By  reporters Patricia Leitón and Ismael Venegas reporters from la Nación

The president of Costa Rica’s Central bank, Francisco de Paula Gutierrez sees no economic indication that points to Costa Rica being affected by the financial  crisis that is hitting the world market.

Costa Rica is a country that is not an integral part of international stock markets and the local banks are healthy. The country also has access to these funds: The Latin American Reserve Fund (FLAR), The Andean Community Fund ((FLAR) and the International Monetary Fund (FMI). Furthermore, there is a mechanism called the Mercado Interbancario de Dinero whereby local banks can guarantee their liquidity by lending each other money.

Guitierrez goes on to pint out that the local market is no very leveraged like other markets.

We still need to wait and see how the Baby Boomers are going to respond to the election to know the real fallout in the  Costa Rica Real Estate market.

There is no doubt that Costa Rica Real Estate market will be impacted to some degree on what has happened last week. That came right out of left field.

Since their is no mortgage crisis here and our Country is not tied to the major USA financial institutions, we stand a good chance of weathering this storm quite well, in fact better than others. We need to focus on good Costa Rica Real Estate value for our clients. (that applies to all price ranges)

In case you didn’t see this article from our Tico Times, I have published it for your viewing.

Special to The Tico Times….. also read below this article on value in Costa Rica

As world financial markets whirled from the latest crises in the U.S. lending and insurance sectors, Costa Ricans’ recent eschewing of Wall Street troubled sectors appears to have paid off.

Following Monday’s bankruptcy filing by investment bank monolith Lehman Brothers then Tuesday’s near demise of insurance giant AIG, stock markets in the U.S., Europe, Russia and Asia dropped to decade lows as central banks funded billion dollar bailouts.

Costa Rica, meanwhile, was calm.

“The Banco Nacional doesn’t have any investments with Lehman Brothers,” says Violeta Fernández, the bank’s corporate relations director, underlining Costa Rica’s financial independence.

Some international banks linked to Lehman have recorded multi-million dollar losses.

“Costa Rica is lucky,” says Rudolf Lucke, an economist at the University of Costa Rica. “We’ve been slow to get involved in the American stock market, and that’s why we’re not in this hurricane. Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico will be more affected. They’re much more linked to America’s financial market.”

Eric Vargas, strategy director at Aldesa, an investment consultant firm in Costa Rica, says that he has steered investors to more low-risk, long-term investments like Procter & Gamble, Colgate, Wal-Mart and U.S. treasury bonds.

“Since the credit crisis began in August 2007, we’ve been advising our clients to stay away from American financial stocks,” Vargas says.

Lucke is also realistic. “The possibilities are very high that certain Costa Rican institutions have investments related to Lehman. But that’s not something you talk about,” he says.

On Tuesday, the Costa Rican Stock Exchange (BNV) rose 0.34 percent. “We haven’t seen a direct reaction in the BNV,” confirmed Silvia Zúñiga, the press secretary at the BNV.

“The BNV is affected more by the domestic interest rates than by the American stock market,” says Lucke.

“One possible consequence of the crisis will present itself if international investors abandon emerging market debt (EMD) bonds for more stable instruments,” predicted Zúñiga. EMD bonds are issued by companies in developing countries, like Costa Rica. They are traded on the BNV.

Second round effects of the bigger markets’ troubles, however, are inevitable. Costa Rica’s economy depends largely on North American investment, trade and tourism. The U.S. is Costa Rica’s No. 1 market for exports.

Domestically, the lending market has never been very liquid, but now, as the Central Bank tweaks the interest rate to catch up to an estimated 15 percent inflation – the highest since April of 1997 – borrowing money is expensive.

Yet a conservative monetary policy may have saved Costa Rica from the speculative lending crisis in the United States. Here, stringent limits have been set on the amount of money banks can lend in proportion to their reserves. Costa Rica’s federal reserves, for example, total about $3.9 million. This is the highest they’ve been since December, when they were at record levels.

Vargas expects to see even more spending paralysis. Currently, domestic interest rates are lower than inflation. Consumers feel they are better off spending their money than saving it. This can create inflationary pressure that, coupled with an undervalued dollar, leads to more importing than exporting. This threatens the Central Bank’s reserves. The Central Bank’s reserves diminished about 20 percent in the last five months. Foreign direct investment – fast becoming a precarious last resort – had helped fill this gap.

