This is the first issue of DOMA Journal — from now on, every morning we round up Bali's main events and explain what they mean for your money. Today: why villa construction is running late and how to protect yourself, who might get visa-free entry and what it would do to occupancy, and why the island is getting serious about farmland.
Villa construction is running late — "some investors are very unhappy"
Business daily dv.ee reported on July 16 that investment villa construction on Bali is falling behind schedule: developer Karl Urbanik admitted delays on his projects, and investors who bought "high yield" off-plan are waiting longer than promised for handover. It extends the main storyline of 2025–2026: the market has matured, and the gap between developers with schedule discipline and everyone else is now plain to see.
Source: dv.ee, July 16, 2026
Construction delay is a risk you verify before the deal, not after. Look at three things: a complete permit pack before construction starts (KKPR, PBG, SLF), stage payments tied to signed acts — so a delay costs the developer money, not yours (how instalments work), and fixed late-delivery penalties in the contract. In DOMA projects the delay penalty is written into the contract at 0.05% per day.
Visa-free entry may return for 8 countries — including Australia, Kazakhstan and India
Indonesia's Tourism Minister Widiyanti Wardhana confirmed that inter-ministerial discussions have "narrowed down to the possibility of granting visa-free visits" for citizens of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, India, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Macau, and Singapore permanent residents. A ministerial-level decision is still pending and no date has been set. Today travellers from these countries pay IDR 500,000 for a 30-day visa on arrival. The urgency: tourism losses from Middle East conflicts — by late May, ~1,440 flights and ~160,000 international trips had been cancelled.
Source: The Bali Sun, June 4, 2026
Australia is Bali's largest source of both tourists and villa buyers; Kazakhstan and India are fast-growing markets. Scrapping visas for these countries is a direct boost to rental occupancy, especially for short stays. If approved, locations with steady year-round demand — like Ubud — will feel it first. Model occupancy scenarios in the ROI calculator.
Bali balances tourism against farmland: land conversion under scrutiny
Island authorities have named the balance between development and farmland protection a key theme of 2026. The numbers are serious: in 2019–2024 Bali lost 6,521 hectares of productive farmland (9% of its agricultural base), and Denpasar's rice paddies shrank by 38%. Governor's Instruction No. 5 of 2025 bans farmland conversion in a number of zones — but projects that already hold permits continue to build.
Source: The Bali Sun
Limits on land conversion shrink the future villa supply — and make projects with permits already in hand more valuable. The land zone is the first thing to check before buying: how Bali's zoning works. All DOMA projects sit on "yellow" residential land with a complete permit pack.
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