Guys In The Zone: Costa Rica Real Estate

February 19, 2009

A Brief History of Real Estate in The Zone

“The Zone” is made up of a stretch of coastline starting from Hatillo in the north, and stretching south to Palmar Sur.  Included in that zone are the following towns, noted from north to south:

  • Hatillo
  • Dominical
  • Uvita
  • Ojochal
  • Palmar Sur

The inland portion of The Zone is a leg that runs from Dominical to San Isidro de el General, also known as Perez Zeledon.  In between Dominical and San Isidro is the town of Platanillo.

The Southern Pacific Zone of Costa Rica

The Southern Pacific Zone of Costa Rica

A word about pricing:
When dealing with ocean view properties in Costa Rica’s southern zone, the usual criteria of looking for a “per square meter” pricing fails us.  This becomes evident quickly as one familiarizes themselves with the market place.
Evaluating an ocean view property in this area is a combination of attributes, or virtues that come together to give the property its value.  Based on observing land buyers over the years, I rank these virtues in roughly the following order:

  1. view
  2. access
  3. size
  4. infrastructure
  5. amount of usable land
  6. proximity to the beach or a river
  7. privacy
  8. air motion

As an example of this, I once had a 10 acre property that had a window view of the ocean.  Of the 10 acres, perhaps 1 ½ were usable, the rest falling away in jungle covered hillsides. Price: $115,000
Across the way from this property, perhaps within 500 meters, I had another property of 2 acres with a sweeping ocean view, (more…)

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July 31, 2008

US Economy Affect on Real Estate in Costa Rica

Filed under: News, Projections, State of the Market — Tags: , — Ben @ 9:23 am

Perhaps the most common question I hear in recent months is: “how has the recent economic downturn in the U. S. impacted real estate in Costa Rica?”

Economy Graph

As a broker of real estate in Costa Rica, I work with investors from all around the globe as they search for their property in Costa Rica. In working with these people I get to hear what their concerns are and watch how they respond as they learn and experience the Costa Rica real estate marketplace.

One of the San Buenas Golf Resort (SBGR) partners is Duane Halverson, retired COO from the well known dairy company “Land ‘O Lakes” in the United States. Duane and I have struck up a rather unlikely, synergistic relationship that has resulted in some pretty interesting dialogue: Duane being a long time, firmly anchored, North American business executive, entrusted with the financial well being of a large U. S. company (he also sits on the board of numerous other corporations there in the States), and me being a jungle tromping real estate agent in the wilds of Costa Rica.
(more…)

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