Source: www.thebeachtimes.com
By Ralph Nicholson
Two Hotels, Marina, Golf Course and 800 Home SitesUS developers on Wednesday announced plans for a 15-year, billion-dollar tourism project, to start construction in November on two beach-front properties in Guanacaste’s north. The project, known simply as Guacamaya after one of the beaches, will include a Ritz Carlton hotel, a smaller, as-yet-unnamed boutique hotel, an 18-hole golf course, a 200-slip marina, an equestrian center and up to 800 single family homes. For the first time, the project will include a desalinization plant that will turn sea water into drinking water and ease pressure on Guanacaste’s fragile water supplies. “This further consolidates the area as a destination for the upscale tourist market,” said the Minister for Tourism, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, at a party to launch the project. “To be chosen for the site of such an upscale or high end project, well, it is not every country that can do this,” he told about 120 invited guests from local and national government and the tourism industry. Mr Benavides was speaking after officially opening the offices of Plantación Properties, an affiliate of Christie’s Great Estates, which will market and sell the residential arm of the project. The development, to be built on about 800 hectares (2000 acres), is a partnership between Union Box Company of Baltimore in Maryland and Greenfield Partners, a privately-held real estate investment firm in South Norwalk, Connecticut. The property, which was purchased in two chunks over three years, covers three, white-sand beaches --- Playas Guacamaya and Zapotal, plus the smaller Playa Celeste --- all about 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of Tamarindo. A $100 million, 110-room Ritz Carlton hotel will be built across Zapotal beach, beginning construction late next year. Larry Silverstein, the Chief Executive Officer of Union Box Company, said he expected the hotel to be completed by the end of 2010. “We talked to a number of hotels --- we approached some and others approached us --- but it was clear the Ritz was a very good fit for us,” Mr Silverstein said. “That whole area is somewhat unknown,” he added. “For most people the world stops after Playa Potrero and starts again, further north, at Playa Ocotal. The Ritz is a distinct brand that can bring immediate recognition, as opposed to there being just another hotel.”
© Zoraida Diaz
PIE IN THE SKY: An orange glow is cast on the moon Tuesday morning at 4:56am, just before a lunar eclipse reaches totality. The photograph was taken from Playa Potrero in Guanacaste.
It is understood the developers will build the hotel, while the Ritz will lend its name to the structure, taking a management fee and a percentage of room sales, as has become customary with hotel projects. Work on an 18-hole golf course, designed by architect Rees Jones, will start at the same time as the hotel. Mr Jones, who has designed more than 100 golf courses, mainly in the US, will lay out the course in the Zapotal Valley, which stretches about four kilometers back from the coast. There will be no residential sites within the valley. A 200 slip marina, capable of docking so-called mega-yachts of up to 92 meters long (300 feet) will be sited at the southern end of the development, between Zapotal and Celeste beaches. A boutique hotel, yet to be named, and of somewhere between 50 and 100 rooms, will be built to service the marina. However, phase one, including more than 100 residential homes, will begin construction within three months, giving developers cash flow while they build the hotel, marina and golf course. “We will release 140 lots to start with in what will be known as the Beach Village,” said Molly Harris, President of Plantación Properties. “There will be architectural guidelines upon what people can build but at the same time our clients don’t want to deal with a cookie-cutter mentality,” Ms Harris said. She confirmed house prices were likely to start around $800,000. In phase two, luxury home lots --- about 100 of them --- will be released. Architects from both the United States and Costa Rica, will then build a variety of model homes. The houses will sell for between $5 and $10 million each. There will be an equestrian center and horse trails throughout the property. Developers will also include a mountain-bike trail. Both are likely to spill over into neighboring properties as developers seek to share amenities. In fact two other developments --- the Rosewood Hotel to the north and the project known as Las Catalinas to the south --- have already pledged to share such infrastructure as roadwork and possibly power. It is also likely Guacamaya’s neighbors will want to share water infrastructure as well.
