Drive around Bali: look at the signs, read a magazine or newspaper, “absolute beachfront villas”, “eco-friendly-hotels” are phrases that appear in every real estate advertisement as real estate development picks up pace.

There is no central resource of real estate information on what is being built and what is being offered on Bali. Nobody quite knows exactly what the market is offering and many developments are happening under partial secrecy.

Reported in The Jakarta Post: "Our governmental system makes it impossible to collect data on the development, because the regencies are ruled autonomously," says I Gde Nurjaya, head of the Bali Tourism Agency.

Without co-ordinated co-operation and a central information source, people query the current rate of property development on Bali and whether it is sustainable.

Research by The Jakarta Post showed there were over 15,000 new hotel rooms and at least 300 new villas in remote and urban areas that will be completed in Bali in the next two years. Yet the real number of developments is thought to be much higher.

"The decentralization of Bali´s nine regencies has lead to greedy, careless behaviour, such as violating laws that have been created to protect the environment," says Agung Wardana, executive director of the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi), as reported in The Jakarta Post.

The concept of Bali as an ´island paradise´ is under threat and Wardana and others are concerned about the “eco” label saying its use is being abused, rather than being used to distinguish environmentally sound developments, to the extent that the term is becoming meaningless.

As reported in The Jakarta Post: "I currently don´t see a balance between the unlimited tourism development and investments in other important sectors such as agriculture and industrial products," says Dr. Nyoman Erawan, professor of economics at Udayana University.

"I´m not surprised, though, because the regents can collect 10 percent of taxes from hotels and restaurants, which makes it attractive for them to look for investors."

How much longer this pace of development can continue, is a question being asked more and more, by people from all walks of life on Bali. And if the island´s attraction dims, it is likely the investors will move on looking for the next tropical island hot spot.