House Hunting in Costa Rica: A Slice of Oceanside Paradise for $1.1 Million
A Modern Three-Bedroom Villa on Costa Rica’s Coastline
$1.15 MILLION
This fashionable three-bedroom house sits on a hillside in Dominical, a seaside city in Puntarenas province, on the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Built in 2016, the three,500-square-foot home is oriented to maximise ocean views, with sliding glass partitions in each room.
The mountainous space, often called Escaleras, “we sometimes refer to as the Hollywood Hills — it’s home to some of the most amazing real estate in the area,” mentioned Tim Fenton, president of Blue Zone Realty International, which has the itemizing. “The mountains are very close to the sea, so these homes are perched front row, overlooking the ocean.”
The single-story home is constructed from metal and concrete on simply over a half acre. The entrance entrance, on the aspect reverse the ocean, opens straight into the dwelling space, with vaulted ceilings that rise to 15 ft. The tiled ground extends past the retractable glass wall to kind an out of doors patio with area for eating beneath a roof overhang. Clerestory home windows above the wall enable extra gentle.
Built-in Spanish cedar cabinetry and shelving in the dwelling space matches the cabinetry in the adjoining kitchen. The kitchen additionally has a quartz waterfall island with seating for three and high-end, stainless-steel home equipment. A separate outside kitchen has a gasoline grill, moist bar and wine chiller.
The teak-floored major suite is to 1 aspect of the dwelling space, with a double vainness and a glass bathe in the toilet that may be opened to the outside. Two extra bedrooms with en suite baths are on the opposite aspect.
All three bedrooms open onto terraces comprised of concrete slabs separated by gentle pebble stone. An infinity pool set in the center of the garden has a ledged portion for seating.
The hooked up two-car storage is on the entrance of the home, which is wrapped by a piece of garden set with pavers.
The property has sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean, together with a pure phenomenon popularly often called the “whale’s tail” inside Ballena National Marine Park, in Uvita, Mr. Fenton said. The rock and sand formation, which extends from the beach in the shape of a whale’s tail, is also the site where humpback whales gather twice a year, he said.
The property is about 10 minutes from the center of Dominical, a “quintessential surfer town” with beachside shops and restaurants, and the same distance to Uvita, the commercial hub for the area. San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital and largest city, is about three hours north, as is its international airport.
Market Overview
Despite its ballooning tourism industry — Costa Rica welcomed more than 3 million tourists for the first time in 2018, according to its Tourism Board — the nation has struggled with fiscal woes in recent years, and the coronavirus pandemic has deepened the recession. Border shutdowns hit the tourism sector hard, with unemployment surging above 20 percent. The International Monetary Fund is projecting the GDP will shrink by 5.5 percent this year.
Costa Rica, with a population of about 5 million people, had managed to control the spread of the virus during the first half of the year, but a surge in infections in recent months caused the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advise against travel to the country. As of Dec. 28, the country had reported 162,990 Covid-19 cases and 2,086 deaths, according to the New York Times’s coronavirus world map.
The housing market in the capital region of San Jose has suffered considerably from the poor economy and a glut of inventory. But the same has not been true of the market on Costa Rica’s southern Pacific coast, agents said. The region is far less developed, and some existing homes and lots came off the market after the pandemic hit, as sellers changed their minds.
With supply so low in the area, “it’s almost beginning to be a seller’s market,” said Kevin Champagne, the owner of Osa Tropical Properties in Puntarenas.
Inquiries from foreign buyers remained steady even after the borders were shut last spring, and a few bought properties sight unseen in anticipation of relocating once the borders reopened, Mr. Champagne said.
Americans were allowed back in as of November, and the pent-up demand was such that it proved to be “our busiest November in the eight years we’ve been doing business down here,” Mr. Fenton said.
Both agents said many buyers are looking for a newer three-bedroom house with a pool, possibly with an ocean view or within walking distance of a beach. Properties under $400,000 — Costa Rica operates on the colón, but U.S. dollars are widely accepted — move the most quickly, but buyers are generally looking in the $300,000 to $800,000 range, Mr. Champagne said.
His office has also seen unusually brisk interest from locals looking to move out of the capital region, where the infection rate is higher. “Their purchase power is a little lower, or they don’t need as much, so they’re buying more in the townish areas,” he said. “Some are buying something like a cottage to live in during the pandemic, but most of them are buying to live down here permanently.”
This particular property is about average for prices in the Escaleras area, with the exception of homes in Costa Verde Estates, a gated development farther up the mountainside, Mr. Fenton said. Prices in that residential community, which has many acres of preservation land and numerous amenities, range as high as $8 million, he said.
Who Buys in Costa Rica
Americans, who made up nearly half of all the tourists in Costa Rica in 2019, according to the Tourism Board, also account for at least 80 percent of foreign buyers there, agents said.
The rest are mainly from Nicaragua (which shares its southern border with Costa Rica), Canada and Europe.
Buying Basics
There are no restrictions on foreign buyers in Costa Rica. Deals are commonly done in U.S. dollars.
All transactions require a lawyer/notary. It is common for one notary to handle the transaction for both buyer and seller, said Rodolfo Herrera, a real estate lawyer in the Dominical area. But buyers should make a point of finding one who is fluent in their language.
“I’ve seen many problems with buyers who used an attorney they weren’t even able to communicate with,” Mr. Herrera said.
Mr. Herrera said properties must be carefully scrutinized to ensure that there are no issues with gaining access or proximity to an electric pole. In addition, buyers must prove that their water comes from a legal source, as defined by the government’s water authority.
Because real estate agents are largely unregulated in Costa Rica, buyers are likely better off working with an established agency with a good reputation, Mr. Champagne said. “You have people who tell, say, a restaurant owner that they’re there to buy, and suddenly that person is showing them a property,” he said. “That’s where surprises happen.”
Websites
Languages and Currency
Spanish; colón (1 colón = $0.002), with the U.S. dollar widely accepted.
Taxes and Fees
Closing costs, including transfer tax, legal stamps and legal fees, typically total between 3.5 and 3.8 percent of the purchase price, Mr. Herrera said.
Annual property taxes on this home are around $2,000.
Contact
Ben Rutherford, Blue Zone Realty International, 011-506-8318-7591; bluezonerealty.com
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