Susi Johnston Bali Blog

This is a residential and resort property with nine villas for sale. The other units are hotel suites. Alila is a great hotel brand, with a commitment to quality, value and good design. They already have two properties in Bali, the Alila Ubud, and Alila Manggis.

So naturally I was pleased to hear of two new Alila developments on the boards for Bali; this one near Tanah Lot in Tabanan, and Alila Uluwatu on the Bukit Peninsula. If there’s development is going on, it might as well be quality development.

I was not pleased to find out that both new Alila developments have been plagued by protests and planning authorities, in rather aggressive ways. On an island where enforcement of planning and building regulations is tainted with capriciousness and corruption, one has to ask, “Why single out Alila?” If the issues are shoreline and cliff setbacks, then the next question one might ask is “Why are the Pecatu projects at Dreamland and Balangan beaches steaming ahead, unchallenged?” Hmmm.

Read my update on the Alila Soori here.

Here’s Pradha Jimbaran, another luxury Bali Style beach villa development. Another.

Here’s a ten-unit uber luxury villa development up on the cliffs of Bukit Jimbaran, beside the Ritz Carlton Resort, Bali.

Extraordinary architecture by Tom Elliot. Has Tom gone a bit troppo?

This is a biggie, and with a big name, Outrigger. This is a tropical villa developer with a real track record. Following on the relative success of their O-ce-n apartment development on Legian beach, here’s the Outrigger Panorama.

It’s under construction, near the Bulgari Bali luxury resort way out on the tip of the Bukit Peninsula near Ungasan. Big big big.

This one has nine units, with just 300 – 350 square meters of land per villa. I don’t know if I would call that a “villa”, exactly. But they’re not apartments, for sure. Maybe they should be referred to as compartments? The project is called “The Seminyak Beach Resort“. Again a good search-engine name for the development, and after you buy one you can re-christen it as you wish.  Hmmm. To be fair, the density of this project makes sense as its located in a very dense urban part of Seminyak.

This one is eight villas on a clifftop near Nusa Dua. Hmm. Site photo below.

“Uh-oh. Whose signature did you say is on that environmental impact statement?”

Phew, at least this Ubud development isn’t intensely dense. It’s 30 units on 42,000 square meters. Do the math. That’s 1400 square meters of land per unit. Respectable. Of course it’s respectable, this one’s a Bakrieland development. It’s the Ubud Nirwana wellness residences. Kind of a consciously created community of small villas with a big common spa and multipurpose structure alongside it. Nice long pool, too.

I suppose this is the “New Ubud”. Luxury rainforest villas rather than sodden bamboo bungalows. And it looks like these villas will be big enough to roll out your yoga mat in – - just. I do like all the green in the masterplan, though. It’s reassuring, somehow.

Here’s another apartment block for you. The Bali Kuta Residence will really put the “D” in Density for the Kuta area. Hmmm.

Gosh. Another dense villa development is under way at the Pecatu megaproject. This one is by Korean developers, with HST architects doing the drawings. It’s called Nuri Villas Hmm.

Out on the arid hills of Pecatu, the enormous “New Kuta” development is finally under way. It will include numerous residential, commercial, resort and leisure properties, among them the New Kuta Condotel, which is already under construction. I suppose there are sea views from upstairs. And its dirt cheap to buy into this one. Hmmm. The whole thing leaves me a bit un-thrilled.