One, three or six months
The length of your stay changes the visa, the price and the kind of place worth renting.
| 1 month | 3 months | 6 months | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visa | Visa on arrival, 30 days, extended once if needed | C1 visit visa with one extension | C1 visit visa with two extensions |
| Best type of home | Room, guesthouse, small villa | Villa or apartment by the month | Villa or house, negotiated for the full stay |
| Price per month | Full asking price | 5 to 15 percent under | 15 to 30 percent under |
| Payment | One month up front | Month by month, or all at once for a discount | Often in two or three payments |
| Contract | A receipt or WhatsApp messages | A one page agreement | A written contract |
| Bills | Included, except electricity in some cases | Wifi and cleaning included, electricity extra | More bills on you |
Six months is the longest stay on a visit visa, and it is also where owners start to treat you as a long-term tenant. Past six months, look at a yearly contract. See the long term rentals in Bali.
What a month costs
These are median asking prices from the 436 monthly listings on this site.
- Room or studio
- 8M
- 1 bedroom
- 17M
- 2 bedrooms
- 30M
- 3 bedrooms
- 45M
Median monthly rent in Bali by number of bedrooms
| Room or studio | Rp 8M |
|---|---|
| 1 bedroom | Rp 17M |
| 2 bedrooms | Rp 30M |
| 3 bedrooms | Rp 45M |
| Home | Median per month | In dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Room or studio | Rp 8M | $450 |
| 1 bedroom | Rp 17M | $950 |
| 2 bedrooms | Rp 30M | $1,680 |
| 3 bedrooms | Rp 45M | $2,510 |
Most of what is posted by the month is villas with a pool, built for foreigners. Rooms, guesthouses and local houses cost far less, and 48 of the current listings are under Rp 10M a month. They are on the cheap monthly rentals page.
Area matters as much as size. Canggu, Pererenan and Umalas are the most expensive. Ubud is clearly cheaper for the same home. The rent prices index has the figures for each area.
What a monthly rental includes
A monthly rental in Bali is closer to a serviced apartment than to a lease at home. The usual package:
- furniture, bed linen and towels
- a kitchen with basic equipment
- wifi
- cleaning two or three times a week, with a linen change
- pool and garden maintenance
- water, and often the gas bottle
Electricity is the common extra. Villas have a prepaid meter and you top it up yourself. Count Rp 1M to Rp 2M a month for a one bedroom place with air conditioning at night.
Ask these before you agree on a price.
- Is electricity included, and if not, what did the last tenant spend?
- How many times a week is cleaning?
- Is there a deposit, and when does it come back?
- Is the price the same for every month of my stay, or does it change in July, August or over Christmas?
- Is there building work nearby?
The visa for your length of stay
- Up to 30 days. Visa on arrival, Rp 500,000.
- Up to 60 days. Visa on arrival with one extension, or a C1 from the start.
- Up to 180 days. C1 visit visa, 60 days, extended twice. Extensions now require a visit in person to the immigration office.
Do not prepay rent beyond the stay your visa allows. A C1 is single entry, so a trip abroad in the middle ends it. The guide to long stay visas for Bali has the costs and the conditions.
How to book
Monthly rentals in Bali are not on property portals. Owners and agents post in Facebook groups, with photos, a price somewhere in the text and a WhatsApp number. The same villa is posted in several groups, sometimes at different prices. This site gathers the public posts, merges the duplicates and sorts them.
If you are already in Bali. Shortlist five or six places, message them, and visit within a day or two. Good monthly deals go fast.
If you are still abroad. Book three to seven nights in a guesthouse or hotel in the area you want. Line up visits for your first days. Pay nothing in advance for the monthly rental.
During the visit, check the things a photo cannot show.
- water pressure and hot water
- wifi speed, tested where you will work
- air conditioning in every room
- noise from roads, bars, roosters and building sites
- damp and mould in wardrobes and on ceilings
- the road in the rain, and where you park
How to negotiate
Prices in the posts are asking prices. For a stay of one month in high season, expect to pay close to them. For anything longer, or in the quiet months, there is room.
- Say how long you stay, in the first message. “Three months from 1 November” gets a better answer than “is it available?”.
- Ask for the monthly price for your whole stay, not the one month price.
- Offer to pay two or three months at once, if you have visited and trust the owner.
- Be flexible on dates. A stay that fills a gap in the owner’s calendar is worth a discount.
- Compare. If the same villa is posted by an agent and by the owner, write to the owner.
Season changes everything. From January to March and in November, owners with empty villas say yes to offers they would refuse in August. See Bali rent by season.
Paying and the deposit
For one month, you pay the month on arrival, sometimes with a small deposit. For three to six months, the common arrangement is the first month plus a deposit of up to one month, then each month in advance.
- Pay by bank transfer to an account in the owner’s name, and keep the proof. Cash is fine with a signed receipt.
- Write down what the deposit covers and when it is returned. A WhatsApp message from the owner counts for something. A one page signed agreement counts for more.
- Take photos and a video of the place on the day you move in, and send them to the owner.
- For six months, ask for a simple written contract with the dates, the price, the deposit, what is included, and what happens if you leave early.
The guide on how to rent in Bali goes into the contract.
Which type of home for which stay
One month. Keep it simple. A room in a guesthouse, a coliving or a small one bedroom place, close to where you will spend your days. You will not have time to fix problems, so pay a little more for something that works. See the rooms and the apartments.
Three months. This is the classic stay. A one or two bedroom villa by the month, with a pool if the budget allows. It is long enough to negotiate and short enough that furnished and serviced still makes sense. See the villas by the month.
Six months. You can ask for a real discount and you will care about a desk, a kitchen and a closed living room. Local-style houses become interesting, because they cost much less than villas. Some owners of yearly rentals accept six months if the place is empty, so ask.
Mistakes to avoid
- Booking a whole stay on Airbnb at 30 to 50 percent more than the direct price. Book a week, then rent direct.
- Choosing from photos alone. The building site is never in the photos.
- Paying several months in advance to someone you have not met.
- Renting far from where your days happen to save Rp 2M, then spending it on fuel and patience.
- Forgetting the peak weeks. Check that your price holds over Christmas and New Year.
- Letting the visa expire while focused on the house. Overstay fines are Rp 1M a day.
Where to start
If your dates are fixed, open the monthly rentals in Bali, filter by area and budget, and message a handful of owners with your exact dates. If you are still choosing an area, read where to live in Bali first.