This is the fourth in a series of six posts that looks at issues raised a year ago by Terje H. Nilsen, co-owner of Seven Stones Indonesia, in a blog entitled “What’s Wrong With Real Estate in Bali?”

In this blog we’re looking at Overbuilding. It's a touchy subject.

What Terje said last year was that many areas in Bali are already massively overbuilt. This is from from ideal and it's something Terje connected to the sticky subject of zoning, or more precisely the even stickier problem of not enforcing zoning regulations; because that turns green zones concrete grey and water catchment areas into flooded highways.

He also noted that this all began to change from 2009-13 when various government departments actually began doing what they were supposed to be doing and started enforcing much stricter zoning policies.

But has it been enough?

“The general enforcement of zoning regulations is much better now than it has been before,” observes Terje. “Unfortunately, however, that doesn’t really help or impact areas that have already been overbuilt, like Seminyak, for example. But there’s hope for places further out. Places like Canggu and the Bukit, for example, where green belt seems to actually mean green belt.”

Has this awareness of zones and the need to keep certain areas ‘green’ and free of development actually been maintained?

We all know this is good news and we hope it continues. We can all see other ‘zoning’ and ‘environmentally impactful’ sore points are being addressed and policy is being enforced: things like IMB’s, which are connected to zoning because of usage (residential, commercial and tourism for example) as well as road, river and beach set-backs because these are vital for the natural balance of a very delicate eco-system.

“But let’s not forget there are two sides to this problem,” says Terje. “We tend to focus on the corrupt government official side and turn blind eyes to the unscrupulous developers and home-owners who know they’re breaking the law and go ahead to bribe their way out of compliance anyway.”

One rule fits all (at least it should)

“One aspect that still seems to be going on,” he says “is that local residents of an area ‘don’t seem to need’ an IMB and can build whatever they want wherever they want so long as the Banjar are OK with it. This, I believe, needs to be the next step for Bali. The local government needs to ensure its own people also follow the law as this creates a loophole for both foreigners and Indonesians from other islands to use local names to run and operate businesses not in accordance with zoning regulations. This is what we’re seeing with many operations in emerging areas such as Canggu, and the Bukit.”

The first big test is going to be next year, in 2018, when Bali has it’s regular five-year review of its different areas and zones. And it’s also the year for governor elections. Let’s hope the next governor takes even firmer action to move forward with addressing these issues.

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