In my personal notes, I moved here in 1996 and lived in San Jose. My job required me to travel Costa Rica extensively. During that 3 yr period, I continually looked for the perfect coastal community. Finally, I decided on Ojochal of Playa Tortuga. The greenery was overwhelming. Here, animals were everywhere and the seaside meeting the mts was incredible. I bought a home after searching for months. At the time the Coastal Hwy or the Costanera Sur was not completed. It took me 1.5 hrs to drive from my village 20 miles north to Dominical where I had opened and office. Now, 9 yrs later the whole area has opened up. The drive takes me ½ hr. Many towns, hotels, office centers and restaurants have opened all along the way. My town of approx 900 people has grown to an estimated 4000. The property I bought has tripled in value.

There are 3 larger villages in this area. Dominical, a great surfing destination with many hotels, restaurants and people. Uvita, a larger more typical village at the start of the National Whale Park that has 3 luxury hotels in the area. Ojochal, a mixture of Ticos, Europeans and North Americans, with 16 smaller hotels and 19 restaurants, 12 or more of them gourmet. The beaches are not crowded and each one has a different feature. Playa Tortuga has the nesting turtles. Ventanas has seacaves accessable by land. Bahia Uvita hosts a large sandbar in the perfect shape of a whale´s tale. That´s ironic since it is the start of Costa Rica´s largest underwater reserve, Ballena Natl Park or Whale national park where humpback and sperm whales can be seen migrating.

There are many reasons why this area is the best for investmenting

-The new International Airport under construction is located 28 miles to the south.

-Still some of the most affordable real estate in the country

-One of the highest English speaking Costa Rican populations

-Proximity to San Jose (3 to 4 hrs), Panama (1.5hrs), Golfito (1hr), Quepos (2 hrs on bad rds) and San Isidro (45 min) Quepos/Manu Antonio is the biggest tourist destination in _-CR. And San Isidro is the fastest growing city in Central America.

-Proposed new road to San Isidro

-Improvement of the road to Quepos that would open a new Pan American Hwy rt.

-The Cruise Ship port and marina in Golfito soon to start construction.

-A New hospital under construction in Cuidad Cortez that will be larger and more modernized that the existing one.

-The coastal road that runs from Dominical to Panama is currently the best road in the country, equal to those in the US.

-Also closeby are C Amer largest botanical gardens and Corcorvado Natl Park, which Natl Geographic calls the most biologically intense place on earth, La Amistad Park that is one of the largest stands of primary rainforest left, producing some of the freshest air on the planet. The air seems to heal everybody.

While there is more greenery and animals on the Osa Penn., It has become more convenient to build with many new hardware stores and suppliers opening all of the time. High speed internet lines are available and will soon cover the whole area.For people who are ready to move, but not ready to retire, there are still many businesses and services needed to open a new successful venture. Needed are dry storage, DVD rentals, bookstores, health clubs, etc. It is the “New Frontier”.

I have been working in Real Estate/Travel for a long time now. We bring people in small and large groups to buy properties and invest. There is a great need for condos and turnkey homes. So many people don´t want to bother with construction. Planned communities with info structure sell quickly. We worry that soon our options for sales will be limited. 11 times in a 2 month period, we had clients make offers, only to find out that it had been sold within days before. All of these were lots and homes. Long term rentals are hard to find ,too.,

I have run a survey with the locals and ex/pats here for the last 6 years. It is conducted to find out there opinions on what type of businesses are most needed here. While so much is now available, we still lack some services. Please contact me if you have any interest in this.

There is a strange phenomenon happening for the last 4 months here in Costa Rica. In our business and with some associate Realtors, we have seen a noticeable drop in inquiries. However, the ones of late are of much higher quality. What I mean by higher quality is that they are a more seriously minded buyer and have cash. Before there we had a larger number but mixed with a large number of curiosity seekers. This results in more efficiency and certainly increased sales even with the lower count.

We are very pleased to report this during these times with the US market crisis.

One would have thought that the Europe and English buyers of Costa Rica  Real Estate would be coming here in droves. Personally we have not seen that much of an increase there even with the high cost they are experiencing in their countries and the buying power of the Euro.

As you watched the market spin down last week, it appeared to support the old belief if the USA sneezes the rest of the world gets a cold. Other markets fell dramatically in sync with the US. That would lead one to believe that the US is still the factor in real estate here no matter how bad it looks for the dollar.

