Verhuizen naar Bali, remote werken voor NL werkgever, waar te beginnen??

LuukH

New Member
Sep 5, 2022
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Goedendag,


Wij zijn een echtpaar met twee kinderen (17 en 9 jaar). Mijn vrouw is Indonesisch van afkomst en ik ben zelf Nederlander.

We zijn de afgelopen jaren regelmatig in Jakarta geweest bij haar familie, leuk en gezellig maar ik zou er absoluut niet willen wonen.

Afgelopen jaar zijn we voor het eerst op Bali geweest en hebben we beide genoten. Nu hadden we ook een dure villa gehuurd voor een paar dagen dus dat mocht ook wel.. Maar goed, bij ons is nu het idee ontstaan daar te gaan wonen. Ik ben zelf werkzaam als softwareontwikkelaar en mijn Nederlandse werkgever heeft er geen bezwaar tegen als ik daar ga wonen en wel voor ze blijf werken tegen gewoon mijn normale contract. Voor mijn vrouw is het fijn want het is nu eenmaal even wat anders. twee uurtjes vliegen naar Jakarta of een hele dag onderweg zijn..

Idealiter kopen we daar twee of meer huizen (één voor onszelf en verder voor de verhuur waar mijn vrouw zich dan als soort gastvrouw mee bezig kan houden) maar dat hangt allemaal af van de financiële mogelijkheden). De eerste simpele stap met de toestemming van mijn werkgever is geregeld maar hoe nu verder? Waar regel je financiering voor woning(-en) daar? Wat zijn voorwaarden? Weet iemand goede informatiebronnen? Adviseurs? Forums voor mensen in deze situatie? Zijn hier wellicht mensen die dit ook hebben gedaan? Scholen voor de kinderen? etc, etc, etc

Alle informatie is van harte welkom!!

Met vriendelijke groet,
Luuk
 
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AuroraB

Active Member
Dec 17, 2021
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1. If your wife is an Indonesian citizen this will allow for spouse sponsored KITAS and also allow her to freehold buy land.

2. School: The only one I'm familiar, is offering IB curriculum and of good quality is Bali Island School (year 1-12) in Sanur. Approx 250Juta or so per year.

3. Work remotely: Technically possible as internet speed is great is South Bali. I doubt it is legal unless via a local company. There is talk about digital nomad visa, but I haven't seen anything firm yet.

4. Buy two or more houses (villas):
- If there is a scenario you want to do a quick sale and recoup your money; this may not be possible. Many villas have been on the market for quite some time, so there is a significant risk your "investment" is not liquid. Maybe this is acceptable if you sit on a huge slush fund but if you want to borrow money for "investment" this sounds risky. Search form for "villa".

5. There are plenty of agents that will be helpful with visa, stay permits setting up local company etc, but it will cost you. Search "remote work bali", "setting up company bali" or similar.

6. You are probably getting more help if search using English.
 

LuukH

New Member
Sep 5, 2022
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Thank you, I've written my question in Dutch because some of the challenges are specific for Dutch people (and many aren't...).

Yes, my wife still has the Indonesian nationality..

In an ideal world we would buy two or three villa's, one for us and rent the others out. Not looking for a quick sale but more as a holiday stay for tourists. But that is something we have to look into very carefully, one of the reasons for wanting to move to Bali is have a more relaxt life than we have here. Maybe renting out villa's will just remain our fantasy ;-) Being able to work for my current employer does give us a solid financial base at least.

Visa itself will be no problem, we do have contacts in Indonesia that can help. It's more the big issues. Permits and finances and maybe things we haven't thought about just yet.
 

Markit

Well-Known Member
Sep 3, 2007
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Karangasem, Bali
When I first came here 13 years ago there were 300 villas on AirBnb now there are 10s of thousands. I seriously think that the villa market is completely saturated and the present situation would tend to bear me out as there are millions of people freed from the pandemic that have descended on Bali to holiday this season and the villa rental prices are still as low as just after the pandemic when no one knew what was coming.

It would seem that the trend is for much longer stays and a move to more self sufficient guests hence my advice would be to put money into luxury apartments. For instance converting some of those aging, unsalable villas into top line single or double bed luxury apartments with kitchens, good WiFi, full service and great placement.

There were a lot of people looking for a safe haven during the pandemic that regretted bitterly abandoning Bali for the "safety" of their original homes and many people are still looking for that bolthole for the next disaster.

You couldn't do much better than a small island in the warm Indian ocean with stable people/government/farming/weather in these dangerous times now could you?
 

AuroraB

Active Member
Dec 17, 2021
285
207
43
Thank you, I've written my question in Dutch because some of the challenges are specific for Dutch people (and many aren't...).

Yes, my wife still has the Indonesian nationality..

In an ideal world we would buy two or three villa's, one for us and rent the others out. Not looking for a quick sale but more as a holiday stay for tourists. But that is something we have to look into very carefully, one of the reasons for wanting to move to Bali is have a more relaxt life than we have here. Maybe renting out villa's will just remain our fantasy ;-) Being able to work for my current employer does give us a solid financial base at least.

Visa itself will be no problem, we do have contacts in Indonesia that can help. It's more the big issues. Permits and finances and maybe things we haven't thought about just yet.

1. Due to school situation only south Bali is realistic. Bali Island School is located in Sanur. There is also a quite good Australian school near Kuta, but summer/winter holidays are upside down! I know of families residing in Canggu, Nusa Dua and Jimbaran sending their children to School in Sanur, but the commute can easily be 30-45min one way.
2. Villa: I would start out with rental (monthly) to figure what is suitable area w.r.t. distance from school etc. Next step would be annual rental when you are sure location is not going to cause grief: Here are some tips regarding Sanur area, some of it applicable to other areas as well: https://balipod.com/forum/threads/eta-27th-june.13591/#post-127592

3. As your wife is Indonesian it is possible to purchase land (with villa). Unfortunately land prices in Southern Bali probably increased by factor 10 or more over the last ten years or so. It can easily be (lets say) 300-600Juta/are (or US$20k-40k per 100m2) for a piece of abandoned rice field land! In the tourist zones quite a bit higher. As such sale price of older villas often end up close to value of the land as the building itself either to be demolished or needs serious renovation. The high land prices results in reasonably sized land to be divided into smaller plots building tiny concrete walled villas without garden...

4. Medical insurance: I would recommend international medical insurance including repatriation. Cost can be down to around US$300-400/month if cash at hand to increase your co-payment. We used Pacific Prime in Singapore to screen all options.

5. Move as little as possible of personal belongings to Bali and maximize allowance on the flight. Of course everything can be shipped by sea in the name of your Indonesian wife with packing list signed by local Embassy. But from my first hand hand experience I received invoice from Indonesian customs of US$1300 for random "daily storage" of only 15cm. No release of goods until invoice is paid! They have you over an barrel.
 

LuukH

New Member
Sep 5, 2022
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Hi Markit and Aurora,

Thanks for your advice. You know what it's like, you get an idea about moving to Bali and the fantasy sort of gets the better of you. Oh we can do this.. we can do that.. It wil be fantastic!! But there is no need to do it all at once. Renting a villa first and taking a couple of months on Bali to find the perfect villa for us is such a simple thought but very sensible. First setting up the basics. Investing in a villa or appartment to rent out can also be done later. Or maybe we will invest in The Netherlands and rent out appartments there/here.