Costa Rica Real Estate as an Investment
Why Consider Costa Rica Real Estate?
Great question!
There are usually only two reasons why anyone ever buys a piece of property, anywhere in the world:
1. At some point in the future, they plan to live on the property
2. They see the purchase as a good investment i.e. they envision the value of the property going up over time.
And then there is the oddball person who likes to buy property for both reasons, at the same time!
Let’s assume for a moment that you are interested in buying some property with the expectation that you will make money when you sell at some point in the future…not an unreasonable approach to investing your hard earned money.
Given all the possibilities in the world, why consider Costa Rica real estate?
The Top 10 Advantages of Costa Rica Living and Investment
Stability
- Greatest political, social and economic stability in all of Latin America
- 100+ years of democracy, no army since 1949, two Nobel Peace Prize recipients
Education
- Compulsory, free education system started in 1869 resulting in a 95.7% literacy rate and a highly qualified workforce; strong and growing middle class
- Computer labs in 50% of elementary schools and 100% of secondary schools
- 67 university campuses and 81 technical high schools
- Excellent international school locally available in Flamingo
Communications Infrastructure
- Decent telephone (landline and cell) systems
- High speed internet currently available in our beach communities (Coco, Flamingo, Brasilito, Tamarindo)
- Cable television
- Federal Express
Transportation Infrastructure
- Daily international flights into San Jose and Liberia
- 3 hour flight to the U.S.
- Extensive road system…needs improvement, “You think?!”
Economic Diversity
- Tourism #1 at $1.2 billion
- Agricultural exports – coffee, bananas, cantaloupe, sugar cane
- Medical services – plastic surgery and dental implants, hormone replacement
- Technology – largest exporter of technology products to U.S. from Latin America
- Intel, Motorola, Procter & Gamble, Pfizer and Abbot Labs
- U.S. is Costa Rica’s largest trading partner
Gender Equality
- 7th in the world by percentage of women in Congress
- 4 of 5 past administrations have had women VPs
- 53% of top public officials are women
Medical Care
- Universal health care since early 1940’s
- Available to citizens and foreign residents
- Life expectancy is 78.1 years
- Very high quality health care available at very reasonable costs
Ecological Diversity and Sensitivity
- 25% of the country’s land area is under protected status
- 6% of the world’s biodiversity
- 25% of tropical biology research worldwide is done in CR
- 850+ species of birds
- 80+% of our visitors are “ecotourists”
- Costa Rica is considered by many to be the “ecotourism capital of the world”
- Tamarindo has the largest estuary in Central America
- Playa Grande has our national treasure – the Leatherback Turtle
Energy Efficiency
- 2nd most energy efficient economy in the world
- 99% of electricity from renewable resources (hydroelectric)
- In-country crude oil refinery
Business and Real Estate Investment Friendly
- No foreign exchange controls, no restrictions to capital or profit repatriation
- No restrictions on foreigners owning a business
- No restrictions on foreigners owning real estate
- Low rates of business taxation
- Extremely low rate of property taxation
- Easy and inexpensive to form a Corporation
- No real estate capital gains taxation with Corporate structure
Explosive demand for Guanacaste real estate in the beach areas
What has caused the explosive demand for real estate in the beach areas of Guanacaste?
The basic demand has always been there because many folks looking for a fun filled vacation resort, choose the beach areas of Guanacaste…Playa Flamingo, Playa Conchal or Playa Tamarindo.
Historically, the problem has been the lengthy (5+ hour) journey from the airport in San Jose. Many folks simply chose not to do it!
The calculus suddenly changed a couple of years ago when the airport in Liberia opened to international flights. Then there was a geometric shift when the airport started accepting daily international flights.
The rest, as they say is history!
