How we choose
We are paid by developers. That is precisely why the checklist is fixed, published, and shows its failures. A test nobody can watch you fail is not a test.
Six questions, then three to five developments ranked against them, with the reasons for and the reasons against each one.
A modest fee takes the unit off the market for two to four weeks. Get the condition on which it is refunded in writing before you pay it.
Certificate, the zoning letter for your plot rather than the area, the PBG, and the seller's authority to sign. Your notary, not theirs.
A conditional sale and purchase agreement, then the deposit, typically ten per cent and usually not refundable. It should never fall before diligence is finished.
Staged payments released against verified milestones, a photograph of the site every month, and the deed at handover.
A foreigner cannot hold Indonesian freehold. What you can hold is a building right (HGB) through a foreign-owned company (PT PMA), a leasehold, or a right of use (Hak Pakai), and the three are not interchangeable.
What fails itNot stated. If a developer will not name the structure in writing before you pay a reservation fee, that is the answer.
Years remaining is the number that sets your resale price in a market with no published sold prices. It runs down whether or not the building is looked after.
What fails itAn extension described as available 'at market rate' with no cap. That is not a term, it is an option written against you.
On off-plan the developer is the risk, not the market and not the architecture. We count what they have finished, not what they have rendered.
What fails itFewer than five delivered schemes, or programme slip that the developer will not talk about.
Short-stay letting needs a Pondok Wisata licence, and the licence attaches to the plot and its zoning rather than to you. 'Obtainable' is not 'held'.
What fails itMarketing that quotes a rental yield on a plot where the licence is not available.
Gross yields of 12 to 20 per cent get quoted routinely. Net of operator commission, service charge, tax and realistic occupancy, the same unit lands between 4 and 8 per cent.
What fails itNo verified comparable set for the micro-market. We publish that as unanswered rather than borrowing a number from somewhere else.
An operator takes 15 to 25 per cent of gross and decides whether your building is full in October. If nobody is appointed, your yield is a spreadsheet.
What fails itOperator 'under negotiation' with terms unpublished at the point of sale.
Budget 8 to 12 per cent on top of the price for tax, notary and company setup, then a service charge every year after that.
What fails itA payment schedule that releases money against dates rather than against verified construction milestones.
Resale in a market with no MLS and no price history takes six to twelve months to do well, and years remaining drives it more than condition does.
What fails itNothing. This one is almost always partly unanswered, and we say so on every page rather than pretending otherwise.
The scout process
Every development here has been walked by one of our scouts, and so has an earlier building by the same developer, finished and lived in, because a building still working after several wet seasons tells you more than a render does. The notes on each page are theirs, dated with the month of the visit, and they are not edited by the developer.
We then read the paperwork: the certificate, the NIB, the PBG, the zoning letter for the specific plot rather than the area, the notary, and the due diligence report. What we sighted is published on the development page with the date we sighted it.
01 · Site
Two visits minimum, one unannounced, plus a finished building by the same developer.
02 · Paper
Land certificate, NIB, PBG, plot-specific zoning letter, notary and due diligence report, sighted rather than described.
03 · Record
Delivered schemes, units handed over, and average programme slip measured against original contract dates.
04 · Terms
Payment schedule, escrow arrangement, operator split and the price of the lease extension.
05 · Publish
All eight answers go live together, failures included. 0 of 0 developments currently answer all eight.
06 · Re-check
Quarterly. Anything that loses its licence, its permit or its programme comes off the site.
