Renting an apartment

I know some parts of Bogor as as bad as Jakarta but that still seems a lot of cash unless the place is top end.
As for the 1 million/month - again sounds OTT.

The killer is the lack of anything inside. He could put anything in there and you're into a thousand arguments you're unlikely to win.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing.  I will go again tomorrow and check it out further and get more details.  I absolutely will not sign anything until that place is furnished and has a water heater and stove at the very least.  And it's a 2 bedroom with a balcony.
How much should the maintenance charges be?

I decided not to live in Bogor after all.  I will keep looking I'm in no hurry.

A lot depends on work and preferred lifestyle but you might want to consider Yogya or smaller towns like Purwokerto.
Just a thought to toss around your mind.

i was actually thinking about Yogyakarta.  I like it there and I think I found a sponsor and he knows Java quite well.  He told  i'd be better of in jogia than BAndung or Bogor.  What is Purwokerto like.  I heard about it but have not gone there yet.

I really like Yogya, it's big without being too big and has pretty much everything you could want.
It's a place I'm seriously considering when it comes to retiring.

Purwokerto (and most medium size towns like it) is a nice place with not much by way of traffic jams but the cinema needs a bit of work to bring it up to cinema 21 standards.
Lots of everything for normal daily life but you'd have to travel for specialist stuff.
Easy transport with two honest taxi companies that don't rip you off and always use the meter without forcing them (Minimum fare Rp15,000)
The train takes you to Yogya or Jakarta and housing is crazy cheap.
I took a look at buying a three bed place - Rp300 million. The same in Jakarta runs at a lot closer to a billion.

Lived there for a year and was very happy.

cisca sundoro wrote:

Try Serpong area. In my opinion it will be much friendlier to foreigner. Living expense will not be much different than Bogor.

Serpong (BSD) has its charms, especially the easy shopping and wide variety of foods available.
Rents in older but still fair estates hover around Rp30 million/year assuming you don't want to go wild.
As with all places around Jakarta, the estate agents and developers have pushed prices up past affordable, hence all the new, cheap flats being built.

I don't want to live in or around Jakarta.  I am definitely  looking outside of Jakarta area.  Jakarta is way too difficult to live in for me.  It's bad enough i have to visit to get to other cities hahaha.

Fred wrote:

cisca sundoro wrote:

Try Serpong area. In my opinion it will be much friendlier to foreigner. Living expense will not be much different than Bogor.

Serpong (BSD) has its charms, especially the easy shopping and wide variety of foods available.
Rents in older but still fair estates hover around Rp30 million/year assuming you don't want to go wild.
As with all places around Jakarta, the estate agents and developers have pushed prices up past affordable, hence all the new, cheap flats being built.

I am learning about all this, you say Rent around Rp 30 Million/year......... can you help me and tell me roughly what that might be in US Dollars?

Thank You

30 Million is 3,000 dollars roughly.

Apartments in Jakarta start from around that but you have to add then the bills of water, electricity, management, rubbish collection, security, sinking tax etc so that could be another 2 million a month where as a house will be what you see is what you get and you pay for electricity and water and the garbage and security fee is less than 100k a month.

There is no average amount for basic utilities as every area is different and most Apartments add a surcharge to these as well.

dhslouisville wrote:

Fred wrote:

cisca sundoro wrote:

Try Serpong area. In my opinion it will be much friendlier to foreigner. Living expense will not be much different than Bogor.

Serpong (BSD) has its charms, especially the easy shopping and wide variety of foods available.
Rents in older but still fair estates hover around Rp30 million/year assuming you don't want to go wild.
As with all places around Jakarta, the estate agents and developers have pushed prices up past affordable, hence all the new, cheap flats being built.

I am learning about all this, you say Rent around Rp 30 Million/year......... can you help me and tell me roughly what that might be in US Dollars?

Thank You

Pointless. I could compare to GBP, that working out at a rent of 30 quid a week, an impossible price for a similar house in the UK.
If I'd hunted with the false assumption prices here follow UK norms, I'd be paying an idiotic price not many locals could afford.

Find out what average local salaries are, and base your calculations against them.