As the saying goes, whenever new roads, bridges or improvements occur, a good Real Estate market is just around the corner.

Costa Rica Developers with vision are the key to this and we are excited about the Lake Arenal area especially the northwest.

We have just decided to include this on Lake Arenal in our Lifestyle & Real Estate Tours as it fits so perfectly for the Retirement or Vacation home buyer.  Not to leave out the person 3 to 5 years from retirement that want to find a low cost piece of gorgeous land and lock in the price.  This is self directed IRA opportunity as well.

Here is why the southwest is the best area of beautiful Lake Arenal.

• It is 22 miles from the Volcano but still see the majestic symmetrical shape in the distance
• It has 50% less rainfall and is green all year round
• It is 5 minutes from the beautiful small town Tilaran with 4 super markets and all services
• It only 20 minutes from the new Hospital in Canas with all it’s services as well
• It is only 1 hour and 15 minutes from Liberia, the hub of the north and the international Airport
• It is only 1 hour and 30 minutes from the famous Guanacaste beaches
• It is only 2.5 hours from San Jose, the Capital with it’s multitude of shops, restaurants, Hospitals and more
• For one of the most famous Restaurants in all of Costa Rica 30 minutes at Nuevo Arenal (the Gingerbread house)
• Only 1 hour from all the hot springs and famous Arenal Volcano in the town of Fortuna.
• Pricing is very comfortable. Example nice lake view home on 1000 sq meter lot for $155,000
• This is an unbelievably good area for  Retirement or Vacation Home Investment or just plain long term investment.

See it in all it’s beauty and splendor here. ( This is the Real Estate portion of our Arenal Tours)
(it may take up to 8 seconds to open as it will scan for virus)

To find out more about this great area of Costa Rica contact us toll free at:

1 888 581 1786 or locally 506 2293 2446 – ask for Steve, Robert or Albert

Is Costa Rica right for your retirement or investment?
Go here and find out very fast.

Part 2 Permitting continued…

There is no one, single way to do the permitting process, and there is no single entry point. How you do permitting will depend a lot on who you hire and how much you’re willing to spend. Many of the procedures discussed in this chapter can be carried out in parallel, either legally or extra-legally. Permitting any sizable construction project, however, is not a do-it-yourself experience, and for the most part you’ll start out by hiring the professionals you will need for the process.

After drawing up your construction plans, you’ll be doing permitting in an attempt to please basically four government entities.
The Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y Arquitectos (CFIA) will want to know that your construction plans include all the basic elements that construction plans should. They will also want to know that for the project, you have hired professionals registered with the CFIA.
The Secretaria Técnica Nacional Ambiental (SETENA)needs to be satisfied that your construction project will not significantly damage the environment or the local community. If you’re doing a development of a high enough density, the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo (INVU)has a whole list of different permits and go-aheads you’ll have to get from different government agencies before it will give your project the green light. And finally, the local municipality where you are building will want you to present the CFIA, SETENA, and INVU approvals (plus perhaps a few others) before it will grant you your construction permits.

An important point is that each municipality requires different documents for the granting of the final construction permits. But even if the municipality grants you a construction permit without one of the permits you need from some branch of the central government bureaucracy say, the environmental certification you still need that permit. This redundancy of authority is one of the curiosities (some would say absurdities) of the Costa Rican system: Just because a builder has construction permits from a municipality does not mean the construction is legal. The other permits for the construction must be obtained regardless of what the municipality says or you could be shut down at any moment by a central government regulator. Keep this in mind if you’re tempted to bribe a municipal official to get your permits. That ill-gotten permit won’t do you much good if the cen¬tral government decides to bring down the hammer.

At the same time, however, the bitter irony (as long-time developers in Costa Rica will tell you) is that there are so many regulations and restrictions administered independently of one another by so many different branches of the Costa Rican bureaucracy that sometimes you don’t fully comply with the law even when you want to. Do your best.

