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Costa Rica Real Estate for Wealthy Investors


By Timothy Scott

Buoyed by enviable national economic and political stability, the Costa Rican luxury real estate market is hotter than ever. As buyers from the USA and Canada look for a safe haven abroad for their money, new developments are popping up on the Pacific Coast and older ones are expanding, but some buyers are also finding their ideal spot outside of the capital city, San Jose.

Costa Rica real estate

As I toured around Costa Rica on my recent trip to the country, my fifth over the years, the real estate numbers I heard bandied about were certainly much higher than the ones I experienced in the past.

I walked through a huge home still under construction on the coast that will be listed for close to US$8 million. I saw condos with a panoramic ocean view going for $1.5 million, resales of freestanding homes for twice that, and got wind of a cashflow-positive mountaintop hotel for sale where "$35 million in cash will get the deal done, then you can build villas on the grounds and get back 10 or 15 million of that."

I toured a grand hacienda-style house outside of the capital city that was big enough to be a bed and breakfast going for $2.5 million and a just-built modern one a lot over was listed at $2.7 million. I saw lots for as little at $75,000 with a nice mountain view, but also ones by the ocean going for 10 times that amount. At all these price points, the market is active and deals are getting done every week.

Whether these prices are high or not depends a lot on your reference point, however. For many North Americans coming from pricier regions where real estate prices have skyrocketed, these prices look like a bargain. It would be hard to find something comparable in Florida or Texas, much less California, New York, or Ontario. That hacienda-style house, for instance, is 850 square meters (more than 9,000 square feet) and has 3.6 acres of gardens past the swimming pool.

Costa Rica luxury home

We regularly have buyers from the USA and Canada tell us that what they’re getting for their money here would cost them four or five times as much where they live now,” says Cristina Jones of WeRCR. She runs an agency that specializes in finding the right real estate investments for foreign buyers and then guiding them through the process of residency and relocation. “Even compared to spots like Los Cabos, the prices per square meter are compelling here and there are fewer negatives to consider.”

Stability and Safety in Costa Rica Investments

The Republic of Costa Rica has long been an anomaly in Central America: an oasis of democracy and rule of law in a region sometimes known more for repressive dictatorships and social turmoil. This stability—along with the country’s natural beauty and well-developed infrastructure—has made Costa Rica the most popular market for foreign real estate investment between Mexico and Panama. The country doesn't have an army, its democratic institutions are strong, and the health care system is good enough to make it a medical tourism destination.

American buyers who are tired of the political divisiveness and a feeling of deteriorating safety from gun proliferation are turning to Costa Rica as a safer place to put their assets, minus all the drama. Canadian buyers weary of high taxes and lofty housing prices are doing the same. While the country has been a popular expatriate destination for decades, the appeal has gotten wider in the 2020s as wealthier “Plan B” investors have put this small country on their short list.

The market was previously dominated by retirees until the past decade, but now agents are now just as likely to be working with surfers or tech company founders, foreign executives or crypto investors. Families are seeking out a more relaxed place to live in the sun, in schools where learning is winning out over rote memorization and teaching to the test. Left and right political leanings are converging in self-sustained rural communities that run on renewable energy. And here you can drink the tap water.

Manuel Antonio Beach

Most Americans can get to one of the two international airports in Costa Rica with one stop or less since nearly all of the major North American airlines fly there and some of the budget ones do as well. There are direct flights from 13 airports at the time of writing on the three legacy airlines plus Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska, Frontier, Spirit, and Southwest. Air Canada and Westjet both have direct flights from Toronto as well.

Guanacaste Luxury Real Estate in Costa Rica

We've written before on reasons to invest in Costa Rica real estate and highlighted some of the most popular regions for luxury property investors to live in or buy a rental property. I spent some time looking at properties in multiple locations on the Pacific Coast, however, met with several developers, and spent a few nights in the fascinating Las Catalinas "new urbanism" project where residents can walk everywhere to eat, drink, or hit the beach. Cristina Jones of WeRCR also showed me some of the areas outside of San Jose that are popular with foreigners who got transferred to the area for their job or want to be close to big city amenities.

Las Catalinas is ideal for active people who like to walk instead of live in their car, people who enjoy outdoor pursuits like hiking, mountain biking (there's a shop on site), paddleboarding, and kayaking. There's a taproom and a grocery store, as well as several restaurants such as Celeste facing the water, a tapas restaurant, and a sushi spot. Many buyers are those who came on vacation, renting a villa through Beach Town Travel or staying at one of the two hotels there: mid-range Santarena and high-end Casa Chameleon.

Las Catalinas pedestrian town in Guanacaste

Some of the available properties are resales you could move into or rent out now, but many units haven't been built yet. You can purchase one of those already designed and have control over finishes and furniture, or buy a building lot in the development and work with an architect to design your coastal dream home. See sample listings here.

