The second home visa: a bank deposit, or an apartment — not a villa

The long-stay route for living in Bali without working, and the property option that names apartments, not villas.

The second home visa, from the regulation

A foreigner can own a home in Indonesia only with a valid immigration document (PP 18/2021 art. 69(1)). For someone who wants to live in Bali without working there, the second home visa is the long-stay route — and its property option is narrower than most sales material suggests.

What it is

The second home visa is a limited-stay visa for a foreigner and/or family living in Indonesia for 5 or 10 years after meeting certain conditions (PP 40/2023, elucidation to amended PP 31/2013 art. 102(2)(a)). In the regulation’s list of limited-stay purposes, the second-home family covers second home, special expertise, world figures, people aged 60 or over, and remote workers employed by a company outside Indonesia (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 33(2)(j)). The application needs a passport valid at least 6 months, an immigration guarantee, proof of living costs, a recent photo, and documents showing the purpose (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 56(1)).

The guarantee: money in a bank, or an apartment

The regulation lets the Director General of Immigration change these figures; a later decision may have done so, and we have not read the Director General's decisions. Check the current figure before relying on it. The thresholds may be evaluated by the Director General of Immigration (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 56(3)).

The property option names rumah susun atau apartemen — a strata unit or apartment. A villa, a landed house or land is not in the text. On our reading, a buyer of a US$1 million villa on hak pakai does not meet the property option by that purchase, and should plan on the deposit route instead. Foreigners may own a strata unit (PP 18/2021 art. 67(1)(c); Permen ATR/BPN 18/2021 art. 188(1)). Condotels and strata units.

How long it lasts, and the rest of the family

The stay permit runs at most 5 years (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 105(10)(a)). Its siblings in the same family run differently: special expertise and world figures at most 5 or 10 years (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 105(10)(b)-(c)); the retirement visa at most 1 year, or at most 5 years (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 105(10)(d)); the remote worker at most 1 year (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 105(10)(e)). The “other documents” on the application are proof of the second-home visa application (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 56(5)). The retirement visa.

In the regulation’s structure the second home is one of the Golden Visa activities (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 185(1)). The Golden Visa, route by route.

The application is made by the foreigner through the immigration system, without a sponsor named in the article (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 56(1)) — the deposit or the apartment is what stands in for one. That is the difference from the one-year retirement route, which needs a sponsor’s guarantee (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 61(1)-(2)). Our reading of the two articles.

The deposit, compared

The second home’s deposit sits between the other permits’ money tests:

Sources in the last column. Every one must be in place within 90 days of the stay permit.

Timing a purchase around the permit

The 90 days run from the grant of the stay permit, not from the application. A buyer using the apartment option therefore needs a unit that can be bought — signed, paid and registered, or at least committed in a way the immigration office accepts — inside three months of arriving on the permit. An off-plan unit sold on a PPJB is a commitment to buy; whether it satisfies the immigration office is not something the regulation says. Our reading. PPJB and AJB.

What it does for the home

The permit is the immigration document the land rules ask for. The home is still held under those rules — hak pakai over a house, or a strata unit — with their own price floor and size limits. Hak pakai explained. Can foreigners own property in Bali?

This is commentary on the official text, not immigration advice. We do not arrange visas.

Questions on this page