Jun 19 2007
Costa Rica investment news
Firstly US chipmaker Intel have announced that they are to plough substantial investment into their Costa Rica plant and increase the numbers of jobs available to the local labor force, secondly a major UK based tour operator are launching direct flights to Costa Rica from London, and thirdly the Costa Rican government have extensively relaxed their immigration policies for investors bringing funds or skills to their country.
As Costa Rica is already one of our preferred emerging markets to watch, all this good news has got us excited! And property investors who were wondering whether the time is right to commit to Costa Rica may well be positively influenced by the abundance of positive news coming from this Central American country today.
First up, Intel has announced that they will commit one hundred and twenty million US dollars to improve and expand their Costa Rica processing plant. The direct investment will help create five hundred new jobs which will directly assist the local economy and help boost the appeal of commercial property in Costa Rica.
This news coupled with the fact that the Costa Rican government has just announced a significant easing on immigration restrictions for investors, employers and key employees means that the country just became an even more attractive prospect for companies looking for a more tax efficient, lower cost location for their operations. This will likely have a direct effect on the demand for commercial property, it may well boost demand for residential property in the main Costa Rican towns and it will undoubtedly raise the profile of Costa Rica globally.
IT giants Hewlett-Packard are another company expanding operations in Costa Rica in 2006; they are to double their locally sourced workforce by 500 and to begin a massive expansion of business interests in Costa Rica. Both HP and Intel will benefit from the fact that the immigration procedures their expatriate management will have to go through have been simplified by the government. According to the Costa Rican Minister of Foreign Trade Manuel Gonzalz Sanz, the new policies will help make foreign direct investment into Costa Rica more attractive and therefore boost the amount of investment the country receives annually.
This fact alone could result in an intensification of investor interest in the property market in Costa Rica…but the additional news out from the UK this week that First Choice are to begin direct flights from London in 2007 to Costa Rica means that hungry British property investors are probably about to descend on Costa Rica in their droves! There is much promotion of this stunningly beautiful and ecologically diverse country in the British press as a result of the First Choice announcement, and those who were unaware of the property investment potential in Costa Rica are now rapidly making themselves aware! Direct flights will begin from London’s Gatwick airport from May 2007 and already the flights and holidays from First Choice have gone on sale.
So, in terms of Costa Rica investment property news there is much to be positive about – but as always, we recommend that any real estate investor considering making a commitment spends time doing their due diligence on the potential profitability of a given property type before buying.
