Bali’s 15-meter height limit, temple zones and coast: the island-wide rules

Every regency has its own spatial plan. Above them is the provincial plan, and a few of its rules apply wherever you build — starting with the one everybody has heard of.

Coconut-tree rule, temple zones, setbacks: ten rules that apply across the island

Every regency in Bali has its own spatial plan. Above all of them sits the provincial plan, and a handful of its rules apply wherever you build. They are the reason Bali’s skyline looks the way it does, and they are the part of zoning that no regency can relax.

15 meters, measured to the eaves

The provincial plan limits building height, in general, to 15 meters above the ground (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 100(2)). It gives its reasons in the same article: airspace and flight safety, the sanctity of holy places, residents’ comfort, and the distinctiveness of Bali’s landscape.

How it is measured matters for villa design. Height runs from the ground to where the vertical structure meets the pitched roof (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 100(3)), expressly to leave room for traditional Balinese roof forms. A steep alang-alang roof above the 15-meter line is not the problem; a fifth floor is.

The exceptions are narrow: aviation, worship, defense, disaster, telecommunications, maritime, power and hospital buildings, and special buildings the Governor designates (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 100(4)). Hotels, villas and housing are not among them. Even the excepted buildings are to be sited, as a priority, outside protected areas, protected farmland and traditional settlements (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 100(5)) — the rule reads as a limit on where height goes, not only on how much of it there is.

For a buyer the practical reading is simple. A listing that promises a fourth or fifth story, a rooftop structure above the roof line, or a “tower” villa is promising something the provincial plan does not allow for housing or accommodation, whatever the regency plan says about the zone.

Tourism zones: half the plot, at most

For accommodation and tourism facilities in tourism zones the provincial plan caps coverage at 50% of the plot (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 95(g)) and repeats the 15-meter height. Badung’s regency plan sets the same 50% for its tourism zone (Badung Perda 4/2025 art. 96(d)). The regency plans then add their own caps zone by zone — in Badung, from 10% on food-crop land to 75% in urban settlement. Badung’s zones, one by one.

Temples: a protected radius and a one-story core

The provincial plan defines the temple sanctity zone as the area around a temple whose sanctity is protected within a radius set by the temple's status in the 1994 PHDI Bhisama (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 1(46)). The radii live in that religious norm, not in the by-law, and we have not read it — so this page quotes no distances.

Which places are sacred in the plan’s own terms

The plan names two layers. Sacred areas are mountain slopes to the summit, the lakes Batur, Beratan, Buyan and Tamblingan, every river confluence, beaches and sea used for ceremonies, and holy springs (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 33(3)). Temple sanctity zones cover the great temples, every village's temples, and family and clan temples (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 33(4)); the zones around the great kahyangan jagat temples alone total about 8,330 hectares (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 33(4)(a)).

Two of those items catch buyers who were not looking for them. “Every river confluence” means the campuhan at the bottom of a valley plot is a sacred area by definition. And village temples are everywhere — a plot does not need to be near a famous temple to be near one the plan protects.

The core-zone building rule

What the by-law does set is the building rule in the core zone: other buildings are limited to no more than one story in the core zone (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 85(b)(6)(b)), unless they use ground that falls away from the ground floor. For a plot near a temple, the delineation in the regency plan or its detailed plan is the first thing to find. How that is confirmed for a parcel.

The coast: a protected strip, with conditions

At provincial level the coastal setback is a local protected area. Within it, beach recreation, green space and customary and religious uses are permitted; accommodation support facilities, only on conditions (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 85(c)(3)); and buildings at odds with the setback’s purpose are barred. The plan also protects stretches of beach used for melasti ceremonies. The width is set below the province: in Badung, at least 100 meters from the highest tide line (Badung Perda 4/2025 art. 101(15)(a)).

How the three layers fit

Province, regency, detailed plan: each sits inside the one above. The provincial plan sets the island-wide limits — height, temple zones, the character of the coast. The regency plan sets zones and coverage. The detailed plan, where it exists, sets the parcel. A plot is only as buildable as the tightest of the three, and the document that pulls them together for a given use is the KKPR.

Before you buy

Ask how tall the design is, measured to the eaves; whether any temple is near enough to have a core zone over the plot; and, on the coast, where the setback line falls. None of those is answered by a listing. What a villa needs to be built.

We are not architects or planners and cannot tell you what a particular plot allows. We are paid a fixed fee per enquiry whether you buy or not; this page quotes the provincial plan so you can ask.

Questions on this page