This is merely an observation, but when correlated, it seems we cannot bank on the foreign markets as one would assume.

Our large development projects division indicates that there is still a high level of confidence here as we are swamped with requests for large tracts for Hotel, Casino beach front and ocean view land. This is made up of 80% USA then the balance from Europe and other sources.

With over 70,000,000 baby boomers on stream, and Costa Rica’s Real Estate ranking (in the top 5 in the world) and Tourism rating I am sure this factors into it and the confidence has not fallen even in light of the US market.

Our banks are finally taking an int erst in end financing which is helpful especially for the investor types. Hopefully the rates will get more favorable with the recent US drop in the prime rate.

We are beginning to see an upturn in inquiries again and feel this will continue through 2008. We need to be very sensitive about pricing of product as there are some pretty attractive buys in the USA today.

We are fortunate to be able to offer low taxes, great climate, good proximity to the USA, excellent health care, high standard of education, friendly people and beautiful country.

We have more Americans per capita here than anywhere else in the world and there is a large mix of other nationalities.

I have every confidence that Costa Rica is still a very viable consideration for retirement and investment.

If you are an investor or planning retirement, please feel free to call me at any time toll free at 1 888 581 1786 for any further information you may need.

Caldera highway gets construction go ahead at last

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Transport officials have given the much-awaited go ahead for the $230 million San José-Caldera highway.

This means that Autopistas del Sol S.A., the concession holder for the project, has 30 months to complete the highway. The 77-km (48-mile) highway will decrease dramatically the travel time from the Central Valley to the Pacific coast.

The first stage of the job is the reconstruction of the existing highway from Parque La Sabana to Ciudad Colón. Much of the highway already is multi-lane.

The big job is a 39-km (24-mile) section from Ciudad Colón to Orotina. That highway is only graded roughly now, although bridges are in place. The third and final step is improvements of the highway from the Orotina interchange to the Puerto de Caldera at Puntarenas.

Autopistas del Sol will have the right to collect tolls for 25 years to offset the investment.
The Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes said that employees worked during the holidays to make sure all the requirements were in place for the start of construction.

Autopistas finally got all its financial commitments in order four days before Christmas, and a company official asked to be allowed to start work a week ago.

During the holidays transport ministry workers said they got final approvals from the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía, reviewed and approved plans and did the paperwork so that the company would not have to pay taxes on imported equipment. Environmental approval was needed because Autopista will take gravel from several deposits along the route.

Ministry workers also had to coordinate with the Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz, the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados and the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad for moving water and sewer lines, electric lines and telephone cables, they said.

Growing up in Hawaii, AOL co-founder Steve Case cringed as manicured cookie-cutter hotels took over the islands, wiping out precious natural spaces and crowding out local culture.

Now Case is proposing his own development in paradise: a us$800 million, 650-acre luxury resort in Costa Rica. But he says he is aiming to avoid what developers have done to Waikiki, pledging to make the new resort – which will be called Cacique – an environmentally friendly and culturally sensitive destination.

“This is like being able to press rewind and start fresh,” said Case, who is scheduled to announce the venture today at a news conference with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

The announcement also marks the launch of Revolution Places, the new destination resort unit of Revolution, a District holding-and-operating company founded by Case in 2005 with $500 million of his own money after leaving AOL. Other Revolution subsidiaries include Revolution Health, a consumer-oriented health-care company, and Revolution Living, a lifestyle business whose holdings include the Flexcar car-sharing service.

Case says Revolution Places will seek to redefine the luxury resort category by making environmental preservation and cultural authenticity priorities at every property it develops. Cacique, scheduled to open in 2010, is the firm’s first resort under that model.

Revolution Places says it plans to integrate the Cacique project with the terrain of the peninsula where it will be built. The resort’s 270 guest rooms and 300 private homes will be set among existing rain forest and wildlife. Rock walls will become walls of homes and the shade of the vegetation will replace man-made awnings.

“We want to keep the vegetation as natural as it’s always been there,” said Philippe Bourguignon, vice chairman of Revolution Places.

In addition to environmentally friendly architecture, the resort will buy power generated by renewable resources. There are also plans for recycling and solid-waste management programs, as well as on-site waste water treatment facilities. The company is in talks with conservation groups and plans to invest in several local initiatives.

However, any development within a complex ecosystem like a rain forest will always make a significant impact, said Daniel Williams, former co-chairman of the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment and author of “Sustainable Design: Ecology, Architecture and Planning.”

