Property Purchase in Wife's name

[Davita]

The only viable option I can see then for us and others in our situation (no prenup) is that the wife's parents transfer the title of the property to another relative WNI, such as my wife's sister, who then "rents" it to us, or just invites us as "long-term guests"... is that copacetic under the law?

This is commonly done in Indonesia and is called the 'Nominee' method.

Some one-else, usually a WNI relative, actually owns the property but a notary injects into the title that the property is subject to certain restrictions to include you and your wife.
It is fraught with danger unless you are convinced the nominee is trustworthy. The ownership cannot be circumvented and even if the nominee is trusted, but dies, the title of the property will be subject to the nominee's will or estate.

My wife and I have used this method for our apartment in Jakarta and our villa in Bali.

[Mister Bule]

Davita wrote:

It is fraught with danger unless you are convinced the nominee is trustworthy. The ownership cannot be circumvented and even if the nominee is trusted, but dies, the title of the property will be subject to the nominee's will or estate.

Understood... fortunately my wife and her sister are quite close and though one never knows what changes time may bring to family relationships, I think we would both be pretty comfortable with the title being in her name. MY parents-in-law's house is just next to the house where the sister and her husband now live. I'm not sure if their home is in their name, the orang tua's or whose, but the parents' home is still in their own name at this time. There are other siblings who stay there sometimes and it is possible that the house could become a focal point of family squabble in the future, but I'm fairly optimistic it will not. Actually our idea as of now is that we will remodel the upstairs of the house into a semi-separate living quarters for ourselves and the downstairs can be used by other family members if needed. The sister is several years younger than my wife (who is 40) so hopefully she will survive both of us. Anyway it seems like the best solution we can find unless the law is ever changed to allow foreigners to hold / share property (or unless I become an Inndonesian citizen).