Vargas envisions higher interest rates and an adjusted exchange rate, measures that might help bridge this discrepancy in the long run but will likely have short-term malignant effects, like a recession.

“It’s cleaning up everything that was wrong in a very harsh manner,” says Lucke of the financial crisis.

 Costa Rica Retirement is still a very viable option for many countries in the world. People are going to be very selective in their purchasing in that they now have models at home of what can be deemed opportunity properties and serve as a guide as to what they feel is a good deal in Real Estate in Costa Rica. Further, if it is owned by a Bank in the USA, they probably can make their own deal.

We have excellent Costa Rica Real Estate value here but one has to know where it is.

There are many things that combine to achieve value. A lot of buyers look to the surface and go no deeper than the price. Others are caught up in the hype that they have to be careful or you are going to loose your shirt here. Losing one’s shirt usually only happens if you take short cuts. There is too much marketing play on this based on stupid experiences of greedy people in the past.  They have stories that rival the Titanic.  In a lot of these cases they never needed to occur in the first place and usually are associated with greed, lust and not adhering to practices used in their home country.  No need to go  into detail on these cases here as I am sure you can guess the profile.

We are not living in the stone ages here anymore and if you put yourself in good hands with a good Costa Rica Real Estate firm , outline clearly your objectives and state your level of interest in real value not just price, you won’t go too far wrong.

I personally feel we are going to have to be patient and see where things are heading. Markets are dictated by the perception of the buyer, not what people build and make pretty thinking it will sell for that reason.

Admittedly, we have a lot of projects that do not have the professionals to do the proper studies before the planning. These projects could succeed in spite of themselves in the past. They are going to meet with some serious competition now and if the amenity doesn’t match up to the price, then you may see some of the claimed serious discounts in price that people have mentioned. That still doesn’t mean they will sell if they are not what the market wants.  You are probably not going to buy something that doesn’t come close to you personal and lifestyle needs.

I see projects advertised at so called discounts now that fail to meet the criteria for the Retirement buyer or even the investor. These can be dangerous endeavors. “If it looks like a duck“

Be wary of the  construction for $50 per foot if you are leaving a beautiful $400,000 home in the USA or Canada that was built for $275 per foot. Value?  I don’t think that is you.  Look to $85 in this case.

There is a lot of Costa Rica Real Estate underway  that is looking to do pre construction sales. The buyer today  is going to be conspicuously absent in the coming months unless he can see proof of completion of a project or unless the money goes to Escrow until he is satisfied.

Value is not hard to find if that is your business.

One project we are involved in is kicking off in November despite all the gloom we hear,  It is offering a nice mountain community in a great location with killer ocean views and amenities. However, it is fully funded and will only take Escrow deposits to reserve a home site and you don’t pay anymore until the water, paved streets and electricity are at your property.  That is my idea of not losing your shirt and good value.

That is what we feel comfortable with these days.

A real boom for Costa Rica development projects

High speed INTERNET and VOIP have long been a shortcoming for a large number of Costa Rica development projects. This new arrangement with Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. will clearly change the profile of our clients seeking Costa Rica retirement. It also opens up the market to people whose business is done parley by INTERNET such as traders, researchers etc.

How long this will take to get into place is not certain. Please read on for details.

Costa Rica’s National Telco Selects Gilat’s SkyEdge Broadband Satellite Network
?? VSAT Platform Will Bring Reliable Telephony and Wireless Internet Access to Rural Citizens

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq:GILT) today announced that it has been selected by Costa Rica’s national telecommunications operator Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), to provide a Gilat SkyEdge broadband satellite communications network that will serve end users throughout Costa Rica.

ICE will use the new VSAT network to expand its programs to provide toll-quality telephony to rural citizens, meeting its Universal Service Obligations. The network will also provide satellite backhaul for wireless Internet access to those citizens. Using this mix enables the service provider to benefit from the advantages of each technology – satellite’s nationwide reach and wireless’ cost-effective, “last mile” access.

ICE is a long-standing Gilat customer, having deployed Gilat VSAT networks nationwide since 2005.

“After evaluating competing VSAT offerings, we determined that Gilat’s SkyEdge has the high performance and compelling economics that make it ideally suited to expand telephony and Internet access to all our rural communities,” said ICE Ing. Edgar Hernandez. “In the past, Gilat has demonstrated a very high level of commitment to customer support and a solid track record for providing superior telecommunications services. These attributes will help us serve the needs of our citizens in an efficient manner.”

