Foreigners in Indonesia only need a passport to buy a house.

Foreigners only need to show a passport to buy a house or residential property in Indonesia, but the number of foreign homeowners is still incredibly low, a government official said Thursday.

In Indonesia, a number of regulations have been introduced to simplify the process of house purchase by foreign nationals. For example, foreign nationals do not require long-term and permanent residence permits (known to locals as Kitas and Kitap). The only prerequisite for foreign ownership of real estate is immigration documents, be it a passport, visa or residence permit.

"We used to require foreigners to have Kitas or Kitap before they could buy a house. But now they only need to present a passport or visa to purchase real estate in Indonesia. We will issue them Kitas/Kitap after their purchase," said Suyus Windayana, secretary-general of the Ministry of Spatial Planning at a forum in Jakarta on Thursday.

According to Suyus, foreigners today usually purchase a house through nominees. In other words, foreigners hire locals to buyreal estate on their behalf. Many of these nominee schemes are practiced in Bali, a popular tourist island. However, Suyus fears that such a scheme would make it difficult to control foreign ownership of real estate.

Foreignreal estate purchases covered 13 provinces from 2017 to 2023. Foreigners mainly prefer to buy housing in Jakarta, Bali and Batam.