In recent years, Costa Rican real estate prices have risen rapidly as more and more foreigners are relocating to the country. Despite the influx of ex-pats, Costa Rica remains a beautiful country with good residency programs and a low cost of living. More importantly, there are still areas of the country which are highly affordable. See the following article from International Living for more on this.
Back in 1983, International Living first recommended Costa Rica, long before the mainstream started to pay attention to this small country. At that time, Costa Rica ticked all the right boxes as a retirement and second-home destination. It had a lush tropical beauty…a good residency program…a low cost of living…and best of all, it had incredibly affordable property.
Readers who quickly acted were soon glad they did. The mainstream media jumped on the bandwagon, and Costa Rica jumped to the top of the list of desirable locations for expats (today, there’s an estimated 30,000-50,000 U.S. citizens living in Costa Rica).
Property shoppers wanting a cooler climate and proximity to the capital flocked to Costa Rica’s Central Valley. Beach lovers headed to the Pacific Gold Coast, in the northwest of the country.
This influx of property buyers changed one of the factors making Costa Rica so attractive: affordable property. Prices rose. No longer a screaming bargain, IL switched focus to other Central American countries.
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Now something new is happening. Costa Rica is still a beautiful country.
It still has good residency programs. The cost of living is still low (currently lower than Panama, where I live).
The only thing lacking is good value real estate. Are there any pockets of Costa Rica that had escaped the attention of the swarms of property buyers? Yes—I recently spent time there.
The scenery is stunning. The beaches are pristine. It’s home to numerous parks and reserves and is remarkably free of high-rises and mega-resorts.
It’s remained undiscovered because it was tough to get to. You could use the tiny rural airport…a road that crossed the “Hill of Death”…or the coastal road, which had whole sections without any surface and lunar-sized craters. This lack of access deterred everyone, apart from diehard surfers and sport fishers.
But infrastructure upgrades are on the way. Coastal road improvements, promised for 30 years, are finally almost complete. This stretch of coastal road is now comfortable to drive. That means more people will make the trip, fall in love with this location, and want to buy here.
The rural airport is on the way out, too. There are plans for a new international airport. The government has chosen the site and allocated funds. The contract is out to tender. The airport will push this area onto the world stage.
So, while property prices are affordable for now (as little as $23,000), I don’t expect that to last long. Once more people see the beauty of this area, and realize just how affordable it is, they’ll want to own a piece of it for themselves—pushing prices up.
This article has been republished from International Living.
