Selling the Family Home to Fund a Bali Retirement: How the Numbers Work

Selling a median-priced Australian capital-city house typically releases enough to buy a long-lease home in Sanur outright and leave several hundred thousand dollars invested for income. Sanur leasehold homes start from around USD 175,000 per July 2026 listings, a fraction of most Australian sale prices. The catches are pension, tax and reversibility, covered below.

What is the family home actually worth against a Sanur home?

Usually several multiples of one. Australian capital-city house medians in 2025 ranged from roughly AUD 800,000 in Perth to well over AUD 1.4 million in Sydney, per CoreLogic's home value index. In Sanur, leasehold homes start from around USD 175,000 per July 2026 listings, roughly AUD 270,000 at recent exchange rates near 65 US cents.

For market context, freehold villas near Sanur beach, a title only Indonesians can hold, trade at roughly USD 300,000 to 800,000, which brackets what premium stock costs here. The arithmetic gap between an Australian suburban house and a Sanur home is the entire engine of the downsize-and-move strategy: one asset becomes a home, an income buffer and a travel budget. How much you actually need overall, including the no-property-sale scenarios, is worked through in how much money you need to retire in Bali from Australia.

How do the numbers work? A worked example

Take a couple selling at AUD 1.1 million, roughly the middle of the capital-city range. After typical agent and legal costs of around 2.5 per cent, they bank about AUD 1.07 million. Spending USD 300,000 (about AUD 460,000) on a two-bedroom leasehold home leaves roughly AUD 600,000 invested for income.

The buffer is the point, not the villa. At an illustrative 4 to 5 per cent drawdown, AUD 600,000 produces AUD 24,000 to 30,000 a year before tax, which alone covers most of a comfortable Sanur budget: bali.com's 2026 guide puts a retired couple here at roughly USD 2,350 to 3,450 a month. Add any Age Pension entitlement or super income and the position is comfortable with margin. Every figure in the table below is illustrative and pre-advice, but the shape is what matters: the strategy works on the buffer it leaves, not on squeezing every dollar into property.

What do you actually own in Bali for that money?

A lease, not land. Foreigners cannot hold Indonesian freehold, and nominee arrangements that pretend otherwise are illegal and unenforceable. The standard structure is a registered leasehold, typically 25 to 30 years in Sanur with negotiated extensions; Sanuuri Residences offers a 50-year leasehold, materially longer than the local norm.

Think of the price difference against Australia as partly a reflection of that structure: you are buying decades of use of a fully furnished home two minutes from the beach, not perpetual land title. What matters is lease quality, extension terms, developer credibility and the paperwork, which is exactly where proper legal review earns its fee. The unit types, buying steps and management arrangements at Sanuuri, from the 73.5 square metre two-bedroom apartments to the three-bedroom pool villas, are set out in the Sanuuri Residences buyer's guide. For prices, enquire directly; we quote per availability rather than publishing a list.

What are the tax and pension consequences of selling?

Two big ones. First, the sale itself: a main residence is generally exempt from capital gains tax, with partial exceptions if the home ever earned income, so confirm your position with the ATO. Second, the pension: your home is an exempt asset, but the cash it becomes is assessable, so a large buffer can reduce Age Pension entitlements under the assets test.

That second effect surprises people every year. A couple can sell, feel wealthy for the first time, and discover their part-pension pauses because the assets test now sees AUD 600,000 that was previously invisible inside the house. It is not a reason to avoid selling; it is a reason to model the combined position, pension plus buffer income, with Services Australia and a licensed financial adviser before exchanging contracts. Eligible over-55s can also consider a downsizer contribution of up to AUD 300,000 each into super from the sale proceeds under ATO rules, which changes the tax treatment of the buffer. One route we rule out entirely is buying the Bali home through your SMSF, for reasons set out in why we do not recommend SMSFs for Bali property.

What are the risks of selling up completely?

Reversibility is the honest one. Australian property has historically been hard to re-enter once sold, a leasehold home is a depreciating right rather than land, and your buffer carries currency exposure across AUD, USD and IDR. None of these kills the strategy; all of them argue for margin and a staged approach.

The staging that works: rent in Sanur for a season before buying anything, keep the buffer conservative rather than yield-chasing, and treat any rental income from letting your Bali home while travelling as a bonus, not a pillar. Agents advertise 7 to 10 per cent gross yields for well-located Sanur villas; treat gross figures with caution and model net after management, tax and vacancy. Couples who want a foothold at home sometimes sell the house, buy the Sanur home, and hold a small Australian apartment instead, trading buffer size for a way back. The right answer depends on family, health and temperament as much as arithmetic, which is why this article ends with adviser referrals rather than a checkout button.