A final important principle to keep in mind as you approach the permitting process is that land in Costa Rica is under the Napoleonic legal regime, not the common law regime found in the United States and Canada. In practice, that means that while you technically own the land, you don’t own any natural resource on top of it or below it. Trees, mineral deposits, well water, rivers, lakes, springs, wildlife, and all the rest are property of the State. The principle to follow, therefore, is that if you are going to remove, use, or modify any of these things on “your” property, there is probably a permit or concession you will have get from somewhere.

Bureaucracy glossary

It helps to be familiar with the alphabet soup of regulatory agencies you will be dealing with during the permitting process. Following, a brief list:

MINAET (www.minaet.go.cr): The Ministerio del Ambiente, Energía, y Telecomunicaciones, or Ministry of Environment, Energy, and Telecommunications. This is the big cheese when it comes to environmental regulation in Costa Rica. Permits to cut down trees, drill wells, and mine anything must pass through one of its many branches.

SETENA: The Secretaría Técnica Nacional Ambiental, or the National Technical Environmental Secretariat. A branch of MINAET. SETENA is the bugaboo of many a would-be developer, as this is the agency that reviews the environmental impact of developments and gives them the thumbs up or thumbs down. Its infamy comes from the incredibly slow process of the environmental review. For developments that have to do a full impact study, the entire processes takes about two years, often more.

ICE:The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, or Costa Rican Electricity Institute. The government monopoly that controls all electricity generation and distribution and, until recently, telecom-munications.

AyA:The Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados. Ba-sically the state water utility. AyA does not have national coverage, and in many parts of the country outside the Central Valley, developers have to get water permits elsewhere.

ASADA:Asociaciones Administradoras de Sistemas de Acueductos y Alcantarillados Sanitarios, or Administration Association of Sewer and Aqueduct Systems. In some parts of the country, these are the as-sociations that manage the water supply. They are local, and whether you have to deal with one depends entirely on where your property is located.

INVU:The Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo, or the National Housing and Urbanism Institute. INVU is supposedly in charge of urban planning, meaning that all condominium and subdivision developments need its seal of approval.

ICT:The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo, or the Costa Rica Tour¬ism Board. Anything that has to do with the Maritime Zone (i.e. –coastal land within
200 m. of high tide) happens through the ICT. Also, permits for hotel and restaurant operations.

Ministerio de Salud:The Health Ministry. Salud oversees every¬thing having to do with public health, including wastewater disposal and water treatment, as well as health certifications for hotels and restaurants.

CFIA:Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y Arquitectos, or the Federated Association of Engineers and Architects. This government-sanctioned professional association must give the OK to all construction projects. The Association is primarily concerned with technical design issues.

That covers the process and the agencies. to the average person, it may not be adequate so if you wish to discuss it further and/or arrange a conference call with our engineering firm to assist you in understanding better our process,call
 Robert at 1 888 581 1786   local number is  506 2293 2446.  If you are a Costa Rica land owner here and would like to investigate best use of your property, whether it is a large tract of land or Condo project, we will be happy to give you a presentation complete with pricing.

part 4  - the permitting
Developers and home-builders face is the enormous variety of permits that must be obtained before building.  To develop a property larger than 500 m2, you need the OK from at least half a dozen separate entities, probably more.

Developing a subdivision or a condominium in Costa Rica adds another layer of oversight from another regulatory body, and when all is said and done you’ll probably need to have hired at least seven state-certified professionals, including an architect, a civil engineer, a topographer, an environmental engineer, an archaeologist, an anthropologist, and a biologist. All that, and you haven’t even started construction yet.
All told , the permitting process for a small Costa Rica development can take anywhere from a six months to several years and cost the developer some percent of the total value of the project. Construction of individual homes on properties covering less than a half a hectare must pass through a similar process, but with substantially less regulation.

The regulations are constantly changing, they vary in each of the Costa
Rica’s 81 municipalities, and no matter how sure something seems, exceptions pile upon exceptions.