© The Beach Times
STAR-STUDDED DEVELOPMENT: Minister of Tourism Carlos Ricardo Benavides cuts a ribbon to mark the launching of the Plantation Properties development in Guacamaya Beach in Northern Guanacaste. Accompanying Mr Benavides are Plantation Properties Operations and Marketing Manager Cristina Jimenez; Principal Larry Silverstein; President Molly Harris and Principal Brent Reynolds. (Photo Courtesy of Plantation Properties) “The problem is not the existence of water but the infrastructure to distribute it,” Tourism Minister, Benevavides, said in response to questions. “And I have no doubt these projects are going to help us solve the problem.” Mr Benavides confirmed the developers had formally asked for government assistance in setting up a desalinization plant. “This is a brand new concept. We will be able to explain the project to the other institutions in the country and help them get through the red tape,” Mr Benavides said. Mr Silverstein said the biggest challenges they faced were the same as for every developer along the coast --- a lack of infrastructure, finding a suitably skilled work-force and a backlog in supply of building materials. “No there is not enough water,” he said. “We are not the only ones tapping that water reserve. We believe we have sufficient water to maintain the residential component, which is why we are building the desalinization plant. “A desalinization plant is a new idea here, but the fact is that most of the resorts across the Caribbean are all operating on desalinized water. “It is something we must do. I think what will bring buyers is the level of assurance we can give them. They want to be safe, they want water when they arrive here, and they want a constant supply of electricity.” There have been a rash of developers announcing luxury hotel projects in the past 10 months. The El Salvador-based Grupo Poma conglomerate, has already broken ground on a five-star, 180-room, JW Marriott resort on the property known as Hacienda Pinilla, south of Tamarindo. The US-based, Global Financial Group has also announced plans for a $300 million 320-room Hyatt resort in Brasilito, and late last year two Minnesota developers announced they would build a $120 million, 150-room Regent Hotel on Guanacaste’s Papagayo Peninsula. Steve Case, the founder of the internet giant America Online, announced plans last month to open an $800 million beach resort just south of Playa Hermosa, featuring two boutique hotels. Meanwhile, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, confirmed it has signed a management contract with developers HPC Costa Carmel Limitada to manage a new luxury resort to be built upon a 60-hectare (150-acre) property on Playa Guachipelín.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Arab Prince checks out his investments in CR
Source: http://www.journalcr.com/
(Infocom) — Billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia visited Costa Rica this past weekend and stayed here until Tuesday, when he left for Guatemala after personally checking out and coordinating his investments in Costa Rica, as he is the largest shareholder of the chain Four Seasons — which has a five-star hotel in Guanacaste’s Gulf of Papagayo.
It was in this hotel where Prince Al-Waleed reserved 48 of its 153 rooms for him and his entourage of almost 50 people.
This newspaper obtained information from trusted sources, indicating that the Arab investor’s visit was promoted by one of Latin America’s top developers, who has put Costa Rica on the world map through his Gulf of Papagayo projects.
The Prince, whose full name is Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, became the largest shareholder of the Four Seasons chain earlier this year, when he and his friend, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, bought $3.4 billion in shares of the Canadian hotel chain. However, Al-Waleed took the biggest piece of the pie: 7.6 million shares, or 22 percent, while Gates bought 5 percent of the stock.
It was said that Gates himself may have recently been in the country visiting as incognito, with the goal of coordinating more investments just like the royal businessman.
That was precisely the goal of Prince Al-Waleed’s meeting this past Monday with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. They spoke, among other things, about Costa Rica’s position regarding direct foreign investment.
The prince — the 13th richest person on the planet, worth $20.3 billion, according to Forbes magazine — arrived in Liberia last Saturday around 9:30 p.m. aboard his luxurious private jet, a Boeing 747 valued at $260 million.
To speed up customs and immigration paperwork, Immigration Service personnel went into the plane and took care of everything. Most of the visitors got out through the rear door of the fancy aircraft.
Unlike many millionaire Arabs who have amassed their fortunes thanks to petrodollars, Al-Waleed — whom Time magazine once called the Arab Warren Buffett — has done it through investments in various industries, including real estate, banking, technology, mass media and luxury hotels.
Minutes after landing in Liberia and being picked up by a deluxe bus along with his 48-person entourage, the royal businessman arrived at the exclusive Four Seasons hotel on the Gulf of Papagayo.
Visiting the hotel was part of Al-Waleed’s Central American and Caribbean tour. He first flew to the Dominican Republic and then to Panama, from where he arrived to Costa Rica before finishing the trip in Guatemala.
