find maids
Swimming pool
Illegal and could lose you all your money

The (almost) ideal dream villa .... but

Undang-Undang No.5 Tahun 1960 article 16 says it's illegal for foreigners to own property in Indonesia, that being regardless of the number of scammers and con men out to sell you a little bit of paradise.

I've just been reading a couple of nice stories about how Australians are buying up Bali property, in fairness with a minor mention of how illegal this is, but without the slightest mention of the scammers out to rip you off and the fact the buyer is going to lose the lot without compensation if the government finds out.
The same applies to the illegal nominee schemes, the the scam where you use a schemer to buy the property in their name and hope they don't sell it out from under you because you can't go to the cops and report the theft of your illegally held property that's in their name anyway.

Don't look at these stories and get taken in - they're seeding thoughts of illegal activity and general stupidity that could well lose you a lot of cash without a hope of a penny returned to you.

http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/m … p?Id=11646

(3/15/2015) The Minister of Agrarian Affairs who is also the head of the National Land Agency (BPN), Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, told Kompas.com that his office will soon survey and inventorying land “owned” by foreigners in Indonesia.

“It is absolutely not allowed for foreigner to  own a single inch of land in Indonesia. This is as stipulated by the National Constitution,”


The newer law, 103/2015, allows a very long term lease with conditions but that isn't ownership so be very careful who you believe when they try to sell you a villa.

Basically,  no matter how glossy the mag you see the advert in, foreigners trying to buy property in Indonesia are on very dodgy ground so watch out and run like hell if some schemer offers you a scheme.

Yogi was just down in Bali  again for a break.   
If anyone's thinking of leasing land,  long term housing lease  or any business venture  you'd do well to sit back and wait.

That volcano could percolate & bubble away for eternity.   The place will be on its knees financially.    Theyve already lost truckloads of holiday bookings and tourism is all they've got.

The banks there are worried,  they've financed a lot of business owners & local homeowners .   If the economic downturn continues there will be massive mortgage defaults, prices will dive and the banks will be underwater with bad debts and properties that have tanked in value.   

Not good for the locals.   

The hotels are already offering cheaper deals, but Travel insurance at the moment won't cover cancellations in the event of any volcanic activity affecting flights etc...  .

Who knows how much longer this will go on for.   The longer it drags on , the more the economy tanks, and the value of property with it.

A friend of mine at Ubud is trying to sell.   He sank $150k into a place, and is now in need of money and can't find the local bloke who's the “proxy owner “ to sign the sale contracts.  The little bastards pissed off & obviously doesn't want to be found.    That's given him an ulcer,,,,now this volcanic activity has surfaced, he's a nervous wreck. 

There's something to think about before throwing cash into the  Bali property market.

Yogi007 wrote:

A friend of mine at Ubud is trying to sell.   He sank $150k into a place, and is now in need of money and can't find the local bloke who's the “proxy owner “ to sign the sale contracts.  The little ba*ds pissed off & obviously doesn't want to be found.    That's given him an ulcer,,,,now this volcanic activity has surfaced, he's a nervous wreck. 

There's something to think about before throwing cash into the  Bali property market.


A proxy owner or, to use a nice kenning, ulcer maker, is just crazy but so many people go ahead anyway.

The Proxy is sitting on a fortune and knows it. All he has to do is wait for your mate to get fed up and leave Bali or just snuff it and he has a fat chunk of cash just waiting for him or his family.
Your pal has almost zero chance of selling and can't say a word about it because he acted illegally.

However, bent agents push proxy deals because they make a fortune, as do the proxy buyers if they're lucky.
It's even better for the proxy as they commonly get paid to sign the land deal - bonus.

I have a great idea.

I will now start advertising for foreigners with loads of cash but bugger all brains to buy land.
I'll pop it all in my name and change my mobile number every time one of the fools wants to sell.
I might or might not get the rewards but my kids will be as rich as lords.

So, calling all twits - Buy land on the island of the Gods and pop it all in my name.
You may contact me using my email:

[email protected]

Good one Fred.     I'm an Aussie, and I know several of these guys that “think” they own the place.   They all seem to think their particular case is different.   It ain't.

The guy I mentioned, actually tried to mortgage the place back in Australia with a bank there.  He wanted to use it as collateral for a loan.   They laughed at him. 

Bali has changed for the worse.  I first went there in 1978 just after I left school.    It was paradise then.....can't say that now.     It's got progressively worse every time I've gone back. 

It's virtually become another state of Australia, if you want to see Aussies,,go to Bali.    I've been in Vietnam 6 years, I go back to Oz for an annual visit , and Sydney is like landing in Beirut or Shanghai.😆

I first went to Bali in the early 1980's and lived there in the late 1990's. I remember riding my motorbike on Kuta beach before they built the road, it was just a dirt track back then. Most of the cool places to stay were in Poppies Lane I and it was just surfing everyday. I ate at Made's Warung and didn't drink and mushrooms were widespread. I also explored Bali's interior when there weren't any waves.

Yeah Bali has changed a lot but that's progress. The new state of Australia, I think is just in the south and hopefully it will stay down south. There are still lots of parts of Bali that are thankfully not ruined and I think the Aussies in the south still bring in a lot of money to the island.

Bali seems like a mecca for those who want to live in paradise, many of which can only afford to live in a budget. For the ones who think they can own land, extreme caution and a lot of common sense is needed. Check it out with a notaris or lawyer before signing anything.

Yeah it's such a shame.  Poppy's lane is now a ghetto of bad mannered touts trying to sell the same rubbish they've had sitting on the shelves for years.

I can remember walking back to Legian from Kuta in the dark.   It was wide open spaces then.  Now it's virtually gridlock all the way to Ubud. 

It's a shame.