Nothing is straightforward

It takes a village to get land in Bali

When I first came to Bali I visited for a month. Towards the end of the trip I took a leap of faith and bought a villa that was 90% finished. Over the next several months I communicated regularly with the builder/seller from the USA. And by the time I arrived in Bali everything that I requested was done.

However, buying the villa was in the form of a land lease for 30 years. And so it was a straightforward process of working with a notary, as the land had already been passed from a Balinese owner to a Belgian builder. I sold the villa several months ago because I purchased land and built Ohana Retreat Bali. This transaction was also straightforward because the land had already passed from a Balinese family to a Russian family.

At the moment I am working with a Balinese realtor and a Balinese family on the purchase of 12 ares (.3 acre).

View of the remains of a rock quarry from the cliff of the proposed land.

Stone is being actively cut, although according to the land owner the quarry will be abandoned in about a year, as the remaining stone will all be cut and removed. I inquired about buying some and the land owner is one of three bosses running stone cutting teams in the quarry. He will be happy to sell me stone as long as there are quantities available.

The land includes a large parking area. Most of the site is wooded. The goal would be to preserve as many trees as possible.

The only part of the land without trees. The land owner will have a ceremony before removing the small prayer temple on the property.

Working with the Balinese and with the government comes with a whole set of challenges. My wife’s priest is acting as a coordinator, as he lives close to the property. He is working on obtaining a survey of the land.

We also met the land owners yesterday.

The land owner, on the right, is only 2 years older than me, and so it was nice to have something in common. On the left is the realtor (unlicensed of course).

The wife, with shirtless husband behind, at their home. The children are the priest’s kids. The bicyclist might be a neighbor but I’m not sure. Frankly I tend to understand about 10-20% of what is going on, although anything that’s important receives full translation.

The priest, Rio, explains something to the land owner. Rio is Christian and the Balinese land owners are Hindu. He was made aware that the land owners are suffering from some “heavy burdens”. They lost a child and now they have fallen under black magic, as some villagers apparently are jealous of their land wealth.

The family temple on the left. Due to its size (photo shows approximately 1/2 of the temple), it is clear that the family is wealthy. All Balinese dedicate up to 20% of their land for ancestral temples for family members. To the right of the temple is a building for storing rice, which is sacred to many Asian cultures.

The Balinese house themselves in single story houses in the family compound. There were 6 buildings on this property.

After we left the land owners and their home, the head of the Banjar showed up. The Banjar is a neighborhood association and it is customary for them to get a piece of the transaction. Unfortunately, we learned that they want 10% of the deal (over $6,000 USD or 90,000,000 rupiah). That would be a deal breaker. We are countering with 25,000,000 rupiah ($1,690 USD) and will settle for a maximum of 30,000,000 rupiah ($2,030 USD).

In buying the Ohana land I didn’t have to pay the local Banjar very much, as they already were paid by a foreigner 7 years beforehand. This time I’m dealing with a Banjar in an area without tourists, and so they might be thinking they’ve struck gold.

Between the Banjar dealings and the black magic you might be thinking that the Balinese are strange people. They’re not. Sometimes it is best to think about the Balinese as a living museum. Regardless of cell phones and scooters and whatever technology they might adopt, the Balinese are first and foremost an ancient culture.

And I don’t mind the Banjar acting a bit greedy. After all they’ve seen foreigners come to their island and build hotels and fancy villas, and so its not unreasonable to think that every bule (pronounced bu-ley, meaning foreigner) is fabulously wealthy.

In general if I didn’t have a real soft spot in my heart for these mostly very kind, artistic, resourceful and gentle people I wouldn’t be bothering with trying to buy their land. I love this island and the people here. There is something about the Bali vibe that separates this island from all of the other Indonesian islands and is also why Bali is typically voted as a top 10 destination worldwide.

Update:

Just received this photo from Shelly's priest. Members of the ITR office surveying the land. They said we can build residences here!

Update II:

Just received word from the Banjar that they want 5,000,000 rupiah (juta means million and so 5j = 5,000,000) per are or 5j X 12 are = 60j. The owners agreed to pay the Banjar the difference between our offer of 25j and the 60j and so we’re all good.

Update III:

My notary just got back to me and was able to determine that the land certificate (or title as it's known in the USA) is clean!

So the deal is moving towards closure!

Later,

Neill