[De Tom]

Just the other day i spoke to a friend who works as a security guard at a highclass villacomplex. Well, not much of a complex really. It's two or three modern and luxurious semi-open Balinese style houses and i believe a private dining place.

They are situated behind a Balinese compound on a ricefield terrace giving sloping views down towards the river, trees and the westward direction of afternoon sunsets.

So how does this 'villa complex' differ from all the other ones i've heard about or seen. The major difference is that the owner, a Swiss banker i'm told, has undertaken some very supportive measures with the villagers next to him which also help his business at the same time.

In order to keep the views natural, undisturbed and disable anyone else from building near the villas or blocking/ruining the view he decided to lease all the ricefields around him. Now to the good part. While leasing the land his only intention to keep it 'as it is' and came to an agreement with the owners of the lands. They should just keep on doing what they were doing, rice farming, and they will still enjoy the small profit from their lands. He merely lease the ricefield views in a sense as the profit and use of the land still falls into the hands of the villagers.

There are villas which function as private residences who want or take the views for granted, that is, until someone start building next-door. These owners rarely care to invest in the views around them since they are not running a business there or it is 'only' one villa perhaps used for yearly rentals with not much return.

The second kind of villa/s is what this topic describes. It's a business where people come and pay big sums per night with everything included. In this case, where there is a money-flow and importance for the business to keep the surrounds as they are, an investment in the next-door land might be more justified.

I just feel that this example is worth to mention. Think if more villas or view-dependent businesses would act like this. Pay a lease fee for plots of land around them thus supporting villagers or landowners with money from leasing and at the same time keeping them from selling the land, thus keeping further developments away. Landowners will be able to keep up the work and make their modest profits from ricefarming of their lands and at the same time keep providing those natural undisturbed views for the businesses depending on them.

[anna]

This is awesome Tompa! Thanks for sharing!

[De Tom]

Thank you for reading!

[anna]

No problem! That's why I'm here. Read, Learn, Respond, Share.