Coming to Costa Rica and staying and the Four Seasons were not random acts for the 53-year-old prince. He is the largest shareholder of the Four Seasons chain, and he was interested in checking out how his investment in Costa Rica is doing.
In addition to this aspect of his trip, Al-Waleed also did some official business by meeting with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias at his house in San Jose.
For his stay, the prince — whose full name is Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud — reserved 48 of the hotel’s 153 rooms. Even though the hotel security is very strict at all times, employees, who didn’t want to be identified, indicated that during the prince’s visit all controls were intensified even more.
It was earlier this year when Al-Waleed, together with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, bought a majority of the Canadian hotel chain’s stock. Both investors paid $3.4 billion, but Al-Waleed took the biggest piece of the pie: 7.6 million shares, or 22 percent, while Gates bought 5 percent of the stock.
According to Forbes magazine, the Arab prince is the 13th richest person on the planet, worth $20.3 billion, and the most important investor outside of the United States. His firm is called Kingdom Holding Company, which sports as a logo the private jet in which the prince arrived in Liberia last week.
In spite of being the nephew of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, Al-Waleed doesn’t participate in government affairs, but has put his energy into his entrepreneurial pursuits. His financial skills showed since an early age, when in 1979, after graduating with a bachelor of science in business administration from Menlo College in California, he received a loan from his father — Saudi Arabia’s founding king, Abdul Aziz Al Saud — and began investing in strategic and diversified ventures.
Al-Waleed made alliances with foreign firms to do business in Saudi Arabia and got into the banking sector. He took a crucial step by injecting capital into banking firm Citigroup during its time of crisis, a move that paid off two years later, when the bank’s stock shot up. His Citigroup shares are worth some $10 million, almost half the prince’s assets.
Not satisfied with that, Al-Waleed has also ventured into the technological industry, investing in firms such as AOL, Hewlett Packard, Motorola and Apple Inc.
According to information from Wikipedia, the Saudi prince also has a master’s degree in social science from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University.
In addition to his financial success, Al-Waleed is known for his charity causes — though one of them has generated a lot of controversy. Not long after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, he offered assistance to the victims for $10 million. However, then New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani declined the offer, as the prince had said the attack was a sign the United States needed to reexamine its Middle East policies.
He has made donations for research and promoting education. Several U.S. universities have benefited from Al-Waleed’s multimillion-dollar gifts.
For example, Georgetown University received $20 million from the prince for promoting Islamic studies. The endowment created the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.
Another New York institute that conducts research in biomedicine has also received millions from the prince.
Al-Waleed has also supported the arts, giving the Louvre Museum $20 million to create a wing exclusively dedicated to Islamic art.
The world’s richest Arab
Name: Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud
Nationality: Saudi
Age: 53 years; born on March 7, 1955
Parents: Saudi Arabia’s founding king, Abdul Aziz Al Saud, and Princess Mona El-Solh. Other relatives include Riad El-Solh, prime minister of Lebanon, and Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco
Marriage status: Married for the third time to Princess Ameera, since 2006.
Children: Prince Khaled (27) and Princess Reem (23).
Studies: Master’s in social science from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University.
Businesses here and there
Through its firm, Kingdom Holding Company, Prince Al-Waleed participates in a large number of diverse companies based all over the world, including hotels, supermarkets, mass media, technology firms, etc.
Citigroup (banking)
Four Seasons hotel chain
George Hotel V in Paris
Beverly Wilshire Hotel in California
Savoy Hotel in London
Monte Carlo Grand Hotel in Monaco
Plaza Hotel in New York City
Disneyland Resort in Paris
AOL
Apple Inc.
Worldcom
Motorola
News Corporation Ltd.
Hewlett Packard
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: http://www.century21incostarica.com/
Website: http://www.northpacificproperties.com/
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
(Infocom) — Billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia visited Costa Rica this past weekend and stayed here until Tuesday, when he left for Guatemala after personally checking out and coordinating his investments in Costa Rica, as he is the largest shareholder of the chain Four Seasons — which has a five-star hotel in Guanacaste’s Gulf of Papagayo.
It was in this hotel where Prince Al-Waleed reserved 48 of its 153 rooms for him and his entourage of almost 50 people.
