Investing in Bali Property: Freehold, Financing and Why Developers Go Bust | Rasmus Holst

Coco Development Group founder Rasmus Holst is fine with Bali having almost no mortgages, while Matt thinks it will stunt growth.

Rasmus Holst joins Matt Haycox to explain how a Danish kid who made his first million kroner at 12 reselling second-hand luxury goods, ended up founding Coco Development Group in Bali. He arrived three and a half years ago, flipped a rented villa, then built his first co-living project of three villas and 14 apartments. Coco now numbers 1,500 people and has hired someone new every day and a half on average. Its Coco Lifestyle Resort opened on 1st June and ran at 96% occupancy, with almost half its bookings coming direct.

They talk about what works in Bali real estate right now, from why so many developers have gone out of business to why Rasmus thinks nine out of ten build for the investor rather than the guest. He explains the casino logic behind Coco's public facilities, how a 200-strong marketing team puts out more than 5,000 pieces of content a month, and why leasehold versus freehold matters more than headline returns. The few mortgages on offer carry around 16% interest and can't be used off plan, and Rasmus makes his case for keeping it that way.

Chapters
0:00 - Coming Up
0:15 - Intro
0:46 - Zero Meetings in the Diary
5:02 - How Rasmus Recruits A-players
10:18 - Office vs Remote Teams
11:40 - His First Million at 12
13:22 - The Festivals: Selling Out in 40 days
17:38 - From Festivals to Bali
19:17 - Getting into Bali property
24:33 - Who's buying: Investors vs Living in
26:13 - Where the investors come from
26:59 - Price points & what €90K gets you
31:08 - How the units get rented out
32:17 - Why Bali developers go bust
36:27 - Leasehold vs Freehold
40:19 - Mortgages & Financing in Bali
45:22 - The New Licensing & Airbnb Rules
47:45 - What's Next: Lombok & Other islands
50:03 - Final Thoughts & Where to find Rasmus

About Rasmus Holst
Rasmus Holst is the founder of Coco Development Group, which builds lifestyle resorts and co-living in Bali. Before property he ran festivals in Copenhagen and built Accounting Hero, doing the accounts for more than 1,000 Danish companies and growing from zero to 35 people in six months. As a kid he was the sixth-best table tennis player in Denmark, and he says he has never had a job.

Follow Rasmus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rasmus_holst__/
Coco Development Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coco_development/
Coco Website https://cocodevelopmentgroup.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmusiholst/ 

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