Update  – Jaco Bay Ramada Costa Rica delivers first two towers this month

Phase I Now Complete Towers 5 and 6 were delivered in early September 2008, marking the completion of Phase I. The towers look beautiful, and elegant condo interiors frame incredible mountain and ocean views. Lush tropical landscaping will be installed next week, and the Phase I parking area is complete. The resort is taking shape and already looks spectacular.  Swimming Pools and Common Areas Coming Soon 

Expected to be finished by the end of November 2008, the resort’s impressive free-form swimming pool will debut just in time for High Season. Common areas, guard gate and central courtyard are also due to be complete at the same time. The resort is set for a soft opening in December 2008.

Improved Resort Layout 

The overall layout of Jaco Bay Condominiums & Resort at Ramada has been changed to enhance the resort experience. Towers 1 and 2 will now be dedicated to the Ramada hotel – the hotel will no longer be located outside of the resort. We see this as a very positive change for existing and prospective purchasers as the resort will now feature significantly less condominiums (only 152 condos rather than the previously planned 266). The onsite Ramada hotel will be the largest in Jaco with 123 hotel rooms and 58 studio suites. Guest amenities and services will be expanded, ensuring that the resort will be the most impressive in our area.

Jaco Bay is nice addition to the central Pacific and  Costa Rica Real Estate as a whole. We at Costa Rica Retirement salute the good work and are pleased to be one of the early sales recorded.

For information or if you wish to have this fine project included in your tour of Costa rica Real Estate, please contact 

You have many choices from Mountains, Volcano areas, beaches, cities or even jungle. Always be aware of the services and amenities you need before committing. Costa Rica Real Estate is very rewarding when done right and through the right people. Location is often a dream of sunny beaches high mountain hideaways or quiet secluded areas. That is greatif you can handle it.

We try to carefully counsel and guide our clients seeking property in Costa Rica to be realistic. This could be a serious mistake buying a home in an area that is beautiful but proves to be not for you. Re-sale is almost impossible and monotony can set in fast. There are many sound locations that offer much diversity in your new lifestyle you seek. Links have been inserted herein to see samplings of areas and the products available.

Costa Rica central Pacific Real Estate has a variety of benefits. It depends on how you are planning your Costa Rica retirement as well. Some choose to live here for only 6 months and elsewhere for the balance. If this is the case there are wide choices of good projects with good property management that allows you to rent when not here and recover any debt service.

Activities are numerous. There is everything you need in amenities, sporting events, shopping, seclusion or be in the heart of everything, access to San Jose (with new road will be fast) and much more.

The Costa Rica central valley is growing and of course anything you need is close by such as health care, shopping, dining, legal, golf and more. Baby Boomers seeking retirement in Costa Rica are flocking here as well. Some of the select retirement locations have pr oven to be Santa Ana, Escazu, Cariari, Atenas and Heredia.

Arenal Real Estate has suddenly become of interest to those seeking a more rural lifestyle. some excellent large lots overlooking the lake have come on the market recently that appear to be very appealing.

The north Pacific area of Tamarindo has a very special property that ranks as one of the best projects for full or partial retirement in Costa Rica.  Imagine, ocean front, one bedroom to penthouses, Playa Langosta very close to Tamarindo with all it’s activities and services. If one plans to spend only part of the year in Costa Rica, this is perfect Read on...
Buy one with just the  down payment, be guaranteed two years of rental income at 50% occupancy, This is priced better than any we have seen to date and offers superior high quality finishes. Peninsula Playa Langosta  has two towers, elegantly designed with fine choices of product.  You won’t see better value or quality

Our company aggressively seeks the solid projects like this one. If you are in search of the ideal location and wish to retire in Costa Rica, you may wish to check out our very comprehensive Property Scouting Tour that covers it all very diligently. We carefully guide our clients through the whole process from the inquiry to moving here.

WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) – The World Bank on Thursday approved a new three-year $258 million lending program for Costa Rica to help improve education, telecoms reform, infrastructure development and tackle climate change.

The program covers lending from August 2008 to December 2010 and includes $65 million in quick-disbursing funds in the event the Central American country is struck by a major natural disaster, such as a hurricane.

“The new partnership strategy for Costa Rica will support key areas of development for the country including competitiveness, disaster management and secondary education.” said Laura Frigenti, World Bank country director. “The strategy includes a combination of traditional and innovative financial instruments, technical assistance and fee for services.”

The World Bank also said it will also help Costa Rica prepare for participation in a new forest carbon fund that could help developing countries earn millions of dollars for protecting and replanting tropical forests.

Costa Rica is one of the first 14 countries to participate in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, or FCPC), launched by the World Bank last year as part of global efforts to address climate change caused by deforestation. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton. Editing by Diane Craft)

How would you like to buy with only the down payment and have rental of the unit guaranteed at 50% occupancy and for a period of 2 years.