This outline seeks to be only a detailed overview of construction permitting in Costa Rica, and is meant to compliment the expertise of a highly-recommended team of professionals that you should hire to handle the permitting process for you.

If all this sounds too complicated and expensive, and is tempting you to cut corners on permitting and environmental compliance of your development, you wouldn’t be the first.

Government regulators have simply not kept pace with developers during the last decade, causing severe backlogs. That encouraged many developers – especially in Guanacaste and the Central Pacific to throw up their hands and begin construction without all the necessary permits, muttering the mantra that it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Other developers have turned to corruption, dolling out bribes to government officials to get things moving.

A lot has changed here and I wouldn’t recommend this approach today
Costa Rica is very environmentally conscious and to that end has really clamped down on shortcuts that quite often lead to destruction of our natural resources.

Today, cutting corners on permitting costs more than it saves, both in time and money. This is mainly because the government is finally improving enforcement, significantly increasing the chance that un-permitted construction will get shut down long before the developer has a chance to ask forgiveness. Indeed, the year 2008 saw a series of high-profile crackdowns on construction sites all over the country that got the developer community’s attention. Legally, the penalties can include everything from fines to even jail time. Along with the crackdowns, the government is also making a few key changes in the permitting process – particularly in the environmental review – that promises to make permitting move faster, meaning that bribes, in addition to being a crime, are no longer worth the risk.

If you think doing permitting the right way is onerous, wait and see what happens when you do it the wrong way. Without the meticulous attention to detail that the permitting process requires, you could end up unnecessarily delaying your product an extra year or two.

Finally, cutting corners on permitting hurts everyone in the long run. Improper waste water management, the illegal clearing of forest, and the interruption of biological corridors by private roads destroy the very reasons people want to live in Costa Rica in the first place – namely, jungle, wildlife, beautiful landscapes, and friendly local communities. Permitting in Costa Rica is complicated and frustrating, but it is intended to protect the goose laying the golden eggs. Even better, think of it as keeping your neighbor from building a monstrosity that would lower the value of your property.

More to come on Permitting……   For more information or a conference call with our Engineering team, arrange it with
Robert at 1 888 581 1786 toll free or locally 506 2293 2446

“Identify with what  people seek  in these times, then make it for them”
and…… sell it all year long

What do they want? 
Comfortable pricing,  to be a part of something, lifestyle choices, lower cost living and most of all,  something real.

There still exists today,  a large number of people seeking retirement, relocation and investment in Costa Rica.  There is a lot of uneasiness among them.  They are much different breed from what we new in the 2008 era.  This is reflected in their caution, unsureness, afraid to get in now because they feel there is a deeper bottom coming,  and fear of losing more of there nest egg and yes, trust.

An Eco development including a  sustainable farm unit
Imagine a lifestyle where you can build your home in a beautiful part of the world, live in a community that is dedicated to sustainability, have your own food grown organically, use horses or golf cart for transportation,  be self sufficient for electricity and water.  When you want to go out for a change, it is only 15 to 20 minutes away from  some the best beaches in Costa Rica, famous Manuel Antonio that sports 1,000,000 million visitors each year.  good infrastructure that takes you through to the OSA Peninsula and more.  The other way toes to the famous Hermosa beach where the Billabong Surf tournament was held.. It has it all, the Lakes, River, Valleys, flat land, high Mountain, access and character.  It can be one of the finest in the world.

Attention Costa Rica Developers…
Here is perfect development property  and it affords a huge preservation area and very adequate build out to be very profitable.  It can comprise anything from condos, homes, hotel condo, high rise with ocean views and more.

This is an example of a large tract of land for sale and is priced to sell and can house a multitude of venues that would include a sustainable farming unit, medical tourism (very popular in Costa Rica), condo hotel and various levels of retirement and resort products. 