“If you’re going to tear something down and change the ecological value of it, you have to replace an equal amount of rain forest, which is virtually impossible,” he said. “The rain forest is a very sophisticated, long-lived system.”

Once a remote destination favored by backpackers and surfers, the northwest Pacific corner of Costa Rica has experienced a recent surge of development as the region has caught the interest of well-heeled U.S. consumers. Several luxury hotel and condominium projects — including one operated by Four Seasons — have been built in recent years, and more are being planned.

Ecotourism continues to gain popularity as consumers become more sensitive to the environmental impact of their spending decisions, said James Angel, associate professor of finance at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

“For someone who made money in the high-tech boom, they may have some ecological guilt about a high-consumption lifestyle,” Angel said. “Spending time at a resort where they feel they are having minimal impact on land will make them feel better than going to some resort where the virgin wilderness is hacked away.”

Like Revolution’s other ventures, Revolution Places caters to a new generation of consumer. In the past, high-end vacations were equated with pristine hotels and fine dining, said Donn Davis, chief executive of Revolution Places. Today’s affluent tourists prefer swimming with dolphins and swinging down zip lines, he said. They want to eat authentic local food. And they want to take their kids, he said.

“It’s a whole new definition of luxury,” Davis said.

The project brings together several high-end travel brands. One & Only Resorts, a hotel firm with locations worldwide, will operate the beachfront hotel. Exclusive Resorts, a luxury time-share business owned by Revolution, will build 30 of the resort’s homes. Miraval, a destination spa featured on “Oprah” and owned by Revolution, will operate a facility with 120 rooms and 60 villas.

The resort will also have some star power. Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, who signed a partnership agreement last fall with Exclusive Resorts, will design the tennis and fitness center. Tom Doak, a renowned golf course designer, will build an 18-hole course that limits the impact on the local terrain. Philippe Cousteau, grandson of the famous underwater explorer, will serve as Revolution Places’ special adviser on environmental issues and will develop activities.

To preserve the region’s culture, the company says, Cacique will feature local retailers, not Gucci or Prada, in the resort’s shopping center. Restaurants will serve regional cuisine prepared by local chefs.

The resort, 25 miles from the international airport in the town of Liberia, will be completed in phases. All services will be operating by 2010, but some houses will still be under construction. Residences will range from 4,000-square-foot homes to lofts of less than 2,000 square feet.

Though Revolution Places says it’s too early to set rates for Cacique, a look at One & Only Resorts’ other properties offers some clues. A deluxe villa in its Maldives location can run up to $2,180 a night.

“These will be some of the most expensive homes and hotels,” Davis said. “It’s for the affluent families who want the best of the best. We’re targeting the high-end, most discerning buyers and travelers.”

Revolution Places says it wants to get its Costa Rican resort right before exploring other properties. Case says he doesn’t want it to be too manufactured or theme-park-ish.

“It’ll be like the best of Hawaii without the parts us locals are not as proud of,” he said.

There is no doubt, Costa Rica is booming and its property market is already an unparalleled success story. With the slowdown in the United States, the burning question is, Will it continue?”. There are a great number of factors, including some about to come into play for the first time that will ensure that Costa Rica’s property market success will continue in 2007.

Taking into account that Costa Rica has had an exciting property market for the past decade it is still considered to be an emerging market because of the record gains that are still achievable and also because its real estate market success has not yet been duplicated across the entire country. While it remains an emerging market and yet one stable, secure and with so many factors ensuring its appeal, high gains will be made on properties bought and also on land banked in 2007.

Need more

Costa Rica is an excellent nation to explore for maximum profitability in 2007 consider the following factors:

The IMF has praised the Costa Rican government for doing all it can to facilitate the drafting of a free trade agreement with America, and, also for reining in spending to make the economy stronger and the nation therefore more attractive for foreign direct investment.

Thanks to the government’s commitment FDI is now stronger than ever in Costa Rica, the economy in 2006 grew far stronger than was anticipated and going in to 2007 Costa Rica is in an incredibly strong political and economic position.

