Expats in Bali, who they are, where they live and how they settle

Who the expats are

“Expat” covers very different lives here.

• Remote workers. Employed or freelancing for companies abroad. Younger, concentrated in Canggu and Pererenan. Many stay six months, some stay years.
• Business owners. Restaurants, villas, surf camps, agencies, clothing brands. They have a company, staff and a long lease.
• Families. Often one parent working remotely or running a business, with children in an international school.
• Retirees. Australians and Europeans for the most part, in Sanur, Ubud and the north.
• Partners of Indonesians. With a family stay permit and the deepest roots.
• Employees. Hotel managers, teachers, chefs and dive instructors, on a work permit sponsored by their employer.

By nationality, Australians have been coming the longest. Perth is under four hours away. Russians and Ukrainians arrived in large numbers from 2022. French, German, Dutch and British communities are well established, and there are Americans, Indians, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans too.

The difference with a tourist is commitment. An expat has a yearly lease, a stay permit, a scooter they own, and an opinion about which road to avoid at 5pm.

Where expats live

Canggu gets the attention. The quieter expat Bali is in Umalas, Kerobokan and Sanur, where people have lived for ten or twenty years in houses on yearly leases, with children in school and a favourite warung.

Long-timers tend to move outward as they stay. From Seminyak to Canggu ten years ago, from Canggu to Pererenan, and now to Seseh, Tumbak Bayuh and Tabanan, each time for space and lower rent.

The guide on where to live in Bali describes each area.

The expat community

It is easy to arrive alone and have plans within a week.

Where people meet. Gyms and fitness classes, surf line-ups, padel courts, run clubs, yoga studios, coworking spaces, school gates, churches and business networking groups. Sport is the main social glue.

Online. Facebook groups for each area and each nationality are where people ask for a plumber, sell a scooter or warn about a scam. Housing is found the same way, which is the reason this site exists. WhatsApp groups form around every school, gym and neighbourhood.

The turnover. Friendships form fast and end at the airport. Anyone who stays several years learns to keep making new friends. Long-term residents often keep a smaller circle of people who also stayed.

The bubble. You can live for years in Bali speaking only English, eating in foreign-owned cafes and knowing Balinese people only as staff. Learning basic Indonesian changes that more than anything else. It is an easy language to start, with no tenses and no tones, and three months of lessons is enough to chat with neighbours.

Living alongside Balinese life

Every home in Bali sits inside a banjar, the neighbourhood council that runs ceremonies, security and local affairs. As a tenant you will meet it in small ways.

• Ceremonies close roads and fill the air with gamelan, sometimes late at night. Nobody will turn it down for you.
• Some banjars collect a small monthly contribution from residents for security and rubbish collection.
• Nyepi, the day of silence in March, applies to everyone. No going out, no lights visible from the street.
• Your landlord’s family may place offerings in your house and garden. It is their land and their gods.

Foreigners who greet their neighbours, dress properly for ceremonies and keep the music down have an easy life. The ones in the news are the ones who did the opposite, and the authorities have been deporting more of them each year.

Housing

Expats rent by the year. That is the dividing line with short-stay visitors.

A yearly contract costs much less per month than a monthly rental, and the rent is paid in advance, often for the full year. In return you furnish and maintain the place as your own, and pay the bills yourself.

1. Start with a monthly rental for the first months.
2. Move to a long term rental in Bali once the area is settled.
3. After a few years, some people take a leasehold of 20 to 30 years and build or renovate. Read leasehold vs freehold before that step.

Families look for three bedrooms, a closed living room, a kitchen that works and a lane where a car can pass. The median asking rent for a three bedroom home in our listings is Rp 45M a month, about $2,510, on a monthly basis. Yearly contracts come in lower.

The contract matters more on a yearly rental than on a monthly one. Check that the person signing is the owner, write down who pays for repairs, and for several years use a notary. The steps are in how to rent in Bali.

Legal status

Every expat needs a reason to be here that immigration recognises.

After several years on a stay permit, a permanent permit becomes possible. The guide to long stay visas for Bali has the conditions.

Two things come with residency. You become an Indonesian tax resident after 183 days in a year, and you can open a local bank account and get a local driving licence, which makes life simpler.

Schools

For families, the school decides the area. International schools are in Canggu, Umalas, Kerobokan, Sanur, near Ubud and on the Bukit. They follow British, Australian, French, Montessori or International Baccalaureate programmes.

Fees run from about $5,000 a year at smaller schools to more than $20,000 at the top ones, plus an enrolment fee. Good schools have waiting lists. Apply before you sign a lease, then rent within a short drive.

Healthcare

Expats use private clinics for everyday care and private hospitals in Denpasar, Kuta and Nusa Dua for emergencies. For anything complex they fly to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok.

Almost every long-term resident carries international health insurance with evacuation cover. Those who do not tend to be the subject of the fundraising posts that appear in the community groups after scooter accidents.

Cost of expat life

A single expat on a yearly lease spends $1,500 to $2,500 a month. A couple spends $2,500 to $3,500. A family with two children in international school needs $5,000 to $7,000 or more, mostly because of fees.

Expats spend less than short-term visitors on the same lifestyle. They rent by the year, buy a scooter instead of renting, know where to eat, and pay local prices at the market. The cost of living in Bali gives the budget line by line.

What long-term expats say they wish they had known

• Rent for a few months before committing to an area. Almost everyone moves after their first lease.
• Visit the house in the rain. Ask about the roof and the road.
• Ask what is going to be built next door.
• Put everything in the contract, and keep a copy of the owner’s ID and land certificate.
• Get proper insurance on day one.
• Learn Indonesian early. It is harder to start in year three.
• Keep your visa and tax affairs clean. The rules are enforced more than they used to be.
• Keep some savings and a plan at home. Circumstances change, and so do regulations.

Getting started

If you are thinking about joining them, the living in Bali guide covers daily life, and moving to Bali lists the steps in order. When you are ready to look at homes, start with the long term rentals in Bali.