There's plenty more development happening in the Guanacaste region, from a massive Ritz-Carlton hotel and housing units project—one that required 1,500 workers scurrying around Peninsula Papagayo every day for a year—to smaller developments north of Tamarindo and down through the Nicoya Peninsula. Although the area's capital of Liberia has an airport, however, there's a lot of driving around involved to get to any medical facilities or routine service providers, on roads that can sometimes leave a lot to be desired. Some investors prefer the Central Pacific region for its closer access to the big city. 

The Central Pacific, Quepos, and Manuel Antonio

"I think the Manuel Antonio area is going to be looking at the kind of movement that Guanacaste had in the last several years," Cristina says. "They have some exceptional products that are coming that are still in the early stages, projects we can't post or sell yet, but stay tuned. One project in particular is going to revolutionize Manuel Antonio, with a high-end hotel chain that hasn't appeared in the country before, amazing villas, and condos all facing the ocean from a curving bay.

Manuel Antonio development project

There are some clear advantages to that area compared to Guanacaste," she adds. "Up there you could be two or three hours from the Liberia airport and the medical access is mostly just state hospitals, so it's best if you're young and healthy. In the Central Pacific region, however, you're 90 minutes away from a major metropolis."

There's also a large marina in Quepos, not far from Manuel Antonio, one that can host much bigger ships than most of them on the Pacific Coast. With one road in and out, locals say the safety situation is attractive as well. The long-established Jaco area is just to the north for those who are looking for a lively spot to go out.

There's a wide range of offerings in this area that I toured while I was there, ranging from Los Altos condos that have high vacation rental occupancy when not being used by the owner to multi-story grand free-standing homes with a panoramic ocean view.

While Costa Rica is a relatively small country, it's a very mountainous and forested one so it can take longer than it looks on a map to get from A to B. San Jose is far and away the best place for medical care and good dental care, with the best doctors and hospitals. "In the past," Cristina adds, "buyers would have, let's say, a million-dollar budget and they would be placing all of that in Guanacaste. Now they have a million and they're doing $500,000 in Guanacaste and $500,000 in the outskirts of San Jose or on the central coast nearby."

They're then going back and forth, changing their humidity, their greenery, and maybe their elevation too. "Some say they need a little bit of a city fix," she says, and having culinary choices instead of being limited to the same tourist restaurants all the time."

Choosing the Suburbs and Countryside Near San Jose

When most foreigners think of buying in Costa Rica, they're probably thinking of vacation homes near the water or perhaps a place in nature by a lake or in the mountains, but a lot of foreigners work in the country too. Multinationals have a big presence in Costa Rica, many using it as their base of operations for Central America or running everything from call centers to pharma laboratories to take advantage of an educated local workforce.

Because of the international business presence, plenty of foreign executives are renting houses in the suburban areas of San Jose. The traditional choices like Santa Ana and Escazu are expanding outward to less saturated developments with less traffic and more space. The up-and-coming areas for investment or relocation are still 20 minutes from shopping, the airport, and medical facilities, but they offer more opportunities to have green natural areas, more space, and a view. "We have been bringing a lot of clients to where we're based, Guacima," says Cristina, "an area that has all the conveniences like grocery stores, pharmacies, and restaurants, but the traffic is not back-to-back."

We toured several homes in the Los Reyes development and its surroundings, from compact houses with a small yard for $350,000 to sprawling estate homes with their own stables. “People really started moving to the area during COVID times,” she explains, when both buyers and renters were looking for a less congested area, but the demand has only picked up since then. "The homes out here offer an incredible value," she says. "You get more space and more greenery than closer to the center, but with a price that's around 20% less than the better-known suburbs.” Check out some of the luxury listings here.

Guacima luxury real estate outside of San Jose CR

Many people are also investing in this area because of the potential for obtaining high-end rents from the corporate expats and executives who are working at the companies located nearby. "You're going to be buying a $750,000 house with a pool and you're going to be getting $6,000 worth of rent a month. So the return there is great," she explains. "You can also buy homes in the $400K range that you can rent out for about $3,500.” The market is moving at a city pace here too instead of a beach pace, where listings can often sit on the market for six months. "In Guacima, we've had listings that have come on the market and gone in 72 hours."

Both International Living and Travel + Leisure recently picked Costa Rica as the top retirement destination in the world, based on the steady appreciation prospects, the quality of life, and the ease of getting in and out of the country. The range of buyers interested in Costa Rica real estate has expanded far beyond that core group, however. This is becoming a destination that the wealthy are increasingly focused on as a safe and pleasant place to put their money—and their time, maybe well before their retirement years.

See a full interview with Crissy Jones of WeRCR here and book a free consultation call at this link.

Article by editor Timothy Scott, photos by Luxury Latin America and WeRCR.


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