“Anyone sitting back and mulling over their options should know that hundreds are going before them and backing Costa Rica as a property investment hotspot in 2007 and beyond. We could be wrong but we don’t think we will be!” source – Amberlamb Overseas Property Investment Resource

Popularity - North American retirees or expatriates seeking a hideaway, but now the appeal of Costa Rica is reaching a wider audience as eco tourism takes off in Costa Rica in earnest and the numbers of those seeking second homes or a brand new home in Costa Rica are growing. Natural beauty of Costa Rica – palm lined beaches, a coastline that brushes both the Pacific and Caribbean oceans, magnificent mountains and rainforest – and these natural attributes are attracting more and more tourists to the country every year. Investment is required into accommodation and general tourist facilities and to this end the government of Costa Rica are working to make the investment environment as attractive as possible.

For the investor – there are many opportunities in Costa Rica’s tourist sector. Alternatively a real estate investor could seek to target the growing numbers of visitors seeking quality self catering properties for short term rental or those looking for holiday properties for sale in Costa Rica. Many resorts in Costa Rica have seen some of the greatest gains in property value of late. An investor can look to some of the good rental yields as well if he carefully selects the product.

The retirement market – Costa Rica with it’s easy access from North America, is already home to many retired Americans, the cost of living is low, property costs are cheap and the country is regarded as safe therefore it is of appeal to a growing number of retirees seeking a cheaper alternative to their home country to make their retirement savings go that much further. Further, it is a fun country with nice people and it’s beauty never ceases to cause one to marvel when looking at the mountains, valleys and oceans.

The investment climate – Costa Rica is and has been politically and economically stable for many years. It has no army to defend it either and has a strong positive bond with the US which makes it a safer emerging market for property investors than many in Central America.

The economy has been gaining strength since 1997 and the government is committed to maintaining the strength of the economy by attracting more overseas investment and offering significant investors generous tax breaks. The long term appeal of the Costa Rican property sector becomes obvious.

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.

Best Destination

At the International Tourism Fair (FITUR in Spanish), held in Spain, the U.S. Travel Weekly chose Costa Rica as the best destination in Latin America. The variety of attractions and the many chances a visitor has here to enjoy the best of vacations were among the reasons to bestow the award on Costa Rica, whose competitors included Panama, Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Brazil.

The Costa Rican Minister of Tourism ,Ricardo Benavides, pointed out that the best feature of the award is that it results from the choice of the magazine’s 140,000 readers, who belong to the U.S. tourist industry.

The readers also remarked that Costa Rica is one of the most saleable destinations in Central and South America because of its mild tropical weather, natural and adventure attractions, exotic sites, and the warmth of its inhabitants.

Spanish Company to Build a Billion Dollar Project Near Puerto Caldera

Akasvayu and Islas Pitusas S.A. Will spend $970 million developing La Roca project near Puerto Caldera, Puntarenas on the Pacific Coast. The project will include three five-star hotels, over 1000 homes, a casino and a golf course designed by Australian Greg Norman.

2006 was the Year of a Construction Boom in Costa Rica
by Karen Retana

Foreign investment and better access to credit contributed to Costa Rica’s construction and real estate boom in 2006. Construction permits increased 70% during the year. In 2005 construction permits were issued for nearly 3 million square meters of construction. This year the figure reached 5 million square meters. About one third of the permits were for the Central Valley because of the variety and infrastructure found here.

New Marinas on the Way

More than 21 new marinas are scheduled to be built in the coming years in Costa Rica. There will be a total investment of around $400 million dollars required to build the new marinas. With the construction of thee marinas almost 6000 boats will be able to dock in Costa Rica.

The Spanish firm Grupo Nyesa says it will invest $600 million in a hotel and resort complex in Esparza.

The location is in the area known as La Roca in the province of Puntarenas east of the city by that name. The company is a principal player in the United States and Europe, frequently linked to Sol Meliá, but this is its first effort in Latin America. The company had purchased 200 hectares for development, about 494 acres.

The company made a courtesy call on President Oscar Arias Sánchez Tuesday. Later Casa Presidencial said that the project would generate 5,000 new jobs. The work would begin in three to four years and be finished in 10, said Casa Presidencial.

Puntarena’s old cannery will be transformed into a modern mall with a movie theater and office center.

What really has people excited in the $78 million Puerto Azul development. When finished it will boast 176 condominiums including 16 penthouses in four buildings. A 60 room hotel with 44 shops, a marina and supermarket will also be part of the development.

A second marina will be built nearby at a cost of $22 million.

The Ministry of Public Works is honoring its commitment by taking steps to finish the last section of the costal highway between Quepos and Dominical. The government has already built three bridges and is working on more and road has been graded between Quepos and the Savegre River.