Buying land near Nusantara: what to check first

Land around Nusantara is often marketed on the strength of the capital’s name. How fast the capital grows is covered in the article on Nusantara. Either way, the plot itself has to pass the checks that apply to any land in Kalimantan, plus a set of controls that apply only in the capital’s area.

The most important control is simple. Inside that area, a sale of land, titled or not, needs the prior approval of the head of the Nusantara Capital Authority (Otorita Ibu Kota Nusantara). Without it, officials may not make the deed and the transfer can’t be registered in your name.

Where the capital’s rules apply

Law 3 of 2022 on the State Capital, as amended by Law 21 of 2023, sets its area at about 252,660 hectares of land and 69,769 hectares of sea, in parts of the Penajam Paser Utara and Kutai Kartanegara regencies of East Kalimantan. It borders Balikpapan Bay and the city of Balikpapan to the south and the Makassar Strait to the east. The land splits into the capital area of about 56,159 hectares, which includes the core government area, and a development area of about 196,501 hectares.

So land sold as near the capital may well be inside it. Get the plot’s coordinates and check them against the boundary and the spatial plans: Presidential Regulation 64 of 2022 on the spatial plan of the capital’s national strategic area for 2022 to 2042, and the detailed spatial plans (Rencana Detail Tata Ruang, RDTR) that the authority’s head sets by regulation. Since the 2023 amendment, the use of every plot inside the capital has to follow these plans, and the plans can be reviewed as the capital’s needs change.

Sales need the authority’s approval

Presidential Regulation 65 of 2022 on land acquisition and land management in the capital puts land transfers under control to stop excessive and speculative trading. The control covers registered and unregistered land in the capital’s strategic area, and every form a sale can take: a deed by a land deed official (PPAT), a notarial preliminary sale agreement (perjanjian pengikatan jual beli, PPJB), a private sale letter legalised or registered by a notary, and any other private sale letter.

Each sale needs the authority head’s approval first. PPATs, notaries, sub-district heads (camat) and village heads may only make the deed or letter once it’s given. That puts into practice Article 16 of Law 3 of 2022, which says every transfer of land rights in the capital needs the approval. The authority also has a first right to buy land in the capital. Unregistered land can still be registered, but if it changed hands after the capital’s area was set, registration needs the authority’s approval too.

Land the authority manages

The capital’s own land comes from two routes: the release of forest areas and land acquisition. Land used for government becomes state property held on a right of use (Hak Pakai). The rest becomes the authority’s property, on which it holds a right of management (Hak Pengelolaan, HPL). An HPL can’t be sold. An investor signs a land utilisation agreement with the authority and receives a right to build (Hak Guna Bangunan, HGB), a right to cultivate (Hak Guna Usaha, HGU) or a Hak Pakai on top of the HPL, for the terms the law sets.

Law 21 of 2023 also recognises community land inside the capital: freehold and the other registered titles, and land held by people entitled to it under land law. Owners keep those titles, but the authority can re-arrange land to fit the plans, through acquisition, direct purchase or relocation where land isn’t in use, and through land consolidation where it is. A plot inside the capital can be acquired for a project or reshaped in a consolidation.

Letters, forest and old concessions

If a plot near the capital is offered on a village or sub-district land letter (Surat Keterangan Tanah, SKT) rather than a certificate, treat it as a claim to be tested, not a title. Since 2 February 2026, old written evidence of former customary land held by individuals no longer proves a right and serves only as a guide for registration, under Government Regulation 18 of 2021. Inside the capital’s area, a sale on a letter also needs the authority’s approval, and so does registering land that changed hands after the area was set. Unregistered land explains how letters work.

Forest status comes next. Presidential Regulation 65 of 2022 provides for releasing forest areas inside the capital’s strategic area for the capital’s own use, and says the release must respect community land, individual rights and customary communal rights. Where people occupy land inside a forest area there, the authority settles it with the forestry ministry’s help. A seller’s letter doesn’t change any of that. Outside the boundary the usual rules apply, and the land office won’t normally certify land inside a designated forest area until it’s released. Checking forest status explains how.

Check too whether a timber or plantation-forest concession covers the plot, now or in the past. A concession sits on state forest, so a letter for land inside one is unlikely ever to become a certificate, and land in an expired concession can still be forest on the map.

Before you pay

• Get the plot’s coordinates and check whether it sits inside the capital’s boundary and what the spatial plan allows there.
• Inside the boundary, don’t sign a deed, a PPJB or a letter, or pay a deposit, until the authority’s transfer approval is in hand.
• Buy only certified land, checked at the land office through a PPAT as set out in how to check a land certificate, with a plot map that matches the ground.
• Check the forest-area map and any concession over the plot, and ask whether it falls in an acquisition or consolidation plan for the capital.
• Ask the village head and the neighbours who else claims the land, customary communities included.