Tenure before villa
A foreign individual cannot directly hold Hak Milik, Indonesia's freehold title, and no visa changes that: stay and tenure are two separate systems. For personal use, three serious paths exist. The long lease, 25 to 30 years with options, remains the most common and the simplest: a solid contractual right when it is well written, which is precisely the point. Hak Pakai, a registered right of use, is available under conditions to foreigners holding a residence permit, for a dwelling. And the investment company, the PT PMA, often becomes the appropriate structure when commercial rental operations are part of the project, because it carries the licenses that renting requires.
The fourth path, still sometimes presented as local custom, is not a lawful ownership route: nominee land holding has been prohibited by Balinese regional law since February 2026, with sanctions that reach the real owner, the intermediaries and everyone who assembled the arrangement. That it is still being offered is itself the tell. We wrote about why it was the wrong risk before it became criminal: PT PMA vs nominee. The full context of the tightening is in our note on the moratorium.
The visa that matches the presence
For real presence without local employment, the option designed for this kind of stay is the second home E33: an initial stay of up to five years, extendable within a ten-year total, no local sponsor, against proof of IDR 2 billion, about USD 130,000, held in an Indonesian state bank, or the purchase of a condominium or apartment unit worth at least USD 1 million. The property route points at apartments rather than villas, so in practice the deposit is the path. Spouse, children and parents follow on dependent visas aligned with the holder's term. Above it, the passive-investor golden visa starts at USD 350,000 in government bonds for five years. The full menu, including the June 2025 extension rule most pages still miss, is in our visa guide.
What these visas do not settle: tenure, tax, succession. A visa settles the right to be here, nothing else. The next three sections exist for that.
The 183-day threshold is anticipated, not discovered
The central Indonesian test is simple to state: more than 183 days of presence in any twelve months is the principal statutory trigger for Indonesian tax residence. It is not the only fact that can matter: effective residence and the intention to reside can weigh too. Tax treaties exist to arbitrate double taxation, France's dating from 1979, with comparable instruments for most European countries. What that implies for your income, your estate and your filing obligations depends entirely on your situation, and it is a job for your tax adviser, not for a web page.
What this note can say with certainty is the method: annual presence is decided in advance, counted, with your adviser, because each scenario changes the questions. Below the threshold, your adviser will examine how Indonesian rental income lands in your home filings, where the asset sits in any wealth-tax base, and how eventual PT PMA dividends come home. Above the threshold, the entire architecture is redrawn. None of these points is a problem when anticipated. Every one of them becomes a problem when discovered in January.
Succession is written before the signature
It is the question sales conversations tend to postpone and every serious family, or its adviser, raises early: what happens to the asset if I am gone. On a long lease, the contract is the first place the answer lives, and inheritance law, governing law and the lessor's real authority decide whether it holds. Before signing, your notary must be able to answer four questions in writing: is the lease transferable to heirs, and by what mechanism; do heirs step into the renewal options on the same terms; how is the value of the remaining term treated in a forced transfer; and who, on the lessor's side, is legally empowered to bind the landowner over the full duration. On a PT PMA holding, the question moves to share transmission and company governance. None of these answers is standard. All of them are obtained before signature, or paid for after.
The villa is the seventh decision. It is a much better villa when the first six are already made.
Exit before entry
A 30-year lease bought today is a 22-year lease in eight years: resale value lives in the remaining term, the renewal options and the quality of the file. Tomorrow's serious buyers will discount everything that is vague and pay for full compliance, permits, licenses, clean books, precisely because the market has hardened in that direction. Thinking about resale at the moment of purchase is not pessimism; it is what separates an estate from a holiday souvenir.
The format you converge on
When those four points are settled, the brief usually converges on the same design: the estate residence. A family place built to your standard, several buildings or one composition, run by a professional team, with disciplined rental operations that make the asset work during your absences without ever degrading what makes it yours. That is precisely the work of this atelier: we design, develop and operate this kind of residence, and the sketch on our homepage treats the estate residence as an ambition in its own right, priced from our real development and operating data.
The first conversation is where your four answers go on the table. Forty-five minutes, then one page back: go, no, or not yet, with the arithmetic attached. If the project is serious, we open the Harmonie model at the level needed to test the thesis. Talk to François.
Questions we get asked directly
Can a foreigner own a residence in Bali to live in? Not in freehold. The serious paths are the long lease, Hak Pakai under residence conditions, and the PT PMA when operations are part of the project. The nominee route has been banned and criminally sanctioned since February 2026.
Does the second home visa let me rent out the villa while I am away? The E33 settles your stay, not the operation. Short-term renting is a regulated activity that requires the corresponding structure and licenses, whatever your immigration status. It is a regulated business activity, and precisely the one you delegate.
After how many days do I become an Indonesian tax resident? More than 183 days in any twelve months is the main threshold to model, though not the only fact an adviser may examine. What that means for a French, Belgian or Swiss tax resident depends on the treaties and on your situation: it is the modeling your tax adviser produces before the presence is installed, not after.
Where do I start? With the order of this note: real use, tenure, visa, the 183-day threshold, succession, exit. The villa comes seventh, and it is much better for it.
last reviewed: july 2026
Related: Which visa for Bali in 2026? · PT PMA vs nominee · Bali leasehold explained
Sources: Indonesian tax residence rule at 183 days (income tax law); the 1979 France-Indonesia tax treaty and comparable European instruments; official second home E33 terms (initial five years within a ten-year total; state-bank deposit or a condominium or apartment unit of at least USD 1 million) and golden visa tiers as published by the Indonesian authorities, consulted 10 July 2026; Bali Perda 4/2026 on the prohibition of nominee land holding. This note describes a method, not tax, legal or estate advice: every statement of principle requires validation by your tax adviser and a licensed notary against your precise situation before any decision.