This is a new horizon and Costa Rica Development is about reflect the new clients interest very soon.   One Company exists now and are beginning to take form in the south Pacific.  It is a pure community effort, like all these projects should be  should be with emphasis on sustainability and the project’s people interacting to achieve the sustainability aspects.

To be updated or arrange conference call with Engineers that did pre studies for this great piece of developmental land, call us and we will arrange everything.
toll free is 1 888 581 1786 and local is (506) 2293 2446.  Ask for Robert Shannon.

Part 2   –  ”Discounting of today’s Costa Rica Real Estate makes it worth taking a look” 
You can find deeply discounted properties offered with as much as 40% off in prime locations and a variety of different sizes and types such as prime Beachfront,  large Eco project land for a combination of homes, condos which can be developed as a self sustaining Eco project supplying all food stuffs, energy and water.  This is becoming a very popular approach to the current market and creates a most interesting appeal to today’s offshore home buyers.  This is especially true when the destination is Costa Rica with it’s reputation as  one of the leading Eco sustainable countries in the world.

 Example of Developer opportunities in Costa Rica today….

Approach to market …. is very important given the world economy and the buyer’s current nervousness. 
If product is designed to the market of today and you proceed accordingly, it sells.  It is very important to have scope in pricing with good choices and options. If your starting price point is good and matches up to the amenities offered, it will be a success even today.
If your project is properly funded and you can show it, then you remove the stigma that is harbored by many buyers in projects today which is a major obstacle in completing sales.

Clients  have learned what to look for in projects that have failed in the past.  These failures for the most part are not the fault of the developer as they were designing to the current market needs and excesses.  When Bank  financing was halted by our Central Bank, they got caught and many with all of their own money in the projects.

Example of a NOW opportunity..
Here  is one example of a project that was stopped. Right now is the perfect timing for someone to pick it up cheaply and redesign within the approved  footprint to the pricing and needs of today.

The project  – Located in the central Pacific, Oceanfront, 120 unit, can become 170 for new pricing utilizing all permissions that exist today.  A of the 21  buyers will remain in,  all proceeds went to land improvement, have one building almost completed and second one started. The project can be picked up as a complete buyout for $2,000000 million.  It will take another 5 mil to build to a comfortable cash flow and show good product.   The price points will be as low as $135,000  and is an Oceanfront project in a very desirable area.  The owners prefer to stay in and joint venture. That says a lot in itself.

Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties marketed this one and we saw first hand how it was received. We sold 4 units there of the 20 that were sold.

There is no secret among the more aggressive Real Estate companies that there are buyers still coming.  One of the biggest problems is finding product that matches up to the new buyer.  Ask Carol Odonnell, who manages our marketing of the central Pacific.  She will  update you on how that is a fact.

Watch for our next sampling of a great opportunity for developers that features
Almost 1000 acres of beautifully versatile Costa Rica Development land near to Quepos/Manuel Antonio with all the area draw and this one is only $4,500,000 and was in contract for $7,000 just 14 months ago.  It has a build out net of  $90,000,000.   We will talk about how this can be one of the best areas, what makes this such a special area and property.

If you share in any part of this  thinking, it will be worth your while as a developer or investor to start looking seriously NOW.    This is a point in time. 

We are very  familiar with projects we feature as examples and are authorized to send complete business plans to qualified inquiries.

 Watch for  our next one very soon.

First in a series -  “Discounting of today’s Costa Rica Real Estate makes it worth looking at”

Understanding today’s new pricing of development land
Costa Rica Development land has taken a hit like most Real Estate. In many cases it is now at levels of four and five years ago, Buying land is still one of the most viable Real Estate investments today.

Historically, land values tend to stabilize during downturns in the housing markets and commercial developments. Land values are driven more by population growth in good areas. That hasn’t happened for two years anywhere as many of the good areas have been seriously hampered by the world economy of the last two years. No gain in value for two years and the discounting that is available today is worth looking into if you are a developer on the sidelines.

