Costa Rica holiday homes

Costa Rica (meaning "Rich Coast") is a politically stable country democratic republic. It is divided into seven provinces: San Jose, Alajuela, Cartago, Heredia, Guanacaste, Puntarenas and Limón. The population is just over 4 million. The official language is Spanish. Costa Rica is a progressive country. It was the first country to abolish its army and its capital San Jose was the third city in the world to be powered by electricity.

Costa Rica has a rich variety of flora and fauna. Although the country covers only 0.1% of the world's land mass, it holds 5% of global biodiversity. More than 25% of Costa Rica consists of protected national parks. The climate is tropical. There are two seasons - summer is from December to April and winter is May to November. Winter is very wet.

Registered land can be title searched in the Folio Real at the Public Registry. Unregistered land is untitled and so ownership is not legally determined and is not recorded at the Public Registry. The process of getting land registered is long and complicated and we recommend avoiding unregistered land.

The 2 main kinds of property ownership in Costa Rica are Fee Simple and Concessions. Fee Simple is the most complete, and therefore desirable, type of ownership. Fee Simple confers the absolute right to materially own the property. Foreign investors have the same Fee Simple rights as Costa Rican nationals. Concessions are similar to leases and this type of ownership is appicable in the Maritime Zone. The Maritime Zone is the first 200m measured horizontally from the high tide line. The concession period (or lease period) is normally 20 years. Under Costa Rican law, foreign investors cannot be majority owners of Concession properties, unless they have resided in Costa Rica for more than 5 years. The owner of a Concession property must obtain permits from the local municipality to build on the property.