Whose work this is
Due diligence on a Bali property is legal work, and it belongs to the buyer’s own PPAT, notary and lawyer. No official other than the PPAT may draft and authenticate the deed when a registered land right is sold or mortgaged, and before doing so verifies the certificate with BPN, looks for liens, mortgages and disputes, confirms the seller is legally able to sell and confirms the zoning. A Notaris prepares the PPJB, powers of attorney and the documents that create a PT PMA. A lawyer acting for the buyer negotiates the agreements, including any escrow, which in Bali is a negotiated practice and not a legal requirement.
Our part is narrower. We offer private access and accompanied viewings, and we do not check title, zoning or permits. What follows is a map of what your professionals should cover, so the brief you give them is complete.
The certificate
Everything begins with the sertifikat. The seller must produce the original, and the PPAT checks its authenticity at the land office before the AJB is drawn. The certificate names the right held, be it HGB, Hak Pakai or Hak Milik, and so decides what may lawfully pass to a buyer from abroad. Neither a foreigner nor a PT PMA may hold Hak Milik, and any structure that leaves an Indonesian holding it on a foreigner’s behalf is a nominee arrangement, void before the courts and now expressly prohibited by Bali’s Perda 4/2026.
Older paper certificates remain valid, according to ATR/BPN, and do not become electronic unless the holder applies for conversion or another land service. A large estate is often assembled from several older certificates, and each transaction may trigger that conversion.
Some land still rests on customary evidence. PP 18/2021, Pasal 96, set a five-year window ending in 2026 to register written evidence of former customary land, such as girik or Letter C. ATR/BPN says such land will not be taken by the state, but the documents’ standing as proof is what changes. A parcel held only on that evidence needs registration before it can carry a clean title.
Inherited land needs particular care. It must first be transferred into the heirs’ names with a statement of inheritance, every heir must attend the signing or give notarially legalised consent and a power of attorney, and inheritance BPHTB must be paid. An heir living abroad can sign a power of attorney before a consular official at an Indonesian embassy, which the embassy then legalises.
Customary village land, in categories such as Tanah Pekarangan Desa, Tanah Ayahan Desa and Tanah Laba Pura, sits under Bali’s Perda 4/2019 on Desa Adat. Whether such land can be sold or leased to an outside buyer was not established in the research behind this guide, and is a question for your lawyer.
Zoning and the KKPR
The provincial plan, Perda Provinsi Bali 2/2023, sets the broad designation. The informal colours map onto it this way. Pink is tourism at Pasal 95, yellow is residential at Pasal 96, and green, at Pasal 90, is farmland or protected land. Regency RDTR plans add parcel-level detail where they exist, with Badung and Denpasar at full coverage and Tabanan at 15.93 per cent, as reported in July 2024.
The written confirmation is the KKPR. Under PP 28/2025 it is issued automatically by OSS as a Konfirmasi KKPR where an integrated RDTR exists, and as an assessed Persetujuan KKPR elsewhere. Without it a business cannot obtain an NIB, which matters for any house that may later be let.
The zoning check should also cover LP2B status, since Perda 4/2026 exposes conversion of protected farmland to criminal prosecution, and setbacks from coast, cliff and river. In Kuta Selatan, Badung’s Perda 7/2018 measures a coastal setback of at least 100 metres, taken landward from the highest tidal point, with buildings inside it held to four metres, though its interaction with the newer Badung Perda 4/2025 is unresolved.
PBG, SLF and environmental approval
A house needs a PBG, which took over from the old IMB as the approval to build, and an SLF once it is complete and fit for its intended use. Both run through SIMBG. One Bali developer, writing in June 2026, treated a valid PBG, SLF and environmental approval (AMDAL or UKL-UPL) as part of what defines the top tier. A May 2026 property guide stated that every villa requires a PBG and that a buyer who skips verifying it can inherit an illegal structure.
The enforcement record supports that warning. In October 2025 a Canggu villa standing in a river body, with no land-rights basis, PBG or SLF, was sealed and its management ordered to dismantle the structures. In January 2026 a resort land-clearing at Kampial was sealed for lacking a PBG and any environmental document. In Karangasem in October 2025, work was halted at a four-hectare real-estate project still in its permit process. If the house is to be let, the PBG must be for commercial use.
Tax status
Tax enters the checks in two ways. The transfer itself carries BPHTB for the buyer, at up to 5 per cent under UU 1/2022 and set by each regency, and a final income tax of 2.5 per cent of the gross transfer value for the seller under PP 34/2016. Where the stated price is unknown or below the NJOP, the regency’s assessed value, NJOP is used instead for BPHTB. PBB, levied every year, is charged on NJOP at a rate capped at 0.5 per cent, with detail varying by regency, so the parcel’s NJOP and its PBB position are worth asking your notary to confirm.
A new house from a developer brings PPN, and at Rp 30 billion or more PPnBM at 20 per cent, under PMK 15/2023 as amended by PMK 96/2023. Badung’s own BPHTB rate was not found in the research, which also notes that several of these regulations were read through dated summaries rather than the official texts.
Leases and lease registration
A lease is checked differently, because there is nothing to register. Hak Sewa is not recorded at BPN and does not appear on the certificate. The lessee relies on the notarised lease deed, drawn and confirmed by a notary, typically with witnesses. The lessor’s own certificate therefore deserves the full scrutiny given to a purchase, since the lease is only as good as the right beneath it. The lease wording on term, extension and the building at expiry carries the rest. No statute supplies a default for the building when a lease ends, so unless the lease provides for compensation, buy-back or removal, it becomes a private negotiation.
What goes wrong
The record is specific. In 2018 police named a former deputy governor a suspect over two Balangan plots offered in a Rp 150 billion deal on allegedly forged documents, one of about 38,000 square metres that police said belonged to a temple. In May 2024 the Bendesa Adat of Berawa was arrested over an alleged Rp 10 billion demand from an investor in a land purchase. In December 2025 the head of the Bali land office was named a suspect for alleged abuse of authority, an allegation he has challenged, with no finding of guilt reported. Bingin saw 48 buildings demolished in July 2025 without compensation.
Price can mislead too. Portal pages sampled in October 2026 listed the same top-end property up to nine times and showed prices impossible for the land size. A thorough brief to your notary and lawyer, given early, is the protection.