In Costa Rica we have seen some of the best land values appear that we haven’t seen in years. In some cases. people are caught with too much of their own money in the land. Others just clearly understand the real pricing of the market today and if they wish to sell they must identify with today’s pricing.

Landowners who have the luxury of time and cash, simply take the attitude that their property has lost 35% of it’s value and that is the base price today.  They are investors so they are simply going to accept the loss to date and view it as a new investment and sit on it until they make a profit.

We tend to refer to deeply discounted Real Estate as distressed property.   It may be considered distressed in the eyes of the owner, but reality says it is today’s new pricing. There are certainly some exceptions but as I wrote in an earlier blog, “There are three people that will know about it before you” Banker, Lawyer and Realtor.  If it is a really knocked down deal, what are your chances of getting to it? **See below how to get a shot at some of these deals.

Real estate has always been one of the best investments and Land has the best stability record of all.

A lot of developer/investors sitting on the fence, not knowing when and where to get off.  If they are waiting for “Blood in the Streets”,  that happened a year ago. It’s time to start looking very judiciously right now.  You don’t have to build immediately, which is another consideration.

At this point in time, waiting for things to go lower may only result in finding properties that haven’t dropped yet.  For those developers looking to move forward now with a good selection of some of the best deals, they are already out there.

We have seen a perfect property for an Eco Retirement project lose $2.5 million dollars and it
had a pre evaluation study that was incredible.

Other opportunities today fall into the category of product designed to the market.

Developers on sidelines can buy now read on……….

Here is a list of examples we have reviewed and find them  to be at discounted by at least 35%

HERE IS WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT….. Timing opportunites for Developers and investors alike

A gorgeous piece of development land slashed by 33% and you can even buy control of it and sit  it out if you wish, or proceed and design to the market
Here is one that is perfectly geared to this market we are in.  A fractional program of 10 week units totalling 300.  This long term and in an excellent location.
Gorgeous large  lake lots that have been scalped. Buy 5 and  sit on them.
Golf Condos that are prepared to throw in initiation  and discount deeply the Condo to get it populated and with no debt.  Buy the building , rent them and wait.
A magnificent and stunning oceanfront shovel ready project in the north that was reduced from 25 million to 17 million
Long term Teak investment that is designed for college funds, savings for grandchildren, getting IRA back on track, pure  retirement growth,
An oceanfront project halted for shortage of funding. Sold 21 of first 50 units, clean as a project can be and very marketable with Realtors waiting for this to come back on line.
A 300 total unit fractional project that is perfect for this market looking for investor

Attention developers: Call and let me help layout, strategies to take advantage of the pricing that exists today.
Some great opportunities exist at the moment.  Some are shovel ready, some raw development land (this can be good for those who want to buy do all the necessary preparation only at this time only)
To discuss the different and new concepts that fit the market today, strategies and types of investments available in Costa Rica, call me, Robert Shannon and I will be happy to cover all aspects of it with you.

Watch for the second article  in this series soon which will give some excellent examples of actual properties available that fall into the NOW category.

You may recognize these quotes of days gone by.  They offered pretty good advice.:
“Find out where the people are going and buy the land before they get there.”

WILL ROGERS

ANDREW CARNEGIE:
“Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate. More money has been made in real estate than in all industrial investments combined. The wise young man or wage earner of today invests his money in real estate.”

MARSHALL FIELD:
“Buying real estate is not only the best way, the quickest way, but the only way to become wealthy.”

For a discussion on development land opportunities in Costa Rica, call Robert Shannon 1  888 581 1786

Farming today can be very profitable if you have the right land.  Usually farm land is committed to Agriculture, cattle or timber.  If you find one directly in the path of growth that has a lot for features, you can add Development to the mix and now you have a whole new perspective.

