Where Lombok is, and how it compares with Bali
Lombok is Bali's eastern neighbour, on the far side of the Lombok Strait. The strait is a deep channel, and it forms part of the Wallace Line, the boundary Alfred Russel Wallace drew between the wildlife of Asia and that of Australasia.
The island belongs to Nusa Tenggara Barat, usually shortened to NTB. The province also takes in the larger island of Sumbawa further east, and its capital, Mataram, sits on Lombok's west coast.
Lombok shares much of what draws visitors to Bali: white and golden beaches, good surf, coral reefs and a volcanic interior crowned by Mount Rinjani. The big difference is density. Long stretches of its coast have no resorts at all, and a lot of the land behind the beaches has stayed with the same families for generations.
Adrian Campbell knows both islands well. His 15 or so years in Indonesia began in Bali, with Troppo Zone Puri Rama Resort and his Bali holiday villas, and he speaks Indonesian. Lombok is where he now puts that experience to work as a developer.
The main areas of Lombok
Each part of the island has a different character, which matters when choosing where to build or buy.
- The north-west. Senggigi, north of Mataram, is one of Lombok's older resort areas. Offshore lie Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air, the best-known small islands in the region.
- The north. Mount Rinjani dominates the north of the island and draws trekkers.
- The south coast. Kuta Lombok and the Mandalika zone are the focus of the government's tourism push, centred on the race circuit.
- The south-west. The Sekotong peninsula, with its quiet bays and the southern Gilis, has been slow to develop. That is where Kinnara Capital holds its land.
Lombok tourism growth in numbers
The clearest evidence of Lombok's rise is the visitor count. Statistics Indonesia, the national agency known as BPS, counted 2,382,008 visitor arrivals over 2025 across NTB.
That total was 47% higher than in 2024. It is a province-wide number, so it includes Sumbawa, but the direction is hard to miss.
Growth at that pace creates demand for rooms, restaurants, transport and trained hospitality staff. Kinnara Capital, the development business Campbell leads, sums up its view this way: Lombok now stands roughly where Bali stood two decades ago.
Mandalika, MotoGP and government investment
Indonesia's government is spending heavily on Lombok. Its most visible project sits on the south coast: the Mandalika Special Economic Zone, created to grow tourism in that part of the island.
The Pertamina Mandalika Circuit is inside the zone and has hosted MotoGP since 2022. Race weekends bring riders, teams, media and fans from around the world, and they put Lombok in front of a global television audience.
Kinnara Capital has its own presence in the zone. Its finished display villa, The Elysian, stands in Mandalika and shows buyers the finish they can expect at Saraya. Building it led the company to raise the steel, concrete and electrical specification for every Saraya villa, a story told in what The Elysian display villa changed.
Campbell reads all this public spending as proof that the government wants Lombok to grow, and to grow responsibly. For a developer, that matters. Roads, airports and power are what allow private projects to work.
Getting to Lombok: airport, ferry port and direct flights
Lombok International Airport. The island's airport lies in the south-centre of Lombok, between Mataram and the Mandalika coast. It handles domestic flights from Jakarta, Bali and other Indonesian cities, as well as international services.
New direct flights. Travellers can now fly direct to Lombok from Perth, from Darwin and from Singapore. For Australian visitors and buyers, that means no change of plane in Bali or Jakarta.
Lembar ferry port. Lembar, on the west coast south of Mataram, is where ferries from Bali arrive. Car and passenger ferries cross the strait, so vehicles and freight can come over by sea.
For the Sekotong peninsula, where Kinnara Capital's land is, Lembar is the nearest gateway: the drive takes about 45 minutes. From the airport, the road trip takes 1.5 to 2 hours or so. The guide to Sekotong and Buwun Mas covers the area in detail.
Adrian Campbell's case for Lombok property investment
Campbell's reasoning comes down to four points.
- Bali's prime coast is mostly spoken for. The best coastal land on Bali has largely been built on or bought, and what is left is expensive.
- Lombok still has land. Comparable coastline, one island away, is still available to buy.
- The government wants it done well. Public investment is backing the island's growth, and the government wants development there to be responsible.
- Australians already know the area. Bali has been a familiar holiday island for Australians for generations, and around 85% of the people buying Indonesian property through Kinnara are Australian.
Kinnara, the marketplace Campbell founded, also partners with Indonesia's Ministry of Tourism to promote Indonesian destinations, and its selection of Lombok listings keeps growing.
None of these points removes the risks. Title, road access and building quality are real issues on Lombok, and Campbell's approach is designed around them.
Anyone weighing a purchase should also read how foreigners hold property on Lombok and the note on why Australians buy in Indonesia.
Kinnara Capital's land on Lombok
Kinnara Capital is the development business Campbell leads as CEO. The founders behind the Kinnara property marketplace set it up in 2024 to build projects of their own. It is a separate company from Kinnara, with substantially the same shareholders, and it publishes its own updates at kinnara.capital.
Its land is in Buwun Mas, a village in the Sekotong district of West Lombok. The company has put it together one parcel at a time over several years.
Title comes first. A great deal of Lombok's coastal land has passed down through families without modern certificates. Kinnara Capital waits until ownership of a parcel has been confirmed twice, by a court and by the BPN land office, before it buys.
It also holds powers of attorney, so each certificate can pass straight into the company's name when it is issued. Six neighbouring plots are already settled, and the staff housing and site office stand on them.
Saraya Beach Resort & Residences
Saraya is the first project on that land. It will have 154 villas on the beachfront, spread across a 3.7-hectare site, in six designs ranging from one bedroom to four.
The plan includes a spa, a gym, a beach club and two restaurants. KRAM Space Architect of Thailand designed the resort, and TSG Construction Indonesia has been appointed to build it.
Every building is set 100 metres back from the water's edge, following Indonesia's rules on coastal setbacks. The note on why Saraya sits 100 metres back explains the reasoning.
Design, pricing and the building contract are all complete. The Saraya Beach Resort page has the full details, from villa sizes to the rental arrangements.
Foreign buyers on Lombok: the basics
Indonesian freehold land is off limits to foreigners. Foreign buyers instead use a leasehold, or set up a purchase via a PT PMA, an Indonesian company for foreign investment, which holds a building right called HGB.
Before committing, a buyer should check the land certificate against the BPN office's records, look at the PBG building permit and the PKKPR zoning, and use a notary who is independent of the seller. The foreign ownership guide walks through each step, and HGB title explained goes deeper on the building right.
Working with the villages around Sekotong
Community days are a regular part of Kinnara Capital's work in the villages close to its land, along with donations of supplies to local schools. Its local staff are hired from nearby villages, and Saraya will need a much larger local workforce once it opens.
One of those days, a Saraya community day, was held at Pengantap beach in Buwun Mas on 27 June 2026. The giving back page covers this work in more detail.