Russell Ribeiro, Gilat Network Systems’ Regional Vice President, Latin America, said, “Continuing our relationship with ICE helps us bring the most efficient, dependable communications systems to the citizens of Costa Rica. We are proud to once again demonstrate our ability to meet the critical voice and data connectivity requirements of the world’s rural communities.”

Gilat’s SkyEdge is a satellite communications system that delivers high-quality voice, broadband data and video services over a powerful unified system. SkyEdge represents Gilat’s extensive knowledge base and field-proven product offering, acquired through two decades of experience. SkyEdge’s flexible architecture and efficient space segment utilization make it an ideal platform for operators and service providers.

About Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE):

Costa Rica’s national telecommunications operator, Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, (ICE), offers fixed and mobile telephony as well as data/Internet communications. ICE is a government entity that has distinguished itself in Central America as a leader in the development and implementation of new technologies. It offers a wide variety of services in Costa Rica and has several technological platforms that allow it to diversify the service options for its customers, both residential and corporate. For more information visit www.grupoice.com.

About Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd.

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq:GILT) is a leading provider of products and services for satellite-based communications networks. The Company operates under three business units: (i) Gilat Network Systems (“GNS”), which is a provider of network systems and associated professional services to service providers and operators worldwide; (ii) Spacenet Inc., which provides managed services in North America for businesses and governments through its Connexstar service brand and for consumers through its StarBand service brand; (iii) Spacenet Rural Communications, which offers rural telephony and Internet access solutions to remote areas primarily in Latin America.

Gilat was founded in 1987 and has shipped over 670,000 Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs) to more than 85 countries across six continents. Gilat’s headquarters is located in Petah Tikva, Israel. The Company has 16 sales and service offices worldwide. Gilat markets the SkyEdge (TM) and SkyEdge II Product Family which includes the SkyEdge Pro, SkyEdge IP, SkyEdge Call, SkyEdge DVB-RCS and SkyEdge Gateway. In addition, the Company markets numerous other legacy products.

As you may be aware, there has been a lot of speculation about prices being slashed due to the impact of the slowing USA market. 

It seems one has to distinguish the projects before making this observation just yet.

If a project had been dependent on bank financing or client financing through pre construction payment plans, who knows what kind of deal a project would make to keep things moving forward since our central Bank put a hold on construction funding to cool us off. However, a discount in this environment may lead to disaster in the end no matter how much it is.  There is a big difference between 50% off ( a good deal for the buyer) and a destitute project.

While we are watching how the impact of the US market is going to play out in Costa Rica, we are very cautious these days (for the fore mentioned reason) to include only  projects we  deem solid for our Property Scouting Tours .

Please read the report offered directly from the owner and President of Del Pacifico, a Costa Rica central Pacific project. We have been marketing Del Pacifico since they began.

I feel we need to wait and see how the better Costa Rica Real Estate projects fair in this slowdown before we jump to conclusions about fire sales.  Having said that, I am still convinced that even the best funded projects are going to look seriously at any offers these days as it is definitely slow.

We just received the following report directly from the president of Del Pacifico, one of our very large  projects that we market in the central Pacific.

Things are going gangbusters at Del Pacifico…..We now have over 260,000 square feet of construction either completed or underway! We have also sold 75 condos, houses and lots. There are over 100 people at work at Del Pacifico, but because a lot of the construction action is away from the highway sometimes it hard to see exactly what we’re doing. So here’s a quick update of what we’ve been up to in the last 45 days or so:

From a realtor’s perspective, sales and inventory are the most important topics. Let me say, as an overview, sales are quite strong and we have received 11 contracts or reservation for condos, townhouses, and lots in July and August. Even more importantly we have been raising prices, not lowering them.

Since sales have been strong, our available inventory is tight. In fact, we have only two of the 2 bedroom townhouses available and two of our 3 bedroom units. We also have only 10 of the La Prada town Center units available. The current pricing for these starts at $275,000 furnished. Of special interest might be the one “loft unit” which is available at $295,000 furnished.

