Indonesia has written a law designed to bring the world’s family offices to Bali. On 21 July 2026, the House of Representatives passed the law establishing the Indonesia International Financial Centre, known locally as PFII, and the government hopes it will draw between roughly US$17 billion and US$28 billion from international investors. Officials have been clear about where they expect much of that money to come from. Danantara’s chief executive, Rosan Roeslani, has said family offices are projected to be the largest source of capital.
That puts a very specific question on the desk of every principal and adviser who already has Bali in view. Should the property plan wait for the financial centre, or move ahead of it?
My answer is neither. The two decisions run on different clocks and under different laws, and the families who do best over the next two years will be the ones who keep them apart.
What the Law Builds, and When
The PFII is an institutional project before it is a physical one. President Prabowo Subianto has outlined a structure that includes an advisory council, a PFII Council, a management body, a separate financial services supervisor, a PFII Court under the Supreme Court and an arbitration body. Family offices sit alongside banking, insurance, capital markets, fintech and treasury centres among the activities it is meant to host.
The incentives are generous on paper and conditional in practice. Tax relief, VAT and luxury tax treatment, customs facilities and a dedicated golden visa all attach to activity carried out inside the centre. Much of the detail is still to be written. When the law passed, the government confirmed that the type, size, duration and eligibility of the incentives would be set later through government and finance ministry regulations, and the Finance Minister said he expected those implementing rules to take around six months.
Sequencing matters too. Operations begin in Jakarta, with Bali to follow after a transition that Rosan has put at two to three years.
The Address Is Still Open
Bali is named as the intended home. The exact site is not. Under the law, the Finance Minister selects the location from qualifying proposals, and it is then confirmed by government regulation. North Bali, the Kura Kura special economic zone and the Sanur special economic zone have all been discussed publicly. In August, the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs would say only that the Bali site was still being evaluated and sat on land owned by Danantara.
Until that regulation is issued, every Bali location is a candidate, not a confirmed address. Any plot marketed today on the strength of being “next to the financial centre” is priced on a guess.
Two Decisions, Two Different Laws
This is the point that gets lost in the headlines. The PFII decides how a family office can structure, hold and move capital through Indonesia. It does not rewrite how a foreign family acquires land or a home in Bali.
Even the residential incentives are narrow. The luxury tax exemption applies to luxury residences supplied to individuals and entities that operate, work or are based inside the PFII. A villa in Canggu, a clifftop home in Uluwatu or a land parcel in Greater Ubud sits outside that perimeter. It is bought under the same framework as before: leasehold, Hak Pakai for foreigners holding the right residence permit, or a company structure that must now satisfy this year’s tighter rules on which business classifications are open to foreign companies.
The golden visa adds a further layer. The PFII version is linked to the financial centre’s own family office framework, and its most discussed benefit is how the holder is treated for tax residency. Nothing published so far turns that status into a new route to land title. Tax residency and property title are answered by different laws, and a family office should expect to plan for each on its own terms.
What a Family Office Can Sensibly Do Now
Waiting has a cost. So does moving early on the wrong assumptions. The middle path is more practical than either.
Buy what stands on its own merits today. If a family home, a land holding or an income property makes sense under the current rules, the financial centre can only add to it. If it only makes sense once the centre arrives next door, it is a bet on a regulation, not a property decision.
Refuse the proximity premium. Until a government regulation names the site, paying more for land because of where the centre might go is paying for a rumour.
Choose the ownership structure for how the family will actually live in and use the property, not for an incentive that may never apply to it. A principal who expects to hold a PFII golden visa and a principal on an ordinary residence permit may need different structures for the same villa.
Bring the advisers into one room early. The tax adviser shaping a family office’s PFII strategy and the lawyer reviewing a Bali title are often working for the same family without speaking to each other. The gaps between their advice are where expensive mistakes happen.
The Discipline That Holds Through the Transition
The financial centre may well prove transformative for Bali, and I hope it does. But a law sets the frame and the regulations decide what it means in practice. Families with real capital at stake should act on what is written, not on what is promised.
That is the principle behind our CLEAR Buyer Method. We Calibrate the brief around the family’s real residency and objectives, Locate on evidence rather than rumour, Examine title and permits through independent counsel and a PPAT notary, Acquire on terms that protect the buyer, and Root the family properly once the keys change hands. For principals and family offices, Fullers Private Office applies that same discipline to mandates that span several advisers and connected decisions.
At Fullers Properties, we believe buying in Bali should feel exciting, not uncertain. A financial centre arriving on the island is exciting. The way to keep it from becoming uncertain is to separate the structure of the money from the structure of the property, and to let each be decided on its own facts.
