FOUR Australians have paid $3.3 million each to buy into Bali's newest luxury resort on 100-metre cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean.
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They are undeterred by continuing terrorism warnings, the world's deteriorating economic situation or even the island's wine shortage. Sean Brennan, the Australian general manager of Alila Villas Uluwatu, says one of the buyers of the three-bedroom villas is a Sydneysider. Two others are Australian expatriates living in Jakarta and another in Hong Kong.
Mr Brennan says 13 of the 26 villas have sold off the plan and could attract rents as high as $4500 a night from wealthy Chinese or Russians. But the buyers so far are so rich they plan to keep their purchases as their own holiday homes.
"They'll pay a monthly maintenance fee of about $US1000 ($1500) and use it for three or four weeks a year," he says.
The complex, developed by the Indonesian-owned Alila group, is in Bali's newest development hot spot, the southern Bukit region.
Australians, who cannot buy freehold property in Indonesia unless they marry a local, are offered a 100-year lease at Alila.
Australian Lewis Norman, who owns Alu Bali villas in the upmarket restaurant haven Seminyak, says: "They have a second home and a holiday home here that generates income. But you need to do due diligence … before you buy."
Former Sydneysider Saxon Looker had the job of selling the Sentosa villas in Seminyak during the Schapelle Corby trial, followed by the second Bali bombing. Half the villas sold to Australians.
Mike Pugh, of Exotiq Real Estate in Seminyak, says the prices of some luxury villas have fallen 30 per cent because of the financial crisis.
