Families moving to Jakarta usually start looking for a house about six weeks before they land, which is roughly the right amount of time and almost never enough. Most of the families who join ISJ in August began their search in June.

Nearly all of that search happens in one part of the city. South Jakarta holds most of the international-school families, foreign and Indonesian alike, and Pondok Indah is its established centre: wide streets, large plots, and several international schools within a few kilometres of each other. Kemang and Cipete draw a younger and more mixed crowd. Affluent Indonesian families and expatriate families are largely looking at the same houses, which is why the good stock in Pondok Indah moves quickly in June and July.

Wide residential street in Pondok Indah, South Jakarta, lined with large houses and palms, with the city skyline behind

How renting works here

Rent is paid a year in advance. Sometimes two. This is standard for houses and most serviced apartments, and it is the biggest shock for families used to paying monthly. Work out the full first-year figure before you view, because it changes which houses are in range.

There is no central listing system. The same house is marketed by three agents at three different prices, and none of them will mention stock they do not hold. Using two or three in parallel is normal, and it costs you nothing, because the landlord pays the commission.

Agents work specific pockets. Someone strong in Pondok Indah will have thin stock in Kemang. Tell them the school first and let them work backwards from the commute.

Asking prices are soft, particularly on anything that has sat empty through a school year. Ten to fifteen per cent is unremarkable, and paying two years upfront is the lever most landlords respond to.

Type What it looks like Suits
Compound house A cluster of houses behind one gate, shared pool and security Families with younger children who want them outdoors unsupervised
Standalone house Own plot and garden, own security arrangement More space and privacy, more to manage yourself
Serviced apartment Furnished, staffed, usually attached to a mall Shorter postings, or a base while you look properly

Agents worth contacting

Before you sign

Drive the route to school at 6:45am on a weekday, not at noon and not at the weekend. Fifteen minutes on a Sunday can be fifty on a Tuesday, and no floor plan will tell you that. Then get the verbal bits written down: who holds the deposit and on what terms it returns, who pays for repairs, and whether the rent covers service charges and the upkeep of a pool or garden.