This newspaper obtained information from trusted sources, indicating that the Arab investor’s visit was promoted by one of Latin America’s top developers, who has put Costa Rica on the world map through his Gulf of Papagayo projects.
The Prince, whose full name is Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, became the largest shareholder of the Four Seasons chain earlier this year, when he and his friend, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, bought $3.4 billion in shares of the Canadian hotel chain. However, Al-Waleed took the biggest piece of the pie: 7.6 million shares, or 22 percent, while Gates bought 5 percent of the stock.
It was said that Gates himself may have recently been in the country visiting as incognito, with the goal of coordinating more investments just like the royal businessman.
That was precisely the goal of Prince Al-Waleed’s meeting this past Monday with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. They spoke, among other things, about Costa Rica’s position regarding direct foreign investment.
The prince — the 13th richest person on the planet, worth $20.3 billion, according to Forbes magazine — arrived in Liberia last Saturday around 9:30 p.m. aboard his luxurious private jet, a Boeing 747 valued at $260 million.
To speed up customs and immigration paperwork, Immigration Service personnel went into the plane and took care of everything. Most of the visitors got out through the rear door of the fancy aircraft.
Unlike many millionaire Arabs who have amassed their fortunes thanks to petrodollars, Al-Waleed — whom Time magazine once called the Arab Warren Buffett — has done it through investments in various industries, including real estate, banking, technology, mass media and luxury hotels.
Minutes after landing in Liberia and being picked up by a deluxe bus along with his 48-person entourage, the royal businessman arrived at the exclusive Four Seasons hotel on the Gulf of Papagayo.
Visiting the hotel was part of Al-Waleed’s Central American and Caribbean tour. He first flew to the Dominican Republic and then to Panama, from where he arrived to Costa Rica before finishing the trip in Guatemala.
Coming to Costa Rica and staying and the Four Seasons were not random acts for the 53-year-old prince. He is the largest shareholder of the Four Seasons chain, and he was interested in checking out how his investment in Costa Rica is doing.
In addition to this aspect of his trip, Al-Waleed also did some official business by meeting with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias at his house in San Jose.
For his stay, the prince — whose full name is Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud — reserved 48 of the hotel’s 153 rooms. Even though the hotel security is very strict at all times, employees, who didn’t want to be identified, indicated that during the prince’s visit all controls were intensified even more.
It was earlier this year when Al-Waleed, together with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, bought a majority of the Canadian hotel chain’s stock. Both investors paid $3.4 billion, but Al-Waleed took the biggest piece of the pie: 7.6 million shares, or 22 percent, while Gates bought 5 percent of the stock.
According to Forbes magazine, the Arab prince is the 13th richest person on the planet, worth $20.3 billion, and the most important investor outside of the United States. His firm is called Kingdom Holding Company, which sports as a logo the private jet in which the prince arrived in Liberia last week.
In spite of being the nephew of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, Al-Waleed doesn’t participate in government affairs, but has put his energy into his entrepreneurial pursuits. His financial skills showed since an early age, when in 1979, after graduating with a bachelor of science in business administration from Menlo College in California, he received a loan from his father — Saudi Arabia’s founding king, Abdul Aziz Al Saud — and began investing in strategic and diversified ventures.
Al-Waleed made alliances with foreign firms to do business in Saudi Arabia and got into the banking sector. He took a crucial step by injecting capital into banking firm Citigroup during its time of crisis, a move that paid off two years later, when the bank’s stock shot up. His Citigroup shares are worth some $10 million, almost half the prince’s assets.
Not satisfied with that, Al-Waleed has also ventured into the technological industry, investing in firms such as AOL, Hewlett Packard, Motorola and Apple Inc.
According to information from Wikipedia, the Saudi prince also has a master’s degree in social science from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University.
In addition to his financial success, Al-Waleed is known for his charity causes — though one of them has generated a lot of controversy. Not long after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, he offered assistance to the victims for $10 million. However, then New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani declined the offer, as the prince had said the attack was a sign the United States needed to reexamine its Middle East policies.
He has made donations for research and promoting education. Several U.S. universities have benefited from Al-Waleed’s multimillion-dollar gifts.
For example, Georgetown University received $20 million from the prince for promoting Islamic studies. The endowment created the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.
