PP 18/2021 in English: land rights and foreigners, article by article

The UUPA is the frame; PP 18/2021 is where the numbers are. Terms of years, who may hold what, and the whole regime for a foreigner’s home, in the regulation’s own order.

PP 18/2021, in the order the articles run

If the UUPA is the frame, PP 18/2021 is where the numbers are: the terms of years, who may hold each right, and the whole regime for a foreigner’s home. These are the articles this site relies on, in the regulation’s own order.

The three blocks a foreign buyer needs

Definitions (art. 1)

The regulation defines a foreigner as anyone who is not an Indonesian citizen (PP 18/2021 art. 1(14)) — one category for every nationality — and hak pengelolaan as the State's right of control, partly delegated to the holder. The second matters because hak pakai and HGB granted over hak pengelolaan land run on the State-land ladder.

The rights and their terms (arts. 19–60)

HGB belongs to Indonesian citizens and Indonesian legal entities (PP 18/2021 art. 34); hak pakai is granted to foreigners expressly (PP 18/2021 art. 49(2)(e)). Both come in two versions. Over State land or hak pengelolaan: 30 years + 20 years + 30 years (PP 18/2021 art. 52(1); PP 18/2021 art. 37(1)). Over someone’s hak milik: at most 30 years, renewable only by a new grant deed (PP 18/2021 art. 52(3); PP 18/2021 art. 37(2)). That split is the most consequential thing in the regulation for a foreign buyer, and the least often quoted.

A foreigner’s home (arts. 69–72)

Ownership requires a valid immigration document (PP 18/2021 art. 69(1)). A landed house sits on hak pakai (PP 18/2021 art. 71(1)(a); Permen ATR/BPN 18/2021 art. 185(a)). Article 72 sets four limits: a minimum price, a land area, a number of parcels or units, and residential designation. The figures for the first three are delegated — to Permen ATR/BPN 18/2021 and, for the price, a ministerial decision we have not been able to read. An Indonesian married to a foreigner keeps full land rights with a notarial separation of assets (PP 18/2021 art. 70).

Where PP 18/2021 hands over to the ministerial regulation

PP 18/2021 sets the rules; much of the detail a buyer actually meets is in Permen ATR/BPN 18/2021, which says in its own preamble that it implements arts. 18, 33, 48, 63, 65(3) and 73 of PP 18/2021 (Permen ATR/BPN 18/2021, preamble). For a foreigner’s home, the hand-over looks like this:

Read the two together or not at all. PP 18/2021 alone gives four limits and no numbers; the Permen alone gives numbers without saying where their authority comes from.

When a holder stops qualifying

The regulation has the same answer for HGB and for a foreigner’s home: time to put it right, then the right ends. An HGB holder who stops meeting the conditions has one year, then the right lapses by operation of law (PP 18/2021 art. 35). A foreigner’s home is inheritable, if the heir also holds one (PP 18/2021 art. 69(2)–(3)) — the heir needs a valid immigration document too, which is the point most estate plans miss. What happens on death or exit.

What it repealed, and what it left standing

Article 103(b) made PP 103/2015 repealed — the regulation still quoted in much English-language material on foreign home ownership. Article 102(b) keeps PP 24/1997 on land registration still in force so far as it does not conflict; PP 18/2021 adds to it, including the recording of leases and PPJBs on a certificate (art. 90). The UUPA it implements. Every instrument, by number.

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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