The Bukit is at the start of a 5-10 year investment cycle. 

As travel restrictions were lifted post Covid and foreign markets showed signs of slowdown after 2 years of rapid credit led growth, Bali saw a surge of foreign investment in 2022 and 2023. 

The return of tourism saw a shift in demographics. Tourists that normally would stay in Kuta-Legian now flocked to Canggu, pushing those in Canggu further north to Pererenan and south to the Bukit. The war in Ukraine also saw a larger than usual Russian demographic find solace on the island. Overall foreign tourist arrivals are far from pre-Covid levels but the type of tourist and concentration of tourists has changed dramatically. 

In 2022 restaurants, bars and villas in the Bukit posted all time records. Put into context hotel rooms tripled in price and restaurants quadrupled their turnover. Exact figures are unknown but best estimates put the top 3 casual eateries posting monthly turnover in excess of 1.5B IDR (100K USD). This in turn caused a run on the property market with commercial and residential land being snapped up. 

Coming off Covid lows, any commercial spaces were quickly leased and commercial land jumped from 10 to 20 to 30M/Are/Year in just over 12 months. Residential land followed a similar trajectory from 8 to 15 to 20M/Are/Year. 

With little sign of slowing down 2023 has seen a continued influx of investment, much of which is developing the land leased in 2022. With this new wave of development we’ve seen established operators from Canggu move in like MASON and the demographic shift to mostly non-surfers. For +30 years the Bukit has always been a predominantly surfing community thanks to the world class waves, so this marks a dramatic change. Notable within this development wave is the strong presence of the health and wellness industry, which is not surprising given the climate and beaches. World class gyms like Bambu Fitness and spas like Istana have set the benchmark and inspired others to follow. 

As we enter 2024, the investment continues to flood in showing no signs of slowing down. If anything, speeding up with the local government rezoning large areas of hillside land to make them development ready for the first time in their history. In Indonesian ‘Bukit’ actually means hill and 80% of this area is undeveloped hillsides. So although the roads will get congested and infrastructure strained, there is a lot of room for growth in rooming capacity over the next 5 years.