Is Bali actually a good place to live?

For some people, genuinely. The honest answer depends on things nobody puts in the brochure.

Bali receives around seven million foreign arrivals a year and keeps a small fraction of them long-term. The gap between those two numbers is the honest answer to this question.

What genuinely works

Cost against quality of life. Household help, food, and services cost a fraction of what they do in Australia, Europe or Singapore. For someone earning foreign income, the arithmetic is real rather than marketing.

The community exists. Canggu, Ubud and increasingly Uluwatu have established foreign populations, so you are not building a social life from nothing.

Time zones. Convenient for Asia and Australia, workable for Europe with early starts, hard for the US.

Infrastructure is improving. Ngurah Rai is expanding from roughly 24 to 32 million passengers. The Gilimanuk–Mengwi toll road is targeted for 2027–28, which would cut the west coast drive from over three hours to roughly one.

What people underestimate

Traffic. The most common complaint from residents, and it has worsened faster than the roads have improved. A 12km trip in Canggu can take an hour. This affects daily life more than anything else on this page.

Healthcare. Adequate for routine care in Denpasar, and serious cases are commonly flown to Singapore. Comprehensive international insurance is not optional.

Bureaucracy is continuous, not one-off. Visa renewals, permits, tax filings. The paperwork does not end after you arrive. it becomes a recurring feature of life.

Rainy season. Roughly November to March. Humidity, flooding in low areas, and a genuine slowdown in social life. Six months of the year is not the postcard.

Everything is temporary. You cannot own land, your permit is renewable rather than permanent, and every land right except freehold expires. That impermanence bothers some people considerably more than they expect.

Who it suits

Remote workers with foreign income and location flexibility
People building something here who accept the regulatory load
Anyone who values outdoor life over urban infrastructure

Who it does not

Anyone needing regular specialist healthcare
People who dislike administrative friction
Anyone assuming property here creates security. buying does not confer residency, and the two systems are unrelated
Anyone treating it as a permanent escape rather than a place with its own frictions

The people who last here are usually the ones who arrived with realistic expectations, not the ones who arrived most enthusiastic.

Before you commit

Spend a rainy season here before deciding. A February visit tells you more than five dry-season trips, and it is the single cheapest piece of due diligence available.