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Adrian Campbell

Guide for Australian buyers

Lombok property for Australians: a plain-English guide from Adrian Campbell

Most of the Australians who find Indonesian property through Kinnara are looking at a place they have holidayed in and a legal system they have not. This is the short, honest version of what they need to know, from someone who learned it the hard way.

Illustration of a calm turquoise bay with white sand, small islands offshore and fishing boats on the Sekotong peninsula, West Lombok, at golden hour.
The Sekotong coast of south-west Lombok, with the southern Gili islands offshore (illustration).Sekotong, West Lombok · Illustration

Why Lombok, and why now

Lombok is the island immediately east of Bali across the Lombok Strait. It has the beaches and surf that made Bali famous and a fraction of the development. Visitor arrivals to the province of Nusa Tenggara Barat reached 2,382,008 in 2025, up 47 per cent on the year before, according to Statistics Indonesia. The national government has backed the island with the Mandalika Special Economic Zone and its MotoGP circuit, and direct flights now connect Lombok with Perth, Darwin and Singapore.

Adrian Campbell's case is simple. Bali's best coastal land is taken and expensive. Lombok's is still available, the government wants it developed responsibly, and Australians already know the region. The Lombok page has more on the island.

You cannot own freehold. Here is what you can own

Foreigners cannot hold Indonesian freehold title, called SHM (Sertifikat Hak Milik). There are two legitimate ways for an Australian to own a villa.

Leasehold. You take a lease over the land and building for a fixed term, often 25 to 30 years, sometimes with an option to extend. The lease is registered and the terms, including extensions and what happens at the end, need to be in the contract. Read the extension clause and the price mechanism at renewal twice.

PT PMA with a building right (HGB). You set up, or buy into, an Indonesian foreign-investment company (PT PMA), which can hold a building right called HGB (Hak Guna Bangunan). HGB runs for an initial 30 years, can be extended by 20 and renewed for a further 30. This is how Kinnara Capital sells individually titled villas at Saraya.

Anyone offering you "freehold" in your own name, or a nominee arrangement where an Indonesian holds the land for you, is offering something that is not enforceable. The glossary covers every term.

The four things to check

  1. The land certificate. Ask for the certificate and check it at the BPN (Badan Pertanahan Nasional) land office, in person, through your own notary. Confirm the name, the boundaries and that there are no encumbrances. If the land is still held under old village records rather than a certificate, understand how far the conversion has got.
  2. Zoning. The PKKPR confirms the land is zoned for what you intend to build or buy. Coastal land also carries a setback from the shoreline, commonly 100 metres.
  3. The building permit. The PBG is the building approval. No PBG, no legal building, however finished it looks.
  4. Who is on the contract. Your contract is with the seller or developer named on it, not with the agent or the marketing platform. Know which company that is, check its licences and look at who its directors are.

Use an independent notary and an independent lawyer, not the seller's. The cost is small against the price of a villa.

How payments usually work

Off-plan villas are normally paid in stages against construction milestones under a binding sale agreement, a PPJB, with the deed of sale, the AJB, executed on completion. Some developers offer a discount for paying in full up front. Ask where your money sits between payments, who holds it and what triggers each release. Adrian's own rule, written up on how he runs companies, is that buyer funds should be held by the contracting developer or in escrow, never by the marketing business.

How a rental pool pays you

Most Lombok villas are bought to let. In a managed resort each owner signs a management agreement and the villas are let as one hotel, with revenue pooled and paid out by formula. At Saraya, owners receive 60 per cent of room revenue after booking-platform fees, and villas are grouped into view tiers so that a garden villa and a beachfront villa are pooled fairly. Whatever the number is where you are buying, it should be in writing, with the costs that come off before it.

Ongoing costs

Expect annual land and building tax (PBB), a transfer duty on purchase (BPHTB), the running costs of a PT PMA if you own through one, and the operator's share of rental income. A good developer will give you a schedule of these before you sign.

Getting there and getting around

Lombok International Airport is in the centre-south of the island near Praya. Sekotong, in the south-west, is 1.5 to 2 hours by road from the airport and about 45 minutes from Lembar ferry port. Bali is a short flight or a ferry crossing away, and direct flights run from Perth and Darwin.

Where Adrian sits in all this

He founded Kinnara, which markets property and is never a party to a sale, and he leads Kinnara Capital, which develops it. This guide is written from 15 years of buying, building and selling in Indonesia, including the mistakes on the record.

This page is general information for Australian readers, not legal or financial advice. Take independent Indonesian legal advice before you sign anything.