Here is an an example of an amazing property featuring 178 acres plus a tropical year round lagoon, a 300 square meter (3,100 square feet) house, a 1,000 square meters barn, a 30 square meters worker’s house, and another 100 square meter house. Recent valuation of more than $1.5 million.  It is now on the market for $897,000

Location plays large role in determining if you can add the extra dimension of Development.  This property is located in between Tamarindo and Santa Cruz, on the main road on the way to Avellanas Beach and the Hacienda Pinilla Resort.  This is a prime area of development for the Gold Coast of Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

A real plus is that it has all public services including water, power, Internet, phone, satellite T.V and a water well with a modern electric pump, a 2,500 liters (660 gallon) holding tank and plenty of water.

Developing
The land boundaries touch public road on two sides of the property which adding value because it has good access on two different roads, making it legal to be subdivided in the future, and legally zoned for any kind of agricultural, commercial or residential development in the future.

If  a person is interested in a very solid, secure investment with future and a  method of hedging against falling currency, this can solve it all as this farm is very diversified in nature and can be used for may things.

It is not often a quality Costa Rica farms become available at this kind of price.  See details of this Costa Rica Farm for Sale.  For more on this, call Heinz at 1 888 581 1786.

If you happens to be a person that has been scouring the listings for a good low priced Farm, I can assure you, you won’t do better than this one.

If you live in Costa Rica there is a good chance the country’s lifestyle will rub of on you. Almost everyone has heard about the country’s “Blue Zones” where many centenarians reside.  Major television networks in the United States have done numerous stories about these “longevity hotspots.”

What most people don’t know is that if you are a Costa Rican and reach eighty years of age you have the longest longevity rate in the world thereafter.  In a recent article la Nación, Costa Rica’s largest Spanish newspaper, said Costa Ricans also have the least chance of dying before 60 years of age than people who live in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

The study attributes this to the country’s excellent “cradle to grave” health care system, the absence of internal and external conflicts (wars), pura vida lifestyle and the fact that the Costa Ricans just may be the happiest people on the face of the earth.

The study appeared in the publication The Lancet which is financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It covered 187 countries and Costa Rica was first in Latin America and 32 in the entire world. Chile was in second place in this report. This study came to the same conclusions as previous work by the World Bank.

So, if you are interested in living or retiring in a country with a great climate and healthy people, then Costa Rica Retirement is the obvious choice. Who know? If you adopt the healthy Costa Rican lifestyle you can probably “add years to your life.” I can guarantee you that you will add “life to your years” because of the fantastic lifestyle.

Invest In Green Gold
In my opinion, there is no better asset to own during any kind of financial crisis than good agricultural or undeveloped farmland.

Good Undeveloped land -
As long as it is in the path of growth and development, undeveloped land is an excellent choice for various reasons. 

First –  and key to successful investing in undeveloped land today is timing.  Buying land with market conditions of today represents a hold for a couple of years in a lot of cases.  If you buy in the path of growth, buy the land  right, and proceed with all necessary studies up to master plan and permits, this will take 2 years. You would have to build this time frame into the project in any event.  The net result is that you can buy at today’s reduced prices and be ready to go when the market appears again and with the right product.

Second, – A most important  aspect is the assessment of the change in product required for today’s economy and Baby Boomer profile.  One must design to build according to what is now going to sell easily.

Third -  With undeveloped land you are not paying for the pre studies and plans to make a master plan ready for approvals that may or not be what you wish to develop.  When you make your own it will be timed and designed exactly to the market.

Agriculture
In some ways, land is even better than gold or silver.  At least farmland is an intrinsically useful.  A tangible yield is provided in the form of good things from the earth. We all have to eat. As consumers trim their budgets, they‘ll give up a lot before they give up their calorie intake. Worldwide, the per capita calorie intake is likely to rise, as quality soil  becomes a scarce commodity. Altogether, I see many big reasons why agriculture investments are as good as gold…   Here is a sample of an Agriculture farm in Costa Rica that is ripe as it has been deeply discounted already and probably will go for less than asking.   It has water, a year round lake, home, barns and more.  This farm was valued by a Bank at $1,500,000 not long ago.  You have to look to find this quality in a deal like this but with patience you can find them.

