The reason most Australians start looking at Bali is not the beach. It is the electricity bill.
Here is what a month actually costs in Sanur, and what the same month costs at home.
What a month in Sanur runs
These are 2026 figures for Sanur specifically — not Canggu or Seminyak, which are meaningfully more expensive. Converted at the 1 AUD = 12,500 IDR rate used across this site.
First the fixed lines, the ones that arrive whether you leave the house or not.
| Item | Per month (IDR) | Approx. AUD |
|---|---|---|
| Rent, 1-bedroom | Rp 5,000,000–10,000,000 | A$400–800 |
| Groceries | Rp 1,500,000–3,500,000 | A$120–280 |
| Electricity (villa, 2 ACs, pool) | Rp 1,000,000–3,000,000 | A$80–240 |
| Drinking water | Rp 100,000–200,000 | A$8–16 |
| Cooking gas | Rp 100,000–200,000 | A$8–16 |
| Scooter hire | Rp 800,000–2,000,000 | A$64–160 |
| International health insurance | Rp 3,750,000–11,250,000 | A$300–900 |
Those lines come to roughly IDR 12–30 million a month. That is the floor, not the budget.
The insurance line is the one that surprises people, and it is worth sitting with. Cover that actually includes medical evacuation and pre-existing conditions, bought at 55 to 70, is not a couple of hundred dollars a month — it is several times that, and it climbs steeply every year you age. The range above is a starting point for getting a real quote, not a budget you can adopt.
What the table does not contain is the rest of a life: eating out, a phone and internet plan, household help, a trip home, the dentist, the things you buy because you live somewhere rather than visit it. Add those and a comfortable single retiree lands around IDR 24–43 million a month — roughly A$1,900–3,450. A couple sharing a two-bedroom villa brings the per-person cost down to around IDR 18–28 million. A leaner setup in a studio on the Sanur outskirts works at IDR 19–32 million.
Which is to say: the gap between the table and the total is discretionary, and it is the part you control.
Two structural notes worth knowing before you sign anything. A yearly lease runs about 10–17% less per month than paying monthly. And most monthly rents include staff and pool maintenance, while utilities are usually extra — a difference that catches people out when the first power bill arrives.
What the same month costs in Australia
This is where it gets uncomfortable. Rent on a one-bedroom in most Australian capitals is a multiple of A$400–800 before anything else is paid. Add council rates if you own, home and contents insurance, a car with registration and fuel, and private health cover if you carry it.
The honest comparison is not a single number, because yours depends on whether you own outright, what you pay in rates, and which city you are in. What is consistent across every version of the sum is the direction: the same lifestyle costs substantially less in Sanur, and the biggest single driver is housing.
The way to do this properly is to take your own last three months of bank statements, strike out the lines that would disappear, and substitute the table above. It takes an hour and it is worth more than any article.
The lines that do not disappear
Being honest about the other direction:
- Health insurance goes up, not down. You cannot use Medicare from outside Australia, and Indonesia has no Reciprocal Health Care Agreement with Australia. International cover is a new line on your budget, it is the largest single line after rent, and it climbs steeply with age. See your Medicare when you retire overseas.
- Flights home. If you have family in Australia, budget for two or three trips a year. From Denpasar that is manageable, but it is not nothing.
- Visa costs and renewals. Either an annual process with fees and paperwork, or capital tied up in a bank deposit for a longer permit. Verify the current requirements with a licensed agent rather than an article.
- Currency risk. Your income is in Australian dollars and your costs are in rupiah. A move in the exchange rate moves your real budget, in either direction.
Where owning changes the sum
Renting in Sanur at A$400–800 a month is A$4,800–9,600 a year, indefinitely, with the landlord free to raise it or not renew.
Buying changes the arithmetic. At Sanur Breeze Villas V, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom villa 300 metres from the beach is Rp 2,900,000,000 (about A$232,000), on a lease running to March 2050 with a 10-year extension available. At de Lagoon Seminyak, a fully renovated one-bedroom residence inside a lagoon-pool resort is Rp 2,700,000,000 (about A$215,000) on a Lease for Life contract.
There is a second effect people miss: if you are not living in it year-round, a villa in Sanur can earn while you are away. Our research on ten comparable Sanur villas puts net returns in the 9.4%–15.5% range depending on nightly rate and occupancy — the full working is here. Those are estimates from comparable properties, not guarantees.
The realistic conclusion
Bali is cheaper. Substantially. But the saving is not free money — it is a trade. You are exchanging Medicare, proximity to family, and a familiar system for a lower cost base, better weather and a slower day.
Plenty of Australians make that trade and never look back. Some try it for a year and return. The ones who do best are the ones who ran the numbers honestly first, including the uncomfortable lines.
If you want to talk through what your version of the sum looks like, book a free call.
Cost figures are 2026 market estimates compiled from Bali rental listings and expat cost surveys, converted at 1 AUD = 12,500 IDR. Rents, utilities and exchange rates move. This is general information, not financial advice.