This is the first issue of DOMA Journal. From now on, every morning we round up Bali's main events and explain what they mean for your money. Today we look at why villa construction is running late and how to protect yourself, who might get visa-free entry and what it would do to occupancy, and why the island is getting serious about farmland.
Villa construction is running late, and "some investors are very unhappy"
Business daily dv.ee reported on July 16 that investment villa construction on Bali is falling behind schedule. Developer Karl Urbanik admitted delays on his projects, and investors who bought "high yield" off-plan are waiting longer than promised for handover. It extends the main storyline of 2025–2026. The market has matured, and the gap between developers with schedule discipline and everyone else is now plain to see.
Source: dv.ee, July 16, 2026
Construction delay is a risk you verify before the deal, not after. Look at three things. These are a complete permit pack before construction starts (KKPR, PBG, SLF), stage payments tied to signed acts, so a delay costs the developer money, not yours (how instalments work), and fixed late-delivery penalties in the contract. In our projects the delay penalty is written into the contract at 0.05% per day.
Visa-free entry may return for 8 countries, including Australia, Kazakhstan and India
Indonesia's Tourism Minister Widiyanti Wardhana confirmed that inter-ministerial discussions have "narrowed down to the possibility of granting visa-free visits" for citizens of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, India, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Macau, and Singapore permanent residents. A ministerial-level decision is still pending and no date has been set. Today travellers from these countries pay IDR 500,000 for a 30-day visa on arrival. The urgency comes from tourism losses tied to Middle East conflicts. By late May, ~1,440 flights and ~160,000 international trips had been cancelled.
Source: The Bali Sun, June 4, 2026
Australia is Bali's largest source of both tourists and villa buyers, and Kazakhstan and India are fast-growing markets. Scrapping visas for these countries is a direct boost to rental occupancy, especially for short stays. If approved, locations with steady year-round demand, like Ubud, will feel it first. Model occupancy scenarios in the ROI calculator.
Bali balances tourism against farmland as land conversion comes under scrutiny
Island authorities have named the balance between development and farmland protection a key theme of 2026. The numbers are serious. In 2019–2024 Bali lost 6,521 hectares of productive farmland (9% of its agricultural base), and Denpasar's rice paddies shrank by 38%. Governor's Instruction No. 5 of 2025 bans farmland conversion in a number of zones, but projects that already hold permits continue to build.
Source: The Bali Sun
Limits on land conversion shrink the future villa supply and make projects with permits already in hand more valuable. The land zone is the first thing to check before buying, so see how Bali's zoning works. All our projects sit on "yellow" residential land with a complete permit pack.
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