Can Foreigners Buy Property in Sanur

The Door to Freehold Stays Shut

Melayunesia Law traces the block to Indonesia's Basic Agrarian Law itself: Articles 21 and 26(2) name Indonesian citizens as the only class entitled to hold Hak Milik. A PT PMA gains nothing by incorporating, since no individual foreigner or company structure earns an exception, whatever a seller implies about a workaround.

Every route a foreign buyer actually uses here exists because that particular door never opens.

Three Structures Foreign Buyers Actually Hold

A short-term occupancy arrangement, drawn up privately and notarised rather than filed with any land registry, is what Hak Sewa leasehold amounts to, open to any foreign buyer willing to sign it. Hak Pakai sits on firmer ground: a formal use right that a valid KITAS or KITAP unlocks, gated behind its own minimum spend, covered below. Above both sits a PT PMA, an Indonesian company able to register HGB directly in its own name.

Hak Pakai Carries Its Own Price Floor

Hak Pakai on a rumah tapak, a landed house, cannot go below Rp 5,000,000,000 throughout Bali Province, while a commercial apartment unit needs only Rp 2,000,000,000, per Permen ATR/BPN 18/2021 as reported by Kompas Properti. Land converted from Hak Milik carries the right for an initial 30 years, and one renewal adds a further 30, putting 60 years as the practical ceiling a buyer should plan around.

A PT PMA Registers the Land Instead

Being a full Indonesian legal entity lets a PT PMA register HGB, or step into Hak Pakai, on land a seller's Hak Milik gets converted into once the sale closes, per Bali Exception. Capital is the real gate here: BKPM Regulation 5/2025 sets reported minimum paid-up capital near Rp 2,500,000,000, while the fuller investment plan reaches Rp 10,000,000,000 for every KBLI code the company holds, at every location.

The Nominee Route Fails Every Time

Handing a foreign buyer's money to an Indonesian citizen who then holds Hak Milik on their behalf is not a clever workaround, it is a breach:

• Article 26(2) of the UUPA rules it out outright.
• SEMA 10/2020, Indonesia's Supreme Court circular, directs courts to declare the whole arrangement void for lacking the lawful cause the Civil Code requires.
• Bali's own Perda Provinsi Bali Nomor 4 Tahun 2026 bans nominee land transfers explicitly, adding criminal sanction, permit revocation and forced demolition on top, per NusaBali.

No structure, however it is dressed up, removes that risk once the underlying deal is really a nominee arrangement.

What Sanur's Own Listings Sell Under

Around ICON Bali mall and RS Bali Mandara, new-build two and three bedroom villas are marketed under both leasehold and freehold, frequently off plan, per Rumah123. A Bali Villa Realty listing prices one off-plan two-bedroom leasehold villa at USD 265,000, sitting next to older 1970s to 2000s freehold-era compounds that still carry most of the long-stay rental supply, according to Solar Property Bali.

Neither tenure runs this street exclusively, which is exactly why the structure behind any one listing needs checking directly, never assumed from the asking price.