Another New York institute that conducts research in biomedicine has also received millions from the prince.
Al-Waleed has also supported the arts, giving the Louvre Museum $20 million to create a wing exclusively dedicated to Islamic art.
The world’s richest Arab
Name: Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud
Nationality: Saudi
Age: 53 years; born on March 7, 1955
Parents: Saudi Arabia’s founding king, Abdul Aziz Al Saud, and Princess Mona El-Solh. Other relatives include Riad El-Solh, prime minister of Lebanon, and Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco
Marriage status: Married for the third time to Princess Ameera, since 2006.
Children: Prince Khaled (27) and Princess Reem (23).
Studies: Master’s in social science from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University.
Businesses here and there
Through its firm, Kingdom Holding Company, Prince Al-Waleed participates in a large number of diverse companies based all over the world, including hotels, supermarkets, mass media, technology firms, etc.
Citigroup (banking)
Four Seasons hotel chain
George Hotel V in Paris
Beverly Wilshire Hotel in California
Savoy Hotel in London
Monte Carlo Grand Hotel in Monaco
Plaza Hotel in New York City
Disneyland Resort in Paris
AOL
Apple Inc.
Worldcom
Motorola
News Corporation Ltd.
Hewlett Packard
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: http://www.century21incostarica.com/
Website: http://www.northpacificproperties.com/
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
Monday, August 13, 2007
Arias has a date today with very, very wealthy Saudi investor
Source: http://www.amcostarica.com/
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
President Óscar Arias Sánchez has a date this afternoon with Al-Waleed bin Tala Alsaud, a major investor who is a member of the Saudi royal family.Forbes magazine estimates his fortune at $20 billion. Among his holdings is a major stake in the Four Seasons Hotel group, and that is where he stayed in northwestern Costa Rica.Although his luxury 747 aircraft sprouted flags on landing in Liberia, he is not considered a major player in Saudi politics. However, he is well known as an astute investor and expresses political views of his own. He holds a graduate degree from Syracuse University in New York.Arias has invited the visitor to his Rohrmoser home instead of Casa Presidencial.
Al-Waleed, 52, made news in 2002 when he offered New York City $10 million in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in which the majority of the terrorists were from Saudi Arabia. However, Mayor Rudy Giuliani turned him down because the donation was conditional. Al-Waleed said he wanted the United States to modify its policies in the Middle East, according to the then-mayor.Al-Waleed traveled to the Four Season in a bus, leading an entourage of more than a dozen sports utility vehicles from the Daniel Oduber airport..The visit by the Saudi investor fits with the Arias administration's goal of expanding its overseas contacts. Costa Rica closed its embassy in Jerusalem and moved it to Tel Aviv in part to open doors to Middle Eastern states.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: http://www.century21incostarica.com/
Website: http://www.northpacificproperties.com/
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
President Óscar Arias Sánchez has a date this afternoon with Al-Waleed bin Tala Alsaud, a major investor who is a member of the Saudi royal family.Forbes magazine estimates his fortune at $20 billion. Among his holdings is a major stake in the Four Seasons Hotel group, and that is where he stayed in northwestern Costa Rica.Although his luxury 747 aircraft sprouted flags on landing in Liberia, he is not considered a major player in Saudi politics. However, he is well known as an astute investor and expresses political views of his own. He holds a graduate degree from Syracuse University in New York.Arias has invited the visitor to his Rohrmoser home instead of Casa Presidencial.
Al-Waleed, 52, made news in 2002 when he offered New York City $10 million in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in which the majority of the terrorists were from Saudi Arabia. However, Mayor Rudy Giuliani turned him down because the donation was conditional. Al-Waleed said he wanted the United States to modify its policies in the Middle East, according to the then-mayor.Al-Waleed traveled to the Four Season in a bus, leading an entourage of more than a dozen sports utility vehicles from the Daniel Oduber airport..The visit by the Saudi investor fits with the Arias administration's goal of expanding its overseas contacts. Costa Rica closed its embassy in Jerusalem and moved it to Tel Aviv in part to open doors to Middle Eastern states.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: http://www.century21incostarica.com/
Website: http://www.northpacificproperties.com/
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
Sunday, August 12, 2007
AOL Founder Plans $800 Million Beach Resort
Source: www.ticotimes.net
By Peter KrupaTico Times Staff
In front of video cameras and reporters at Casa Presidencial, former Silicone Valley tycoon Steve Case formally announced plans for an $800 million luxury resort complex on Cacique Point, between Cocos and Hermosa beaches, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.
