The Costs Nobody Quotes You: What a Bali Villa Costs Each Year

Purchase price is quoted precisely. Running cost is quoted as “low”. It is not high, but it is specific, and it recurs whether the villa earns anything or not.

These are the 2026 numbers for a two- or three-bedroom private pool villa.

Staff, and the part people get wrong

Bali’s regional minimum wage rose on 1 January 2026:

• Badung (Canggu, Pererenan, Uluwatu, Seminyak): IDR 3,791,003 a month

• Denpasar (including Sanur): IDR 3,499,879

• Gianyar (Ubud): IDR 3,316,798

• Tabanan: IDR 3,287,679

• Klungkung, Karangasem, Bangli, Buleleng and Jembrana, provincial minimum: IDR 3,207,459

Badung is the highest on the island, and Badung is where most villa stock sits.

Typical villa wages run from IDR 3–4 million for a gardener or pool technician to IDR 8–12 million for a full villa manager, with housekeepers between. Which means the commonly quoted housekeeper rate of IDR 3.5 million and gardener rate of IDR 3 million are below the Badung minimum. A full-time employee in Badung must be paid at or above it. This is one of the most common quiet exposures foreign owners carry, and it is entirely avoidable.

Then two additions that rarely appear in a budget:

BPJS, the employer’s share of health and social security, is 10.24% of salary on top of the wage — 4% health, 3.7% provident fund, 2% pension, 0.3% life and 0.24% injury cover. That injury rate is the lowest risk class and rises to 1.74% for higher-risk work. The employer’s share is contributed rather than deducted; the employee’s own 4% is withheld from wages, and both are remitted by the 15th of the following month.

THR, the religious holiday bonus, is one month’s salary for anyone with twelve months’ service, pro-rated below that. Call it another 8.3% on annual payroll.

Two full-time staff in Badung, done properly, is roughly IDR 111 million a year all-in.

Electricity, which is the second biggest line

A villa on the residential R-2 or R-3 tariff pays IDR 1,699.53 per kWh. The business B-2 tariff is IDR 1,444.70 — about 15% cheaper. A villa licensed and operating commercially may qualify for it, and since the 2026 rules increasingly require that licensing anyway, it is worth asking PLN the question.

Expect IDR 2.5–4.5 million a month for a villa with pool and air conditioning under guest use. The pool pump is a continuous load and the air conditioning runs all day, because the person paying for it is not the person in the room. Long-let villas sit at the bottom of that range or below, because the tenant pays the bill and behaves accordingly.

Water runs IDR 165,000–500,000 a month. Internet, IDR 330,000–800,000.

Pool, garden, and things breaking

Pool and garden maintenance: IDR 1–2 million a month. Routine repairs: IDR 1–3 million a month, and more in the wet season.

The tropics do the damage. Air conditioning filters clog with humidity, pipes corrode, roofs need inspecting quarterly, and termites and water ingress are the two failures that turn from cheap to expensive while nobody is looking. Budget the inspection, not the repair.

The small lines

PBB, the annual land and building tax, is about 0.1% effective — typically IDR 300,000 to 3 million a year. It is genuinely trivial, and any cost guide that lists it as a burden is padding.

Insurance is around 0.15% of assessed value — roughly $450 a year on a $300,000 villa.

Banjar contributions run IDR 2–10 million a year, plus ad hoc ceremonial levies with no fixed amount. Every banjar sets its own rate. This is not a fee in the municipal sense — it buys road maintenance, rubbish collection, pecalang security, and standing in the village. It is the cheapest line on this list and the one worth never being late on.

The annual total

For a two- to three-bedroom pool villa in Badung, run short-term:

That excludes management fees, platform commission, cleaning, guest supplies, rental income tax and refurbishment.

Let the same villa on a yearly lease and the picture changes sharply: utilities, pool and garden move to the tenant, and the owner’s cost falls to roughly IDR 135–170 million — almost entirely payroll, insurance and maintenance. It is a large part of why yearly letting nets so much better than the gross figures suggest.

The line most people forget entirely

Refurbishment. Repainting comes round every two to three years, bathrooms and kitchens every five to seven. Set aside 2–4% of rental revenue for routine work, rising to 5–10% once furniture depreciation is included. You will also see the reserve quoted as a percentage of property value; be careful with it, because 3–5% of value on a $300,000 villa is $9,000–15,000 a year, which on the figures above would be a second running-cost budget. Pick the revenue basis and be consistent.

A villa that has never been refurbished does not fail. It just quietly stops commanding its rate, and the owner concludes the market softened.