Also, at the most competitive price per foot, you can have your choice with many amenities such as pools, Jacuzzi, fitness center, ocean views, prewired for telephone with 4 lines, cable, networking and some home automation. Peninsula has 4 underground parking spaces for each unit and an environmentally friendly sewage treatment plant.

Peninsula Tamarindo – Playa Langosta is the most exclusive residential development of Tamarindo area.

In development projects it is a large task to find the combination of, good product selection, best of amenities, high quality finishes, ocean front location and yet good pricing.

Peninsula came up on the radar fast during our search for quality Guanacaste condominium projects.

The location is excellent. It is located on the most beautiful beaches of Playa Langosta only minutes for all the action of Tamarindo.

Peninsula is the most exclusive residential development of Tamarindo – Playa Langosta. It offers one bedroom condos – 2 bedroom condos – 3 bedroom condos and penthouses. The floor plans at Peninsula – Playa Langosta are very unique and all have ocean views and some mountain views as well.

Costa Rica Retirement Vacation properties has made this project a priority and feel it is really well suited to people desiring retirement in Costa Rica for part of the year or for the pure investor who want to rent the unit and use it two or three times a year.

Please contact us for updates daily on availability and pricing. Toll free 1 888 581 1786 ask for Robert.

I felt I should give some real examples of the market as it exists in our life. To that end I have submitted the following for the editor to consider for publication.

To: Editor – AM Costa Rica:

I have been following the comments on the real estate and crime appraisal of your contributor. I wish to comment based on some facts I have at my disposal.

Please note, I do not plan to have an ongoing dialog here. This will be the only comments I offer on this subject as I am merely trying to relate our own experience.

While inquiries have slowed, we are still finding a number of serious buyers. We have seen no discounts at all in the central valley nor Atenas unless they are related to distress situations. In fact very recently in the central valley the following example are our experiences directly, one house sold for the asking price of $525,000 due to competition and another fell through, because of financing. The asking price on that one was $450 and the price agreed was $435,000. In Atenas, a lot was sold for the asking price, another house was sold for $450,000 which was very close to the asking price and these were in Atenas. These are just a few current examples.

What we  have seen is more caution, certainly, fewer inquiries and the mix at the moment is more upper income people such as Medical professionals interested in Costa Rica Retirement.

Remember what I am reflecting here is a short time frame and in no way should be construed as the profile of things to come.  I am merely replying to what I think is an extreme exaggeration of the Real Estate market. I have documentation to show these figures as well.

To asses the current market, one needs to take into account that there are  many Retirement in Costa Rica information sources that have popped up in the form of web sites. This makes the Real Estate market fiercely competitive and very confusing for the first time visitor interested in Retirement in Costa Rica. The confusion scares people, especially when they are receiving sensationalized information and this always results in less activity. The competition I speak of here is a large factor here and cannot be discounted.

In cases where a developer gets caught with the recent central Bank cutback on construction loans, I can see an issue here. Coastal overbuilding, I can see an issue here as well. Any underfunded product will always suffer when volume drops.

Developers that were thinly funded in the first place looking to pre construction sales payments is a situation whereby aggressive discounts may be applied. There should be focus placed on this kind of thing that surely affects the price discounting and more important the safety of the investor.

Astute Real Estate office won’t sell those projects and they can get desperate and prices could drop drastically to keep afloat putting our clients at risk.

Many coastal boiler room projects (USA call centerer operations) cease to exist for the moment. The drop in these sales can surely be a factor as well.

Finally, Costa Rica is no different than any other country that gets caught up in up markets. We have had that for years and we have our corrections like anyone else. With all the frenzy, maybe we are overbuilt. That can lead to slow down for sure. Worth a mention….Developer inquiries have slowed considerably.

The situation is clearly augmented by the slow down, but was coming anyway in those cases.

My focus these days is to firmly address the Costa Rica Retirement market as Costa Rica still part of the solution for many. The numbers haven’t changed and there are some 65,000,000 plus Baby Boomers becoming of age. Costa Rica is still the umber one destination for Americans retiring offshore.

Is cost of living a factor?  Cost of living is going up here, but it is everywhere. How can it not?

Would you be more comfortable living on whatever your budget is here and paying $200 taxes on your $350,00 or home or picking up a retirement condo in Florida very cheap now and paying all their future debt at God know what rate of all their different taxes. Then you have the health care factor, the Hurricanes to deal with and at least 3 years until there is some light at the end of the tunnel politically. We are still a viable solution for many.

I am aware that one can refute this in that Miami offer 4 major sports, south Beach and much more. Our clients are looking for retirement now and they want what we have with all our problems and mainly they want difference….
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