Since we are nearly sold out of the three bedroom units, we have started a reservation list for our next phase called “The Portofinos”. These will be the same floor plan as the “Villas” but will be priced somewhat higher with prices starting at $300 per square foot. The last 5 units of the Villa Del Pacifico project sold at $550,000 furnished and a recent private resale of a front line unit has been reported at $650,000.

Here is a discount in our opinion - A currently re sale at Del Pacifico that is a luxury 3 bedroom condo with ocean view for sale at $485,000, which according to the inventory and recent sales is way under market. This the same one that is referenced above for $550,000 furnished.

For further information on Del Pacifico, please feel free to contact me, Robert Shannon at 1 888 581 1786.  Take one of our very thorough Property Scouting Tours and see where the best deals are in Costa Rica Real Estate.

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)

Costa Rica gained a large amount of popularity as a Golf destination when it began to hold the Costa Rica open at the Cariari Country Club. Golf has become a very popular Costa Rica sport and grown tremendously in the recent past.
Costa Rica golf has always had an excellent Golf association which has been a large help over the years in Golf development.

(Infocom) — Everything is ready for Costa Rica to re-immerse itself in the world of professional international golf, thanks to the Costa Rica Masters 2008, which will be held in Guanacaste’s Reserva Conchal Golf Club next Dec. 11-14.
 
The tournament was officially announced by Tour de las Americas (TLA) and the Canadian Tour, as part of a partnership between the two tours that will also include tournaments in Chile and Argentina later this year.
 
In addition to being the first joint competition between TLA (the men’s professional golf tour for Latin America) and the Canadian Tour, the Costa Rica Masters will mark a new era in the country’s golf scene. With a purse of $125,000, the event will be the first at this level ever to be held in Guanacaste, which is now home to many high-quality courses that have made Costa Rica famous as a premiere golf destination.
 
Both TLA and the Canadian Tour, which are associate members of the International Federation of PGA Tours, published press releases last week making official the tree-country tours they will hold together.
 
The announcement comes at a time when golf has become an important source of foreign currency, employment and hotel occupancy for Costa Rica, which welcomes 34,000 tourists every year who come here exclusively to play golf.
 
Golf tourism is generating approximately $87.6 million annually in food, lodging and recreation expenses, in addition to sales of sporting equipment. Most golfers who come to Costa Rica are individuals of high purchasing power who take advantage of playing the game to do business with colleagues and new clients.
 
In a release issued by both tours, the director of the Costa Rica Masters, Ricardo Valdivieso, said: “We are very pleased for being able to make the new Costa Rica Masters a reality, as this tournament will proudly put the country back in the international golf scene.” He added that the tournament is proud to taking high-level professional golf for the first time to the province of Guanacaste, where golf and tourism development are growing by leaps and bounds.
 
“We thank Tour de las Americas and the Canadian Tour for their support, as well as Reserva Conchal Golf Club, which opened the doors of its spectacular course designed by the famous Robert Trent Jones II,” Valdivieso said.
 
The other two tournaments of the joint tour will be held Nov. 27-30 in Chile (50th Anniversary of the Sports Frances Open) and Dec. 4-7 in Argentina (Torneo de Maestros at Olivos Golf Club). Costa Rica will be the last leg of the trio. The tournaments will combine for a grand total of $435,000 in prize money.
 
The great business potential of golf and Costa Rica’s reputation as an exotic golf destination have contributed to the emergence in the past few years of new courses designed by internationally recognized golf stars, including Robert Trent Jones II, Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer and Mike Young.
 
The number of golf courses is expected to climb in Costa Rica in the short term, as at least six new projects are underway, several of them offering Real Estate under $200,000

HEALTH-LATIN AMERICA: Free Rein for Biobanks?
By Emilio Godoy*

MEXICO CITY, Aug 15 (Tierramérica) – Four years ago, when Guillermo Soberón — one of Mexico’s most prominent scientists — became a grandfather, the newborn’s parents received a letter requesting a donation of biological material to be used for medical research.

Requests of this kind reflect the mushrooming of biobanks — banks that collect human biological material — in Latin America, whether public or private, almost all of which operate without any specific legislation for their regulation.

“Scientific research is advancing quickly, and has made evident the need for an appropriate legal framework,” said Carlos Romeo, director of the Law and the Human Genome inter-university group, sponsored by the BBVA Foundation, the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia and the Spanish universities of Deusto and Basque Country.

