Owning a Rental Villa in Kerobokan: Yields, Rules and Real Demand

A Kerobokan rental villa earned around USD 19,627 gross per year on average in the twelve months to July 2026, at 40.7% occupancy and a USD 181 nightly rate — and that average hides a spread of more than nine to one between the weakest and strongest listings. This guide to Kerobokan villa rental yield sets out what villas earn by operating tier, what that means for net yield at realistic purchase prices, when the area books, and which Badung rules apply before you buy or list.

The figures come from AirROI's 2026 Kerobokan dataset (August 2025 – July 2026, updated 12 September 2026), covering 552 active listings. No Indonesian authority publishes neighbourhood-level rental data, so where a number below is an assumption rather than an observation, the same sentence says so.

What Kerobokan is, and why it is not one market

Kerobokan sits in North Kuta district, Badung Regency, between Seminyak to the south and Canggu to the north-west. It runs from the Petitenget and Batu Belig edge, through the dense villa lanes of Kerobokan Kelod, up to the quieter, more residential Kerobokan Kaja. Guests rarely search for “Kerobokan” by name — they search Seminyak or Canggu — so the label mostly matters to owners, tax offices and data providers.

The data shows an unusually villa-heavy market. 86.2% of listings are houses, 87.1% are entire-home rentals, 42.2% have three or more bedrooms and the average listing sleeps 4.6 guests. That is a group and family product, which explains the USD 181 average rate, well above a one-bedroom-dominated area like Umalas. It also explains why occupancy is modest: large villas are harder to fill than studios.

The second feature is that Kerobokan is run casually. Only 6.2% of listings are flagged as professionally managed, while 42.0% are co-hosted and 31.2% accept one-night stays. The market is large, mature and still mostly owner-operated, which is exactly why the gap between tiers is so wide.

Pro Tip: Before comparing a Kerobokan villa with the area numbers, compare it with its own bedroom count and micro-location. A walk-to-Petitenget three-bedroom and a rice-field-edge six-bedroom in Kerobokan Kaja are different businesses sharing a postcode.

What Kerobokan villas actually earn in 2026

With a spread this wide, the tier you operate in matters more than the area average.

Notice the gap between the median rate (USD 117) and the average rate (USD 181). A minority of large, high-rate villas pull the mean up, while the typical listing is smaller and cheaper than the headline suggests. The top-decile listing earns RevPAR more than three times the median, and does it with both higher occupancy and a rate nearly three times higher. That is not luck of location; it is positioning, photography, pricing discipline and response speed.

The numbers are also moving the wrong way for the average operator: AirROI reports annual revenue down 11.5% year on year. In a market where average revenue is falling, operating quality is what separates the tiers.

Kerobokan against its neighbours

Canggu and Umalas figures are from AirROI's Canggu and Umalas datasets for the same period; our own guides to Canggu, Pererenan and Berawa cover the rest of the coast. Kerobokan sits between the two on occupancy and nightly rate but trails both on RevPAR and annual revenue, and with 552 listings a Kerobokan owner competes with far more directly comparable villas than an Umalas owner does.

Kerobokan villa rental yield: advertised versus the arithmetic

The table below annualises AirROI's revenue tiers and applies an illustrative 55% net operating margin. That margin is an assumption stated for transparency, not a figure from the dataset; the real number depends on staffing, management fee, channel mix and maintenance, and the mechanics are in our guide to gross versus net villa yield.

Kerobokan villa rental yield at median operation is thin: a villa bought for USD 400,000 returns about 2.8% net at that margin. Yield brochures that quote 8–12% are describing the top-decile row on a cost base below the market. Neither is impossible, but a buyer should underwrite to the median and treat the top rows as an operating target, not a forecast. Our break-even analysis shows how to test a purchase against the lower rows first.

Pro Tip: Ask any seller for twelve months of booking-level data, not a revenue total. Divide revenue by nights sold to get the real rate, and check how many nights were monthly lets. A 35% share of Kerobokan listings carry a 30-night minimum, and monthly-let occupancy is a different asset from nightly-rate occupancy.

Demand: when Kerobokan books, and who books it

The season is real but shallow. August earns about 67% more than January, yet the nightly rate in peak (USD 176) is only about 6% above the low-season months (USD 166). The extra demand in August to October is being sold at almost the same price as the quiet months. That is the clearest revenue gap in the dataset, and the reason a deliberate peak-season pricing plan and a sensible base rate are worth more here than almost any capital improvement.

The guest is international — about 90% of bookings — with Australia the largest source at 22.7%. Bookings arrive on average 45 days ahead for a 6.3-night stay, and the average rating is 4.78 with 58.9% of hosts holding Superhost status. Only 21.6% of listings carry a Guest Favorite badge, so the top of the review table is still open. Longer stays are common: 35.1% of listings require 30 nights or more, which is a strategy choice for the owner and not a market requirement. Our guide to length-of-stay discounts covers when each approach pays.

