What can you buy in Bali with $100,000 to $250,000?

This is the busiest price band in Bali and the one with the widest gap between what is marketed and what is delivered. It is also the first bracket where a genuinely workable investment exists.

What the range buys

USD 100,000 to 150,000. A two-bedroom on a fifteen to twenty year lease outside the prime strip. Pererenan's edges, Kedungu, Tabanan, Ungasan, the quieter parts of Umalas. Or roughly two to four are of land in a mid-tier area, which is a build project rather than a purchase.

USD 150,000 to 200,000. A two or three bedroom on a twenty to twenty-five year lease in a decent location, or a well-specified off-plan two-bedroom in a complex. This is where most of the off-plan stock in Bali is priced, and where most of the disappointment lives.

USD 200,000 to 250,000. A three-bedroom with pool on a twenty-five year lease in Pererenan, Umalas, Kerobokan or the Bukit. Or a completed two-bedroom in Berawa or Batu Bolong with a shorter term. This is the first point at which the property can plausibly cover its own costs and return capital within the term.

The off-plan concentration

More off-plan units are sold in this band than in any other, and the reason is structural. A developer can build a two-bedroom unit in a complex for a cost that makes a USD 180,000 sale price very profitable, and the buyer at that level is usually buying their first Bali property and has no local reference points.

The pitch is consistent: a projected yield in the low to mid teens, a rental management programme, and a payment schedule spread across construction. The yield figure is almost always gross, before management, maintenance, tax, the licence, the platform commission and vacancy. Net is commonly half the headline, sometimes less.

What I check before anything else on an off-plan deal in this band:

• Whether the PBG has actually been issued, not applied for
• Who holds the land, on what title, and for how long
• What happens to your money if the build stops
• Whether the projected rate matches what comparable units in that street actually achieve
• Whether the rental programme is contractual or a brochure promise

If the answer to the first question is "in process", you are funding land acquisition, not construction.

Where the numbers work

At around USD 200,000 for a three-bedroom on twenty-five years, netting USD 22,000 to USD 28,000 a year after everything, you recover your capital in eight to nine years and the remaining sixteen years are return. That is a real investment and it exists in this market. It is just quieter than the off-plan marketing.

The variables that decide whether you land in that outcome or the other one are the net income, the term, and the price. Not the finish, not the render, not the area's reputation.

The area trade-off at this budget

Berawa, Batu Bolong and Seminyak will take your entire budget for a shorter term or a smaller unit. Pererenan, Cemagi, Umalas, Kerobokan, Ungasan and Bingin's fringes will give you more term and more space.

There is a genuine argument for paying the prime-area premium: occupancy is higher and more stable, and the resale market is deeper. There is an equally genuine argument against it: you are paying today for demand that is already priced in, and the term you sacrifice to get there is the thing that determines your return.

My general position is that at this budget, term beats postcode. At half a million, the calculation changes.

The build option

USD 100,000 to 250,000 also buys a complete small build in the right place. Land at around USD 80,000 for two are in a mid-tier corridor, plus a build at roughly USD 550 to USD 750 per square metre for a good standard, gets you a well-specified two-bedroom with pool for under USD 250,000 all in.

Building gives you a longer lease from the start, a property built to a standard you chose, and no developer margin. It costs you twelve to eighteen months, a great deal of attention, and exposure to a contractor you will need to manage carefully. It is the better financial outcome and the harder path.