Chapter two
Adrian Campbell in Indonesia: fifteen years from Kuta to Sekotong
An Australian who learned Indonesian on the floor of a Kuta hotel at 22 and now leads a development company in West Lombok. The Indonesian chapters, from Bali to Sekotong.
Bali · 2014–today
Bali villas
Holiday rental villas let since 2014, kept trading through COVID by the same Balinese team.
Kinnara Capital Limited and PT Kinnara Capital Indonesia · 2024–today
Kinnara Capital
The development business, set up in 2024: land assembled parcel by parcel in Buwun Mas and Saraya Beach Resort as its first project.
Kinnara Limited, Hong Kong · 2021–today
Kinnara
The marketplace: listings from 76 portals across 44 countries, 15,000-plus agents, and buyers who are mostly Australian.
Guide for Australian buyers
Lombok property for Australians
Why you cannot own freehold, how leasehold and PT PMA work, which certificates to check, and why Lombok now.
Sekotong, West Lombok · designed, priced and contracted
Saraya Beach Resort
154 beachfront villas on 3.7 hectares at Sekotong, designed by KRAM Space Architect and contracted to TSG Construction. Adrian's flagship.
West Lombok Regency · Nusa Tenggara Barat
Sekotong and Buwun Mas
The quiet south-west peninsula: white beaches, the southern Gilis, and the village where Kinnara Capital's land and site office sit.
Kuta, Bali · 2011–2014 · sold
Troppo Zone Puri Rama Resort
An 88-room Kuta resort bought at 22, refurbished, staffed by 80 locals and sold in 2014. Where he learned Indonesian.
From a hotel in Kuta
Adrian Campbell's Indonesian life began in 2011, when he bought the Puri Rama Resort in Kuta and rebuilt it as Troppo Zone Puri Rama Resort. Eighty-eight rooms, about 80 Balinese staff and a few years as one of the best-known Australian schoolies resorts in Bali. He sold it in 2014. The language stayed, and so did a portfolio of holiday villas that the same local team has run ever since, through COVID.
The Indonesian years, in order
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2011 | Buys the Puri Rama Resort in Kuta; relaunches it as Troppo Zone |
| 2014 | Sells Troppo Zone; keeps a Bali villa portfolio |
| 2017 | Australasia Marketing manages Southeast Asian property and rentals |
| 2021 | Founds Kinnara; the marketplace is built in 2022 and opens in 2023 |
| 2024 | Kinnara Capital set up to develop in Lombok; land assembled in Buwun Mas |
| 2025 | Reports Marina Bay City's developer to police and withdraws Kinnara |
| 2026 | Saraya designed, priced and contracted; community day in Buwun Mas |
To a marketplace across Asia
In 2021 he founded Kinnara, a property marketplace that brings listings from 76 portals into one place and covers 44 countries. Indonesia is its second-largest market after Thailand, and Australians make up about 85 per cent of the buyers who come to it looking at Indonesian property. Kinnara markets property, charges agents no sales commission, and is never a party to the sale.
To Lombok
In 2024 the same founders set up Kinnara Capital to develop property of their own. Its first project is Saraya Beach Resort & Residences in Sekotong, on Lombok's south-west peninsula, built on land assembled parcel by parcel in the village of Buwun Mas. He is based in Indonesia and runs that work himself, in Indonesian, with village leaders and officials, as the community page shows. The island itself is covered on the Lombok page.
How a foreigner operates in Indonesia
Indonesia does not let foreigners own freehold land, and it runs its property system through a web of certificates, permits and offices that a newcomer cannot read. Adrian's approach, learned over 15 years, comes down to three things. Speak the language, so that nothing is lost in translation and officials and landowners deal with you directly. Operate through properly licensed structures, which for Kinnara Capital means a PT PMA foreign-investment company holding building rights. And never buy land until the courts and the BPN land office have confirmed who owns it. The glossary explains the terms and how he runs companies sets out the rules.
The hard chapter
Not every Indonesian chapter is a good one. In 2025 Kinnara withdrew from Marina Bay City, a Lombok project it had been marketing, after Adrian reported its developer to the Indonesian police. It cost Kinnara millions and set off a campaign against him that is now before the Federal Court of Australia. His account is the Marina Bay City statement. Kinnara Capital's own land in Buwun Mas has nothing to do with that project.
For Australians
If you are an Australian thinking about Lombok or Bali, start with the plain-English guide, then the articles. The pages below cover each piece of the Indonesian story.