A biobank is a not-for-profit entity that holds a collection of biological samples intended for biomedical diagnosis or research, and is organised as a technical unit that follows criteria for quality, organisation and purpose, according to Agustín Zapata, an expert with the Carlos III Health Institute of Madrid.

The LatinBanks project, a study of the legal and social implications of biobanks in Latin America, emerged to study the creation of laws. The initiative is the result of cooperation amongst the European Union, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico.

One of the aims is to “elaborate proposals for optimising the legal structures and forms of organisation and participation” with respect to biobanks.

In Mexico, Article 6 of the constitution guarantees protection of data, and the Penal Code in Mexico City protects genetic information. Medical information is covered in broad terms by the General Law on Health.

In Argentina, there are public and private biobanks, for clinical and scientific research, physician Salvador Bergel, an Argentine member of the LatinBanks project, told Tierramérica.

“So far they have followed administrative regulations established by the National Institute for Excision and Implants,” which coordinates and monitors donations and transplants of organs, tissue and cells, he said.

In Brazil, the Biosafety Law, approved in 2005, refers to embryonic cells, but does not include management of samples or protection of personal data.

Meanwhile, in Costa Rica, biobanks are just getting started.

Carlos Valerio, representative of Costa Rica’s Association of Medical law, said in a Tierramérica interview that there are sets of biological samples that were taken for “very specific purposes and are not used for any purpose besides the one for which they were collected.”

The risk of operating without regulations is, according to experts, that the confidentiality of the donors may not be respected or that the samples may be utilised without authorisation.

Ensuring the effective use of biobanks implies standardising the protocols they employ, adopting appropriate methods for codifying and identifying samples, obtaining informed consent from donors and hiring qualified medical staff.

In other Latin American countries, standards seem to be more lax. “I’m a supporter of first thinking about stimulating research and letting it be, before controlling it,” attorney Emilssen González de Cancino, director of the genetics and law research centre at the private Externado University of Colombia, told Tierramérica.

“Prohibiting new processes means losing opportunities for progress,” said González de Cancino, who is coordinating a two-year study that began eight months ago.

In 1995, the European Union adopted a slate of standards for protection of physical persons and respect for personal data and circulation. In addition, the Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine has been in effect since 2005.

“In the last few years, interest in biological research with human material has developed very quickly, because of the implications it could have,” said Romeo, one of the leading experts in the field.

According to a survey by the Institute of Juridical Investigations (IIJ) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, in that country there are 38 biological banks operating in 51 public medical institutions.

Of the 38, 14 said they utilise blood, skin, brain tissue or bone marrow samples to carry out research on diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s, and that they conduct biomedical analyses. Furthermore, 12 said they have systems to protect patient confidentiality, one admitted it had no such protections, and the rest did not respond.

“We are starting from zero because in Mexico there are no precedents in this area,” said IIJ researcher Ingrid Brena.

Valerio cited the example of the efforts of the Health Ministry and the University of Costa Rica, that work under their own norms, which demonstrates that there is much yet to be done in the field of biological material in this Central American country, where there is only the private Provida, which collects umbilical cord blood.

The samples collected so far are derived from blood. Costa Rica has no cell banks for assisted reproduction or for bone marrow samples.

In Colombia, biobanks are found primarily in university institutions and they follow guidelines based on the Constitution, but it is medical ethics standards that provide the framework for the work that is currently being carried out.

“It’s obvious that we have to apply the standards on informed consent for the collection of samples, norms on confidentiality of the data that emerge from those samples, and standards for research on humans in general, but there are no specific laws as of yet in Colombia,” said González de Cancino.

The ultimate goal of LatinBanks, according to Romeo, is to give rise to national laws that are based on common ground, but that also apply to the needs and characteristics of each country.

Another important question involves the economic benefits derived from donated biomaterial and from scientific uses of such material. Many experts believe that, since donation is voluntary, the benefits should go to the community.

Valerio notes that Costa Rica “is trying to make a contribution” towards better regulation of areas like ownership of biological samples and their storage. He predicts that through LatinBanks the members will formulate standardised guidelines that are in line with those of Europe.

In Colombia, research is advancing slowly, but without ignoring existing studies. “The discussions lead more and more towards bioethics,” said González de Cancino.

