My story

My first trip to Bali, now more than ten years ago. Many details have faded, but one image has always stayed with me: Seminyak was the place to be back then — busy, lively, full of energy. A little further up the coast lay Canggu, where there was barely anything yet. Where beach clubs, cafés and villas stand today, I mostly remember rice fields.

Looking back, I find it remarkable that I saw that shift happen with my own eyes — from a quiet stretch of coast to one of Bali's busiest areas, in roughly ten years.

Years later I went back to Bali — this time to visit my brother, who was studying there for half a year. That visit made such an impression that I knew I wanted to spend more time there than just a holiday.

A year later I decided to do my real-estate internship on Bali. That wasn't a coincidence — it was a deliberate choice, made because of what I'd already seen the island change into.

I spent about six months in Indonesia on an internship with a real-estate, rental and management company, working on the agent side. I saw an enormous number of projects up close — and with that, what regularly goes wrong.

Many villa projects stand completely on their own. Every developer builds their own project without much real regard for how the surrounding area is developing. Nowhere was that as visible as in Canggu: after COVID, building there happened at high speed while enforcement stayed weak. The rice fields I remembered had made way for an area now struggling with traffic and water problems.

I also saw how agents and developers sell these projects — usually with a polished brochure: the villa, the renders, the expected yield. What you won't find in that brochure is where the area itself will be in five or ten years, or what risks could come with it.

I also saw the opportunities — enough to get genuinely excited. Together with my brother, I bought an off-plan villa in Bingin. That area completely won me over: beautiful, with a character of its own, and one of the strongest rental areas on the island. From that point on, I followed the market not just as a professional, but as an investor too.

The delivery followed the next year, alongside my thesis research — so I went through the entire process myself, from the first contracts to the key handover. In the photo below, you can also see the local management team that now manages our villa.

This year I went back for my graduation research. I wanted to understand why things had gone wrong in areas like Canggu — and whether that same pattern was already emerging on islands now being called 'the new Bali'. That's why I travelled to Lombok and Sumba too, speaking with developers, agents and other real-estate professionals along the way.

My conclusion is that growth itself isn't the problem. It's the order things happen in: when building moves faster than infrastructure and regulation can keep up, that's where the problems start.

During my research I also worked part-time at the company where I'd done my internship. There I was responsible for the Dutch clients.

All of those periods come together here. I want to translate my research, my hands-on experience and my network into a platform that looks further than the brochure.

It's built for people who don't know this market well yet, but do want to invest in it — people who want a solid return, and who also want to contribute something to the local community. I believe those two can go together, but only if you know what you're getting into.

This website didn't start behind a desk. It started in the areas themselves.