Thread: building house/villa

Moving to Bali in mid january for five to six months. Assisting my father in overseeing home construction. Land iconsists of 1.5 acres of tiered rice field in Sambangan . Could anybody( possibly Bert ) recommend someoone who can assist in the logistics of this project. Trying to develop land over several phases and several yrs. Initially budgeting roughly 20,000 American to build simple concrete or stone / tile roof house, dig well plant trees etc... thank you

I'm a bit confused. You say 1.5 acre of land, or about 1.09 hector...if I'm doing my arithmetic right, and you only want a basic house at Rp 200 million built there?

I guess my questions begin with, why buy all that land for such a modest house?

I forgot the conversion to arie, but I believe land is just over 1.5 acres of mostly rice fields. Initially all we want is to build modest house with future plans to expand with several more structures. We are more interested in keeping property as prestine and unencombassing to neighbours as possible. Can you recomend some one who could assist us or is such a modestly budgeted project hardly worth hiring some one to oversee construction.

Well, to be honest, 200 million Rp isn't going to get you much starting from scratch building in a sawah.

Although I am very involved in building our second house through my brother in law, Bert is much, much more of an expert on these matters. It seems to me though that it might be more reasonable to sell off some of your excess land and use those funds to build something more substantial than a fallout shelter.

Sorry to be glib, but 200 m just doesn't get much done these days...and that's especially true when it comes to foreigners. Any expat will tell you the same thing, so don't blame me for the bad news.

thanks for your advice Roy. maybe I should double my budget in hopes of building a more comfortable yet still modest dwelling...... Or sell off excess land like you recomended...

I love the topic about building things in Indonesia. My recent count is four houses and a restaurant (now defunct, of course, having followed the tried and true expat path to enlightenment). The most recent house in Sumbawa did, in fact, cost exactly 200 million to build. No one believes that including our relatives in Bali who have estimated the cost of the house as being between 700 million and a billion. That being said, if I built the house all over again (which if we keep having these small earthquakes, I might have to do), I would do it differently and spend more on some higher quality building materials for certain parts of the house, especially the window frames. I should also say that the 200 m. was for the house only and did not include the wall around the property or the generator building in the back. Also, we agreed on a price just before the cost of building materials shot up a few years ago. If you remember, there was a discussion about that on this very forum.

Enough said about that. Baseball in Bali would be great. I've been thinking about introducing it here to the Indonesian kids, but we need a field and some equipment.

By the way Roy, I'm hoping that the Cardinals get another shot at the Red Sox this year to avenge last years defeat.

thanks Dr Bruce for sharing your experience . All we really want is a one story concrete or stucco house with tile roof if possible , two bedrooms, small kitchen maybe outdoor shower and toilet. Nice patio would also be bonus but maybe not until later. This will be by no means are final dwelling just something for my father , friends and family to inhabit for say six months of year until more capital is available to us. We are more intrestd in developing property through extensive landscape architecture.. Thank you

Hi Mosaic,
We have recently returned from Bali. We spent six months in Bali and managed to build our small bungalow for less than 50 million rupiah. Its only 7m by 6m but has 2 bedrooms, kitchen and lounge, and an outside bathroom. (bathroom came first). Our closest neighbour is 40m away which are family and the land in front of our house is arable land which usually has sweetcorn growing on it. Our house hasn't any plumbing, only the bathroom because we have a spring water well which is difficult to tap. We designed the house and managed everything ourselves because you will definately get ripped off handing the budget to anyone else. You say you have a budget of 200 Mil Rp. I have plans for another 3 bed villa (14m x 12m), which I am looking at a budget of 200-300 million rupiah. Most of the other houses in our village cost around 200-300 million, so that should be enough to get you a small but very nice villa. The prices (building materials and labour) aren't very different in Denpasar than that in Singaraja. One builder costs around 40000rp a day and one labourer costs 20000rp. We had four of each and they managed to build our house in under 2 months but they needed a kick up the arse a lot to get them working. Your only problem is your land is tiered and can cost a lot to buy soil if you want to build the land up to level it out.

Stu and Ayu...your bungalow isn't concrete is it? No, it's basically a bale/bungalow in wood, and with an alang alang roof, and not unlike what one could stay in any numerous hotels throughout Bali.

No criticism, but the discussion brought up by mosaic is for a concrete structure, and I have no doubt you will both agree that the cost for that is much, much more a mere 50 million rupiah. It would have been nice to make these points clear, as it's misleading to other readers.

Dr. Bruce has built four houses and one restaurant, presumably all in Sumbawa. I have built one house, one gallery, and another house in progress in Bali. Bert has built, and is still building what is an amazing villa complex in Lovina.

What's missing from this discussion are plans, architectural drawings and specific details. With those details, and plans, no doubt one could post here and get some very accurate cost projections. Otherwise, all we are doing is comparing apples to oranges.

Who said it wasn't concrete? You always seem to think you are right but haven't got a clue. Maybe you are one of the ones that gets ripped off all the time.
I ordered all the bricks, cement, ceramic, builders, wood, tools, nails, steel, paint, doors, windows, Door handles and latches, trucks, labourers, roof tiles, plaster, sand, electricians, cables, sockets , light fittings, switches and transport plus everything else. I know the price of everything. As for plans, I did them myself. This house might only be 7m by 6m and not some big extravagant villa with a swimming pool but I assure you, it is a brick house and as strong as they come.
Is that clear enough for you, Roy? Maybe you would like to see all the receipts?

Mosaic said:
All we really want is a one story concrete or stucco house with tile roof if possible , two bedrooms, small kitchen maybe outdoor shower and toilet. Nice patio would also be bonus but maybe not until later. This will be by no means are final dwelling just something for my father , friends and family to inhabit for say six months of year until more capital is available to us.

Doesn't sound as though he is looking for anything extravagant to me.