GRAIN  It is a fact that Grain inventories are falling to their lowest levels in more than 40 years It is impossible to continue dipping into inventories. The natural response you would expect to see is rising prices for grains and for the farmland that produces them. Global grain inventories, drought pending, are expected to rise this year, but will still remain well below historical level.

 Mark McLornan made this comparison of the current agricultural opportunity in the May issue of Marc Faber’s Gloom Boom & Doom Report:  “Investing in agriculture today will be like investing in the oil sector in 2001-2002.”  (If you’ll remember, that’s when oil raced up to $143 a barrel from its $30 low.) 
 
Does this translate to Costa Rica land opportunities?
“If the United States sneezes, Costa Rica get a cold.” is never more prevalent here.  Here is some background.  According to Javier Flores Galarza, the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), the resources aim to increase the local rice production by almost 50%. Currently, Costa Rica produces only 48% of the rice consumed by its population. The plan aims to produce 80% of the rice needed locally within the next two years. Furthermore, the local bean and white corn production will go from meeting 25% of the local needs to 70% within the next three years. As we know, a high percentage of Costa Rica food is made with one of these three basic grains (rice, beans and white corn for tortillas

With recent increases in food prices Costa Rican officials and the general public has become concerned about the cost and availability of our food imports.  Costa Rica is mainly self-sufficient in vegetable and fruits, meat and fish, and dairy products. This is far from the case with the basic staples of the population’s diet, rice and beans. Domestic production accounts for less than half national consumption of these staples. Corn and other grains are almost entirely imported. There is ample land for mechanized cultivation of these crops, especially in Costa Rica’s Northern Zone. For more information contact Heinz at 1 888 581 1786.

Bio Diesel
Costa Ric’s objective is to produce ethanol and biodiesel on a large enough scale to eventually reduce or even replace petroleum fuel.  Recope, the nations Refinery, is constructing a large processing plant. The government is about to release a plan for the  development of the industry. The Institute for Agrarian Development, is engaged in research projects for certain products to convert to biofuels. At present, ethanol is produced from sugar cane and to a lesser extent from yuca (cassava), a root crop. There is some production of bio-diesel from African Palm oil.

The next in this series of  Green Gold will be published shortly. 

If you have a specific requirement in Costa Rica Land, contact us at 1 888 581 1786 and ask for Robert or Heinz.

Green Developments are one of the most popular Tourist Vacation destinations.

Green development is a very practical approach for devlopers these days.  Buying undeveloped Ocean view view land is a bargain today in Costa Rica.

Finding the right project can be a lengthy process.   Costa Rica Real Estate that is suited to Green development can be found in many areas of the country.  Costa Rica is 1% of the world landmass and 4% of the Biodiversity which says a lot for choosing this Country for  Green Development.

Even though Green suggests a remote location, it is wise to have some amenities nearby so location is a prime consideration.  

A checklist to consider in making a prime Costa Rica Green Development

Buy large  acreage that can yield low density
Use no more than one third of the land for development
Land should include a River, Waterfalls, Valleys, Mountains, varied terrain and a variety of Animals
Access to a center with health care within 1 hour.
Soil suitable for organic farming
It should be undeveloped land with good options available (ideally a piece of land with no plan regulador in place)

A meeting with Certification of Sustainable Tourism a division of ITC (Costa Rica Tourism Board) to identify the various grades and decide what level you wish for your  project.

There are many locations as mentioned above and also many different prices for Costa Rica Development land that is suited to Green Development.  A good example of one with all the ingredients is here. 

 It is priced so that low density still makes it very profitable, The density is only 33%. It has all the features for a fine Green Development, located perfectly, loaded with Animals, Rivers, Waterfalls, Lakes and varied but beautiful terrain.

This model is very profitable and one of the best priced in Costa Rica. It is almost 1000 acres for less than $6,000,000.  See all details of Reserva Guacalillo here.