Buy Now and Watch Prices in This Part of Costa Rica Zoom Upward

Monday, July 20, 2009

Dear Reader,

Back in the early 1980s, International Living recommended buying real estate in Northern Costa Rica. Readers who took this advice reaped big rewards. This part of Costa Rica caught on…and became the No. 1 destination among foreign retirees and investors who were looking for land buys with big upsides.

The upsides were realized. Through the 1990s, the market boomed. Prices for beachfront property along the Pacific coast increased 6-, 8-, 10-fold, and more…

Today, there is another pocket of opportunity in Costa Rica. Prices have stayed low in this area because it’s difficult to get to. That’s set to change. You have the opportunity to position yourself ahead of the Path of Progress. But you need to move fast.

Some of the most amazing scenery in Costa Rica is in an area that runs south of Quepos to the border with Panama. Landscapes here in Costa Rica’s Southern Zone are dramatic—panoramic ocean views…lush tropical rainforest…and sheer jungle-clad slopes, rising sharply away from pristine stretches of sandy beach.

There is more land preserved in national parks and reserves in the Southern Zone region than in any other in Costa Rica. Ballena National Marine Park is a hotspot for humpback whales. Corcovado is awesome, and is reputedly one of the largest areas of primary rainforest left in the Americas, plus home to numerous endangered plant and animal species. Beaches are mostly deserted.

In a country with an established real estate market like Costa Rica, this sounds like just the type of place that would attract a lot of fervent investors. Difficulty getting there has kept it under the radar in terms of development and kept prices far lower than areas to the north.

The Costanera Highway is unpaved between Quepos and Dominical and the airports are small, local affairs. These are exactly the kind conditions I look for when scouting for a good real estate opportunity. Especially when these conditions are set to change.

Costa Rica’s President Óscar Arias Sánchez recently kick started the final stage of the Costanera highway.

Asphalt work has started. This has been promised by successive governments for 30 years. The Costanera Sur is the vital Pacific coast highway. Four bridges have also been constructed along this route. On completion (slated for this October) it will open up an area of Costa Rica that has remained undiscovered…simply because it’s difficult to get to. The geography is dramatic. This has hampered accessibility.

The bulk of the heavy traffic now takes the Interamericana highway that winds through San José and Cartago and then over Cerro de la Muerte. The Costanera will cut all this out. The 90-minute plus trip from Quepos to Dominical will be cut to 25 minutes.

An international airport is planned for Palmar Norte. Due to be completed in 2012 (the government has already allocated funds) the airport is planned to open in stages; the first will allow international flights with a maximum capacity of 50 passengers. Eventually, the plan is to have a runway capable of accommodating even the world’s largest passenger plane, the Airbus A-380.

An airport of this scale needs to be close to a hospital…so they built one. The ultra-modern 85,000-square-foot Hospital De Osa located in the town of Cortez, in Puntarenas opened in April 2008. The hospital features multiple treatment facilities including a state of the art emergency room, a pediatrics wing, a neurology center and an obstetrics and gynecology center.

If you want to take advantage of this opportunity, I recommend you buy real estate in the heart of Costa Rica’s southern zone, where emerald-green hillsides slope down to deserted beaches…and where cloud-ringed mountains tower behind.

Don’t think for a moment, though, that your early-in opportunity in this emerging area of Costa Rica means you have to rough it. If you buy into a mature development, you can make sure it’s fully serviced with roads, water, electricity, satellite TV, Internet, and a modern communications system.

As soon as the road opens next year prices like this will be consigned to the history books. You have a short window to act.

Ronan McMahon