The rules that apply because Kerobokan sits in Badung

AirROI classifies Kerobokan as a high-regulation market, with 63% of its listings showing registration evidence. That leaves more than a third visibly unlicensed at a moment when platform delisting of unlicensed operators is a live enforcement risk. The route is the usual one: a PT PMA holding an NIB issued through the OSS system, the right KBLI and the tourism licence that follows. Our guides to the NIB and tourism licence, choosing the villa KBLI and Perda 4/2026 cover the detail. None of this is legal advice; take Indonesian counsel on the specific parcel and structure.

What I've seen running villas in and around Kerobokan

Three things come up again and again with Kerobokan owners, and none of them show in a yield projection.

The first is the casual-operation penalty. In a market where most villas are run informally, a competent operator is not competing with other competent operators; they are competing with unanswered enquiries, stale photos and one rate for twelve months. That is why the top and bottom tiers are so far apart. The villas that earn like the top quartile are not doing anything exotic: they reply within the hour, reprice weekly, and keep the listing current.

The second is the peak-season rate left on the table. A villa that is nearly full in August is telling you it was priced for the shoulder. Because the market-wide August rate barely moves, owners assume that is what the market will pay, and the data above says the opposite.

The third is buying on a brochure. The owners who struggle in Kerobokan are rarely the ones with a bad villa; they are the ones who paid for a top-decile projection and operate at the median. The purchase price sets the yield before the first guest arrives. If the arithmetic only works at the top row, the arithmetic does not work.

— Francesco, Manta Villas

Key takeaways

How Manta Villas works with Kerobokan owners

The gap between the median and top-quartile lines above is operational: seasonal rate discipline, knowing when a monthly let helps and when it costs you, channel mix, fast responses and review recovery. That is the whole of our management brief, and in a market this lightly professionalised the pricing piece alone tends to be worth more than the fee.

If you own or are buying in Kerobokan and want the arithmetic run against your specific villa rather than an area median, we prepare a free revenue projection covering realistic occupancy, seasonal rate positioning and a net figure after the Badung tax and management costs. See what it includes on our villa management services page, and read the broader approach in our guide to Bali villa management. If you already have a manager, our guide to auditing villa manager reports shows what to check.

FAQ

What rental yield can a Kerobokan villa realistically achieve in 2026?

AirROI's 2026 Kerobokan dataset puts the median listing at about USD 1,671 a month, roughly USD 20,052 a year gross, with the top quartile at about USD 40,224 and the top decile at about USD 68,124. At an illustrative 55 percent net operating margin, a median listing bought for USD 400,000 returns about 2.8 percent net, a top-quartile listing about 5.5 percent and a top-decile listing about 9.4 percent. The spread between tiers is the real story, so operating quality matters more than the area average.

Is Kerobokan a good area for a rental villa investment?

Kerobokan is a deep, established market with 552 active listings, a USD 181 average nightly rate and a 4.78 average guest rating, but average occupancy is 40.7 percent and annual revenue fell 11.5 percent year on year in AirROI's August 2025 to July 2026 data. It suits owners who will price and operate actively and buy at a realistic cost base. It does not suit anyone relying on a developer's projected yield.

When is peak season in Kerobokan?

August, September and October are the peak months, averaging USD 3,190 a month in revenue at 54.2 percent occupancy and a USD 176 nightly rate. August is the strongest single month at USD 3,675 and 56.0 percent occupancy; January is the weakest at USD 2,198 and 28.6 percent. The peak premium on nightly rate is small, only about 6 percent above the low-season months.

What licence does a Kerobokan villa need to rent short-term?

A Kerobokan villa rents short-term through an Indonesian company holding an NIB issued via the OSS system, the correct accommodation KBLI and the tourism business licence that follows from it, with parcel-level zoning under the RDTR permitting accommodation use. Kerobokan is in Badung Regency, which levies a 10 percent local tax on accommodation. Verify the parcel with DPMPTSP Badung and take Indonesian legal advice before committing.

How does Kerobokan compare with Canggu and Umalas for rental income?

On AirROI's 2026 figures Kerobokan earns a USD 73 RevPAR at 40.7 percent occupancy and USD 181 a night, against USD 79 for Canggu at 36.2 percent and USD 214, and USD 82 for Umalas at 52.4 percent and USD 150. Kerobokan sits between the two: more occupancy than Canggu, a higher rate than Umalas, and a far larger supply base of 552 listings against 29 in Umalas.

Recommended reading

• Owning a Rental Villa in Umalas: Yields, Rules and Real Demand — the small, occupancy-led neighbour next door.


• Owning a Rental Villa in Canggu: Yields, Rules and Real Demand — the large rate-led market to the north.


• Bali Villa Net Yield: Gross vs Net, and What Actually Reaches the Owner — where the 55% margin assumption comes from.


• Bali Villa Peak Season Pricing — how to close the peak-season rate gap described above.