My wife has had a vacation rental in Bali for over 10 years that she built while living in Singapore. She leased land for 20 years and built the property.
It's very hands off, the villa is run by a management company that handles everything.. they hire staff for the house, manage bookings, marketing, etc. In exchange, they take a fairly hefty management fee but we don't have to worry about anything.
I'd say the generic concerns apply to investing in any developing country:
- Politics can change overnight around foreigners investing in the country, putting new and existing investments at risk
- There can be big cultural differences with attitudes towards maintenance and repairs, I often find things get "repaired" but the root cause goes unaddressed.
- Trips to visit the home are a must to make sure everything is being taken care of, at least 1-2x per year.
- Property and furniture ages a lot faster in the tropics
- There's always lots of asks for facilitation payments, especially around any kind of government licensing. Be patient and say no. If you pay once, they've got you on the hook forever.
- Getting money out of some countries is not as easy as a bank transfer and can be a real head ache.
- Currency risk can be managed by pegging prices to USD but that practice is not necessarily allowed in every country.
