Buying property in Sanur: what actually differs here

Sanur is in Kecamatan Denpasar Selatan, Kota Denpasar — Inside the city rather than a regency, with more strata stock than anywhere else on this list — which opens a route the other areas do not have.

Sanur is the only area on this list that is not in a regency. It sits inside Kota Denpasar, the city, which means a different regional government, a different set of by-laws and a different planning authority from everywhere else here.

It is also the area with the most strata stock — apartments and condominium units — and that opens a route to something the villa markets cannot offer a foreign buyer: a right actually called ownership.

Strata title: the one route that says 'hak milik'

Everything else on this site starts from the fact that freehold is closed to foreigners. Strata title is the exception, and it is a real one. Article 67(1) of PP 18/2021 lists who may hold hak milik atas satuan rumah susun — ownership of a strata unit — and sub-paragraph (c) is a foreigner holding the appropriate permit.

Article 188(1) of the implementing regulation confirms it: a foreigner holding a unit built on hak pakai or HGB land is granted strata title over that unit. So the unit is owned, in the full sense, by a foreigner.

Two qualifications, and both matter more than they sound.

You do not own the land. Article 188(2) provides that where the building sits on HGB, the foreigner’s share of the common property is calculated on the proportional value ratio and excludes the common land. The land underneath carries a term — HGB or hak pakai, 30 + 20 + 30 under articles 37(1) and 52(1) — and your unit sits on top of it. Perpetual ownership of a unit standing on a right with a term is a narrower proposition than it first appears, and it is the part of the strata story that gets left out.

The building has to qualify. Article 71(2) of PP 18/2021 provides that strata units built on hak pakai or HGB land under that limb are units in special economic zones, free trade and free port areas, industrial areas and other economic areas. Whether a given Sanur development falls within that is a question about the development, and it is one to ask at the beginning rather than at the deed.

A city authority, not a regency

This is the administrative point that makes Sanur different on paper. Acquisition duty and annual land and building tax are national statutes that hand the operative numbers to regional by-law: Law 1/2022 article 47(2) for the BPHTB rate, article 46(8) for the tax-free threshold and article 41(3) for the annual rate. For Sanur, the body that makes those by-laws is the city of Denpasar, not Badung and not Gianyar.

The practical effect is small but it is real, and it is invisible if you have been reading material that treats Bali as a single jurisdiction. A figure someone quoted for a Canggu purchase was set by a different legislature from the one that governs a Sanur purchase.

Established stock, and what that changes

Sanur has been a residential area for longer than the villa markets further west, which changes the character of a purchase in two ways.

The first is that more of the stock is built, and older. There is a permit history to inspect and a structure to compare against it — which is an advantage over bare land, provided somebody does the comparison. Older buildings are more likely to have been altered since approval, so the check is worth doing properly rather than assuming that age implies regularity.

The second is that the land designation questions that dominate a Canggu purchase are generally less acute in an established residential area inside the city. Less acute is not the same as absent, and it remains a separate enquiry from the certificate wherever you are buying.

If the purchase is a unit rather than a villa, the document set shifts as well: the strata breakdown deed, the proportional value ratio, the building management arrangements and the land right underneath the building all become part of due diligence in a way they are not for a standalone house.

A city legislature, which is genuinely different

Everywhere else on this site the body setting your transaction taxes is a regency. Here it is Kota Denpasar, the city, and that is an administrative difference with practical consequences.

Law 1/2022 does the same delegation it does everywhere: article 47(1) caps acquisition duty at 5% and article 47(2) gives the rate to by-law; article 46(5) floors the tax-free acquisition value at IDR 80 million and article 46(8) gives the figure to by-law; article 41(1) caps annual land tax at 0.5% with article 41(3) handing over the rate. The instrument doing that for Sanur is the city’s, not Badung’s and not Gianyar’s.

If the purchase is a strata unit rather than a house there is a second reason to ask early: the charge attaches to the acquisition of a right, and what you are acquiring is strata title over a unit rather than a landed house.

This is the one area on the site where we have read the by-law. Kota Denpasar Perda 5/2023 sets acquisition duty at 5% (Denpasar Perda 5/2023 art. 13(1)) after a tax-free IDR 80 million on a first acquisition in the city (Denpasar Perda 5/2023 art. 12(4)) — the national ceiling and floor, adopted unchanged. Annual land and building tax is 0.1% on NJOP up to IDR 1 billion, 0.2% above it (Denpasar Perda 5/2023 art. 8(1)), with IDR 15 million of NJOP tax-free per taxpayer. And letting a villa or a house to guests carries a 10% tax on what they pay (Denpasar Perda 5/2023 art. 24(1)). The by-law was amended in 2025 by Perda 2/2025, which does not touch any of these articles.

One Denpasar rule is unusual enough to plan around: inheritance by a child or spouse is charged acquisition duty at 0% (Denpasar Perda 5/2023 art. 13(2)). The annual tax, worked through.

None of the rules about what you may hold moves at a regency boundary — only the numbers do. Freehold is closed to foreigners in Sanur exactly as it is everywhere else in Indonesia, the three open routes are the same three, and the limits at Permen ATR/BPN 18/2021 article 186(1)(a) apply here unchanged.

What to check before you view in Sanur

1. Is this a strata unit or a landed house? They are different rights with different rules and different document sets, and the answer changes everything below.
2. If it is a unit, what land right is the building standing on? Hak pakai or HGB, and how many years of it are left.
3. Does this development fall within article 71(2)? Worth asking at the beginning rather than discovering at the deed.
4. What is the proportional value ratio, and what does the common property include? Article 188(2) excludes the common land where the building is on HGB.
5. For an older building, does what is standing match what was approved? Age implies nothing about regularity.

The full checklist sets out what each of those documents proves, and what it does not.

Questions about Sanur

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