(*With additional reporting by Myriam B. Moneo in San José, Helda Martínez in Bogotá and Marcela Valente in Buenos Aires. Originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.) (END/2008)

The long awaited completion of the highway in 2009 between Quepos and Dominical not only offers tourists a look at green all year round, but the Real Estate market is going to see some green as well.

Costa Rica’s infamous road system, often a topic of frustrated news and national concern, has decorated news headlines this week, thanks to the potential $850 million loan to improve and fix the country’s failing infrastructure. In even better news, however, Costa Rica’s President Óscar Arias and the Minister of Public Works and Transportation, Karla González, promised yesterday that the long-awaited Costanera Sur, the southern Pacific’s coastal highway, will be complete by October 2009, after an exaggerated 30 year delay.

Three of the area’s eight major, planned bridges were inaugurated this week, arriving after years of delayed promises. In fact, yesterday’s ceremonies came after thirty long years of waiting, during which the citizens of Quepos-area coastal towns, living along the Paquita, Portalón, and Matapalo rivers, could not cross rivers during the winter, or rainy season.

The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT), invested $5 million in the bridges’ construction. Next on the ministry’s to do list are two additional bridges over the Parrita and Naranjo rivers, which are expected by the end of 2009. In the beginning on 2009, construction will begin on bridges over the Savegre, Hatillo Nuevo, and Hatillo Viejo rivers.

This long stretch of bridge and highway area, which stretches 42 kilometers (26 miles) from Quepos to Barú near the Panamanian border, is known as the Costanera Sur. Currently paved with cement, the route is scheduled to receive an asphalt redo, to the tune of $34 million, “The asphalt is scheduled to be finished in one year, because in October 2009, we’ll be inaugurating the Costanera Sur,” González promised.

Prior to the new bridges’ construction, the area south of Quepos was woefully ill prepared for the winter rains and regional traffic. According to MOPT, the perfect example of the southern Pacific’s road system can be found at the Paquita river, where the only existing infrastructure were train tracks that had been installed more than 70 years prior.

The Costanera Sur project is possible thanks to a $60 million loan from the Central American Economic Integration Bank (BCIE) in 2003. To complete the project, MOPT invested $34 million more of its own funds, helping to finish off tasks, like resurfacing the route with asphalt.

Once the modern, well-conditioned Costanera Sur is ready, Costa Rica Tourism and traffic to the south of Quepos will surely increase, as adventurous travelers set off to explore the Pacific wilderness. Packed with incredible beaches, like beautiful Dominical, and convenient to the beachy Quepos, the route will connect northern and southern Puntarenas, affording everyone a gentler journey south to the green eden of the Osa Peninsula and the duty-free Golfito.

This should have a large monetary vale as the  impact on Real Estate activity opens up a great escape from parts north such as the heavily frequented Quepos, Manuel Antonio and Jaco beach areas. 

We at South Pacific Real Estate Services are anticipating some excellent growth in Real estate sales.

Best advice to follow whether you are buying a development property, investment property or a retirement home.

Whether you are buying a large development tract of land or a condo for your residence, the very best advice you can receive is “No shortcuts”

Almost every horror story I hear is often traced to this. 

People arrive new to the Country, anxious to make friends and blend in.

When people come to Costa Rica they are greeted by warm, friendly people, beautiful country and a nice climate. It is like arriving in paradise.

Among us there are a few that unscrupulously await your arrival. These are the ones that have a brother or friend who is an attorney who was the former President’s private legal counsel and is very highly connected.  Then there are those who have all the inside connections to the Costa Ricans to buy land.  These people are always the most friendly won’t let you pay them anything for help in most cases and ready to serve you in your search for Real Estate in Costa Rica.

The net result in the bad experiences is everything ranging from buying land not properly titled, different size than described, not usable for development, long distance to services with the promise that government is going to bring services (LOL) you end up a partner with someone you don’t know and never agreed to. These are a few of the things that happen when one takes the shortcut.

By shortcuts, I mean not following what you would normally do in your country.  There are a number of horror stories all over the world as a result of shortcuts as described.

There are a great number of fine attorneys, Real Estate professionals in Costa Rica and the many other services required to accomplish buying Real Estate in Costa Rica.

Our own company, Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties offers a Property Scouting Tour that if used to the fullest extent, covers all aspects of buying your home and getting here to live.

Costa Rica is a wonderful country with a lot to offer, especially in these times. In many ways it is the solution. don’t compromise the opportunities here by taking shortcuts.