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Buying off-plan in Bali without getting burned

Off-plan is where the best prices and the worst outcomes both live. Indonesian law already sets a minimum floor — the real question is whether the developer follows it.

Updated 24 September 2026 · 5 min read

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Milestones, not months

The difference between a good off-plan deal and a disaster is almost entirely the payment schedule. If instalments fall due on dates, you keep paying whether or not anything is being built, and your leverage decreases with every transfer. If they fall due on verified stages — foundation poured, structure topped out, roof on — your money tracks the asset.

Insist on independent verification of each stage. The developer confirming their own progress is not verification.

StageWhat should existRed flag
Foundation pouredDated site photos plus a supervising consultant’s sign-offPayment requested with neither
Structure topped outSameSame request refused or delayed
Roof on / enclosedSameSame
HandoverFinal inspection for a villa; Certificate of Function Suitability (SLF) for an apartmentKeys handed over with no inspection record or SLF

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The law already sets a floor

Indonesia’s pre-sale housing rules — currently PP 12/2021, which implements the 2020 Job Creation Law and replaced the older Permen PUPR 11/2019 — set conditions a developer must meet before signing a binding PPJB at all: the land’s title status has to be clear, the building permit (PBG) issued, supporting infrastructure and utilities in place, and construction progress of at least 20%, confirmed by an independent supervising consultant’s report. Until those conditions are met, the developer is capped at collecting no more than 80% of the price.

This is a genuine legal floor, not just good practice — but it only protects you if the developer is actually licensed as a housing business and willing to show the paperwork behind it. Whether a single small villa project sits inside this framework the same way a licensed multi-unit housing development does is worth asking the developer’s own lawyer directly; the protection is strongest, and best understood, on larger developments.

Questions that separate projects

  • Is the land already titled to the developer or their company, or is it still under negotiation with a third party? Ask to see it.
  • Has the building permit (PBG) been issued, or merely applied for?
  • Can they produce an independent supervising consultant’s report confirming at least 20% construction progress — the same threshold the PPJB rules require before a binding pre-sale agreement?
  • What happens to your money if the project stops — is it held in an escrow account, or spent as it arrives?
  • Has this developer finished anything before? Visit it. Talk to the owners.
  • What is the penalty for late delivery, and is it enforceable against an entity with assets?

Apartments carry an extra layer villas do not

If the off-plan unit is a strata apartment rather than a landed villa, the completed building also needs a Certificate of Function Suitability (SLF) before it can lawfully be occupied, and individual strata certificates have to be registered per unit afterward — a step some developers delay for years past handover, leaving buyers holding a PPJB and a set of keys but no registered title of their own. See the guide to strata title apartments for what a foreign buyer actually ends up holding in that structure.

Common questions

Is off-plan cheaper in Bali?

Usually, and materially so. That discount is compensation for construction risk you are agreeing to carry.

What is the most common off-plan failure?

A project that stalls with the buyer’s money already spent on land or on an earlier phase. Milestone-linked payments, and confirming the developer meets PP 12/2021’s pre-PPJB conditions, are the main defence.

Is there a law protecting off-plan buyers in Indonesia?

Yes. PP 12/2021 sets minimum conditions before a binding PPJB — clear land title, an issued building permit, infrastructure in place, and at least 20% construction progress — and caps what a developer can collect before those conditions are met at 80% of the price. It only helps if the developer actually complies, so verify rather than assume.

What is a PPJB?

A preliminary sale and purchase agreement — a contractual promise to transfer the property once conditions are met. It is not the same as a registered land deed (Akta Jual Beli), which follows only once the property exists and is titled.

What happens to my money if an off-plan project stalls?

It depends entirely on whether payments were held in escrow or already spent. Ask this before signing, not after the project has already stalled.

Should I pay a deposit before seeing a building permit?

No. A reservation fee to hold a unit is common, but any payment tied to construction should wait until you have seen the PBG and, ideally, the developer’s land title — not a rendering and a verbal timeline.

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General information, not legal advice. PPJB requirements are drawn from PP 12/2021, which implements the 2020 Job Creation Law and superseded Permen PUPR 11/2019; confirm current requirements and a specific project’s compliance with an Indonesian property lawyer before signing.

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