As a half-Thai, half-American kid growing up in Florida, Dylan Eitharong often felt out of place.
12.05.2024 - 23:41 / insider.com
For Rory Jones and his wife Casey, building a house in Bali seemed like a good idea — even though they had never been to Indonesia.
The couple, from Tasmania, Australia, dreamed of retiring early, so they spent a lot of time investing in the stock market.
"We got a little bit, I guess, down on the fact that we were putting this money away, but we had nothing to show for it apart from numbers on a bit of paper," Jones, 37, told Business Insider.
They wanted a tangible asset, and after some research, they settled on the idea of building investment property overseas.
"We decided it gave us the ability to earn a good income, but also, a place that we could potentially retire to, in a country that was less expensive than Australia," Jones, a photographer and videographer, said.
The couple had considered Thailand, the Philippines, and even Portugal, but ultimately chose Bali because their research showed that it had the highest return on investment. Moreover, it was also relatively easy for foreigners to build a home there.
According to ILA Global Consulting, it is possible for short-term rentals in Bali to yield a 15% annual return on investment, while other markets offer 5% to 10%.
Although the couple had never been to the island before, they had spent a lot of time in Southeast Asia.
"So we knew that we liked the climate. We knew that we would probably like the culture and the food too," Jones said.
In 2022, the couple hopped on a plane to Bali for the first time.
They were there for about three weeks, exploring the island and speaking to different legal professionals and builders for more insights on how they could get started with their project.
"We spent a good chunk of time in different areas to make sure that we liked the area and that we had a good understanding of what that area gave to the tourists," Jones said.
Since traffic in Bali can be difficult to navigate, it was important that the area they chose had good infrastructure and was easy to get to, he said.
"Other than that, we were looking for a place that we could see ourselves retiring to as well," Jones said.
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While looking for a peaceful but up-and-coming neighborhood that travelers would be drawn to, they eventually found a piece of land in the Bingin area near Uluwatu, a region in the southwestern tip of Bali.
"The best success that we had was actually just posting in the local Facebook groups to say that we were looking for land, and then people would reach out to us and let us know what they had available," Jones said. "With the land that we ended up getting, it was a local guy that showed us the land. He didn't own the land, but he knew the owners."
Since foreigners aren't allowed to own land in Bali, the piece of
As a half-Thai, half-American kid growing up in Florida, Dylan Eitharong often felt out of place.
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