PP 16/2021 in English: the building rules a villa owner meets

The land regulations decide who may hold the ground. This one decides what the building needs — and whether a villa counts as a house or a business changes more than people expect.

PP 16/2021, the articles a villa owner meets

The land regulations say who may hold the ground. This one governs what stands on it: the permission to build, the certificate to use, the evidence of who owns the building, and — less often read — how the building’s function decides which rules apply to it.

Function is the hinge

Every building has a function: residential, religious, business, social-and-cultural, and special — or mixed (PP 16/2021 art. 4(2)). It is fixed by the main function, and the main function by the activity the building prioritises. The residential function is a dwelling for people (PP 16/2021 art. 5(1)); lodging buildings are business-function buildings, alongside offices, shops and factories (PP 16/2021, elucidation to art. 5(3)).

A villa is not named in either list. Our reading of articles 4 and 5 together: a villa lived in is residential; a villa run as accommodation has lodging as its main activity and sits with the business-function buildings. The distinction is not academic, because the next rule follows it.

The SLF clock depends on the function

An SLF is valid for 20 years for single and terraced houses; 5 years for other buildings (PP 16/2021 art. 297(2)), and renewal is preceded by a fitness-for-function inspection. On our reading of the function rules, a villa run as a rental is on the five-year cycle, not the twenty — a recurring inspection that belongs in any rental projection. Renting a villa out.

Getting and replacing the papers

How long review takes

The technical plan for a small house — single story up to 72 m², or two stories up to 90 m² — is reviewed in at most 5 working days (PP 16/2021 art. 257(1)). Most villas are larger, and for other buildings the expert team’s review is at most 5 sessions within 28 working days (PP 16/2021 art. 254(8)). The permit levy that follows is regional. What the levy is built from.

Old permits and missing ones

An IMB issued before this regulation is still valid until it expires (PP 16/2021 art. 346(2)). A building that stands with no PBG must obtain an SLF first (PP 16/2021 art. 346(3)) — fitness first, consent second. For a buyer of an existing villa, which of those three positions the building is in is a due-diligence question with a documentary answer. The checklist.

A building on someone else’s land

The general elucidation accepts that a building may stand on another's land by agreement, so building and land ownership can differ (PP 16/2021, general elucidation). That is the legal footing for every villa built on a lease — and why the lease has to say what happens to the building at the end.

Where PP 16/2021 meets the regency’s rules

The regulation sets the framework; the regency supplies two things it does not. The first is the permit levy. PBG is charged as a regional levy, and Denpasar’s by-law builds it from total floor area, a locality index, an integrated index and a built-building index (Denpasar Perda 5/2023 art. 63(3)(a)), multiplied by a unit price the Mayor sets — so no national figure for the cost of a PBG exists, and ours would be invented. Fixed site-work prices are published in the same annex; a pool is IDR 10,000 per m² (Denpasar Perda 5/2023, PBG levy annex).

The second is what the plot may carry. On our reading, a building has to fit the zone to get a consent at all: in Badung, coverage runs from 10% on food-crop land to 75% in urban settlement (Badung Perda 4/2025 art. 97(2)), and island-wide the height limit is 15 meters above the ground (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 100(2)). A design that ignores either is, on that reading, a design for a building that cannot be permitted. How zoning is confirmed for a parcel.

Ownership of the building, separately

Because building and land can belong to different people, PP 16/2021 gives the building its own evidence of ownership, the SBKBG — evidence of building ownership (PP 16/2021 art. 1(19)). On a lease, the question to ask is whose name will be on it, and what the lease says happens to it when the term runs out.

This is commentary, not a translation, and not legal advice. We quote the operative words of the articles we cite; the official Indonesian text on JDIH BPK is the authority.

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