Moving to Indonesia: everyday life, residence and planning

Editorial review: 2026-10-02. General planning guidance; confirm current rules with official sources.

The Dream

Could Indonesia be home? Moving to Indonesia can mean rice-terrace mornings in Ubud, beach-town energy in Canggu, or the fast pace of Jakarta's business districts. But a vacation itinerary isn't a monthly budget. A one-bedroom apartment runs roughly $158–$213/month in Yogyakarta, $196–$364/month in Jakarta, and $159–$378/month in Bali's Denpasar area — before the beachfront villa rents that drive Canggu's reputation. Start with the city and pace you actually want, then price it with real listings, not a postcard number.

Fun Facts

A genuinely useful fact about Indonesia: it's the world's largest archipelago. Indonesia's Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) put the official count at 17,380 islands in its 2024 review, and most of them are uninhabited — so "moving to Indonesia" can mean very different things depending on which island you choose. Bali and Java draw most of the expat attention, but Sumatra, Sulawesi and the Lesser Sunda Islands are a completely different pace of life. Ethnologue counts more than 700 living languages spoken across the country, with Bahasa Indonesia as the practical common ground. Day to day, a warung (local eatery) meal runs $1–$2 — one of the best food-value rituals in Southeast Asia.

Cost of Living

What does the cost of living in Indonesia actually look like? Numbeo's 2026 data puts a one-bedroom apartment at $159–$378/month in Denpasar (Bali), $196–$364/month in Jakarta, and as low as $158–$213/month in Yogyakarta — the cheapest of the three. An inexpensive restaurant meal runs $1.11 in Yogyakarta, $1.81 in Denpasar and $2.65 in Jakarta. Utilities for a standard apartment add roughly $28–$106/month depending on the city. There's no single honest number for all of Indonesia — rent in Canggu or Seminyak's villa market runs well above the Denpasar city average, so price the specific neighbourhood, not the island.

Visa & Residency

Planning a move to Indonesia? The E33G Remote Worker Visa is a one-year ITAS for people employed by a company based outside Indonesia, requiring proof of income of at least $60,000/year (about $5,000/month) plus a bank statement showing at least $2,000 over the last three months. It costs Rp 7,000,000 (about $390), is applied for entirely online at evisa.imigrasi.go.id, and does not include family members or allow local Indonesian income. If you'd rather qualify on savings than salary, the Second Home Visa (E33) gives 5 or 10 years of residency against an IDR 2 billion deposit (roughly $111,000 at today's exchange rate) in a state bank, or a $1 million property — no sponsor, no age limit, and your spouse, children and parents can join on the same permit. Confirm the live requirements on Indonesia's official immigration portal before applying.

Pros & Cons

The pros and cons of living in Indonesia belong in the same conversation. The appeal is real: a genuinely low cost of living outside the tourist core, a thriving digital nomad and coworking scene in Bali, warm weather year-round, and some of the best-value food in Southeast Asia. The friction is also real: visa categories and extension rules have changed more than once since the E33G launched in 2024, so what an agency tells you can be outdated within months. Traffic discipline is poor and motorbike accidents are common, especially in Bali, and UK travel advisories flag a heightened risk of drink-spiking and sexual assault in Bali and Lombok's nightlife areas. A slower first month, checked against the official immigration portal, beats a highlight reel.

Food & Daily Life

Food is a great entry point into daily life in Indonesia. A warung (local eatery) meal — think nasi goreng, satay, gado-gado or rendang — runs about $1–$2, and it's some of the best food value anywhere in Southeast Asia. Cooking at home with local markets keeps grocery bills low, but imported goods (cereal, wine, specialty cheese) cost noticeably more than local staples, so that's where budgets quietly blow out. One practical note from UK travel health guidance: tap water isn't safe to drink in Indonesia, so bottled or filtered water is a standing line item, not an occasional one. Moving to Indonesia is easiest for people who build routines around local food and water habits, not imported ones.

Where to Settle

Where should you live in Indonesia? Bali — especially Canggu, Ubud and Seminyak — is the country's best-known expat and digital nomad hub, prized for coworking spaces, beaches and a built-in community, though that popularity has pushed villa rents well above the island's average. Jakarta, the capital, offers the biggest job market and business scene, with apartment rents that are often cheaper than people assume outside the city centre. Yogyakarta, Java's cultural heart near Borobudur and Prambanan, has the lowest cost of living of the three and a large student population. None of these is automatically "the best" — our Indonesia overview compares the trade-offs city by city.

Safety & Healthcare

For safety in Indonesia, UK Foreign Office advice flags a high threat of terrorism nationwide, with past attacks on police posts, places of worship and tourist areas, plus a real risk of drink-spiking, sexual assault and bag-snatching in Bali and Lombok's nightlife and tourist zones. Indonesia's drug laws carry zero tolerance, including the death penalty for trafficking. Natural hazards — volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis and seasonal flooding — are a standing fact of life, not an exception. On healthcare, UK travel advice is blunt: the standard of local medical care can be poor and some tests aren't performed reliably, while good private care exists but is expensive, and medical evacuation can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Neither the E33G nor the Second Home Visa enrolls you in BPJS Kesehatan, Indonesia's public insurance scheme, so private international health cover is effectively mandatory in practice, even though it isn't a visa requirement on paper.

Could You Live Here?

Could you really live in Indonesia? Run it through four checks: an island and city whose pace you actually want (Bali, Jakarta and Yogyakarta are very different lives), a visa route you qualify for (the E33G needs $60,000/year in foreign income; the Second Home Visa needs an IDR 2 billion deposit or $1 million property instead), a realistic monthly budget by neighbourhood rather than island average, and a private health insurance plan, since neither visa gives you access to Indonesia's public BPJS system. Moving abroad works better when lifestyle and paperwork agree. Save this nine-part Indonesia series and read the matching overview on our website before you shortlist an island.

Sources and next steps

Use these official resources to confirm requirements for your circumstances. This overview does not promise a fixed living cost, visa approval or tax benefit.