Anantara Seminyak: Apartments on the beach in Bali

Anantara Seminyak is the name of a project at the end of Jl. Dhyana Pura in Seminyak. For those people who have been to Seminyak before, the site is directly across from Gado Gado, in the area that was used for parking. How much they paid for that land, I hate to think, but looking at the billboards outside, Anantara Seminyak is going to be a smart place when its ready.

There is a law on the books here in Indonesia, that says something like ‘you can’t build within 50 meters of the high tide line. Of course everybody does, this place included. The units will be going for US$300,000. I don’t know the details of when the project is going to be complete or the length of the lease. For that much cash you’d want 99 years I reckon. A couple of friends were recently chatting to me, about buying land and building houses in Bali. The first thing I told them is I don’t know much about real estate, and they should talk to someone who does. One of them asked me what parts of Bali had great scenery like Jatiluwih. I told him you can still find beautiful valleys, with rivers and streams, where the land is very cheap and there are no neighbors (westerners). The question that everything comes back to is, how close to town do you want to be? If you don’t need to work, don’t like surfing, don’t like partying and enjoy the village life, you’re set. If not, you’ve got to factor in how l;ong its gonig to take you to get to town. I know scenically lovely spots in Bali, but it would take me 2-3 hours to get to a main town, never mind Seminyak.

Acoording to an ad for Anantara Seminyak, there will be 59 rooms, 5 star interior design, restaurant terrace on top, Spa with private bar, terrace with jacuzzi, internet broadband, TV LCD 37 inch.

Pretty sweet if you’ve got the cash. Advantages of buying into this place would be:
•Ready made luxury accommodation
•Holiday rental income.
•Beach access.
•Nightlife / restaurant / shopping access.
•Located in expensive real estate area, likely to climb.
•Many other foreigners around, if you enjoy contact with foriengners.

Disadvantages of buying into this project include:
•You are paying top dollar.
•You will be in close proximity with 59 other people.
•In the hot, dusty, tropical climate of Bali, this place won’t look brand new for very long.
•The beach isn’t the greatest beach in Bali.
•There are maintenance fees on top of the cost of buying a unit.
•Seminyak may not always have the sparkle it currently does.

For sure you can rent land for 25 years, and bang up an okay house for $50,000 in places such as the Bukit and other areas located slightly out of the expat areas. Here in Seminyak land goes for 300m rp per ‘are’ (100 meters sq). In places like Tabanan, you can get it for 20m rp or less. In Buleleng you might find land for 5m rp, but you’ll be in the middle of nowhere. Currently there is a strong building trend in Canggu, with the Canggu Club and all. Land prices in Canggu have risen a lot, but if you get over the road, that joins Tanah Lot, to Tabanan, price drop by 50%. Whenh I was at the wedding in Kediri, locals told me no bules live out there. They will someday, just not right now.

Today a mechanical digger was at work, carving out the sides of a 5 meter depression. I watched 2 workmen stroll along the top edge, only for it to collapse and sending them tumbling to the bottom. They all laughed and were okay. Simultaneously a yellow dump truck (as synonymous as temples these days ) showed up and dumped a full load of limestone, to spread across the flatened Earth. I look forward to seeing the finished product.