Bali property heats up as Asian investors chase high rental yields in post-Covid revival

Investors from Hong Kong and Singapore, where rental yields stand in the low single digits, are showing particular interest in Bali property.

Both places are similar “in that they’re very high-ticket, low-yield markets, whereas Bali is low-ticket, high-yield”, said James Hartshorn, CEO and co-founder at Palm Developments, a Hong-Kong based developer with a growing Bali portfolio.

Affluent buyers are increasingly drawn to the south of the island, particularly on the arid Bukit peninsula, where properties are yielding 15 to 18 per cent a year, he said.

The market is buoyed by an influx of international tourists after Indonesia scrapped its pandemic travel restrictions and eased visa rules in 2022. In April, Bali welcomed 503,194 foreign visitors, up by more than 7 per cent from March and 22 per cent from a year ago, according to official data.

Bali also attracts domestic migrants who are drawn to the region’s infrastructure and burgeoning tech scene, according to Widya Lestaluhu, head of the Hong Kong office at Benham & Reeves, a London-based property agent.

“People tend to forget that Bali is just a small part of Indonesia, which has the fourth-largest population in the world,” she said. “The local migration to Bali can prop up the island’s rental yields and support capital growth.”

John Truong, a 38-year-old British national working in finance in Hong Kong, said he bought a villa in Bali in the US$200,000 to US$250,000 range last September to tap the island’s higher investment returns.

According to Truong’s research, the return on investment in Bali was about 15 to 20 per cent at the time, compared to 2 per cent in Hong Kong, 4 to 6 per cent in Malaysia and Vietnam, and 8 per cent in Thailand, he said.

Truong, who paid the