Case, one of the co-founders of America Online (AOL), made the announcement last Friday with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias at his side, saying that the project would “define a new generation of resort development” with its environmental and social responsibility.
“It's very important that business leaders realize that it has to be about more than just your profit,” the U.S. businessman said.
The elephant in the room, however, was that the environmental-impact study for Case's project had already been rejected by the National Technical Secretariat of the Environment Ministry (SETENA), precisely because the project lacked details for how it plans to mitigate its impact on the local environment and the community.
A new environmental-impact study – which SETENA is now evaluating – was submitted July 9. The study must be approved by SETENA before the project can move forward.
Announcing the Plan: Steve Case, left, one of the co-founders of America Online (AOL), announces plans for a luxury resort at a press conference with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.
Jeffrey Arguedas EFE
Case's proposed resort would be among the largest of several large tourism complexes in that part of the country. To be known as Cacique Costa Rica, the 263-hectare complex would feature three five-star hotel brands, private villas, an 18-hole Tom Doak golf course and a tennis and fitness center branded with the names of former tennis stars Andre Agassi and Stefi Graf.
The project would create 2,000 direct jobs and 500 indirect jobs, according to the company.
The resort would be the first to be developed by Revolution Places LLC, a luxury tourism developer founded by Case and held by the company Revolution LLC, which Case founded in 2005.
The Cacique Point development would have several hundred rooms and villas available for travelers, as well as 300 properties for sale. Hotel brands will include small houses operated by One & Only Resorts and a spa and hotel with the Miraval brand. The One & Only in Palmilla, Mexico, offers rooms for $450-2,600 per night.
The first phase of the Cacique project is slated for completion by 2010.
Slated for Development: Punta Cacique, between Cocos and Hermosa beaches in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, is the proposed location for a 263-hectare luxury resort complex that would include three hotels, private villas and a golf course.
Courtesy of Cacique Costa Rica
Case cited his upbringing in Hawaii as an inspiration for the project, which he said will integrate the luxury vacation complex with the local community, even going so far as to build a village that will be “a gathering place for the whole region” and include residences and local shops.
Both the publicity materials for the project and the press conference sounded triumphant notes on the project's sense of environmental and social responsibility.
The development promises to plant a million trees in river areas, as well as donate $1 million to local nonprofit organizations. Details of those programs will be announced next year, Case said.
Also, he noted that the development would be low impact and low density, developing nly 20% of the land and leaving the rest intact.
Less clear, however, are the details of how the development plans to go about mitigating its impact on the environment and community. On June 11, SETENA rejected Cacique's environmental-impact study, saying it failed to meet muster on 14 technical points.
Most of the problems had to do with lack of information in the study.
For example, SETENA notes that while the project (then known as Punta Cacique) proposes a desalinization plant to solve the region's water shortages, it does not explain how the plant would work or the environmental impact its operation would have.
In one complaint, SETENA called the study's soil analysis “very shallow,” while in another it noted that, “Considering the (area's) poor natural drainage, mitigating activities and works to protect the Penca Gully are not defined.”
The SETENA report said that the impact study also fails to catalogue the wildlife that inhabits the area, and problems of habitat fragmentation and the isolation of wildlife populations “are not considered in the design of the site.”
“The preceeding considerations put in doubt the environmental sustainability of the project,” SETENA's analysis continues.
Similarly, the analysis criticized the impact study for not presenting its methodology for its survey of the local community's perception of the project.
Neither did the impact study consult the local community regarding how it would be affected by the water use of the project, which the SETENA report called “highly relevant (and) directly concerning the health and quality of life of the population.”
Asked about Guanacaste's ongoing problems with water scarcity at the press conference, Case said Cacique had “acquired” access to water with the property, and that the project would “allocate some of that water to the community.”
Cacique spokesman Jorge Cornick said the project had presented a totally new impact study on July 9 using a new environmental study company – “People with more experience of a certain scale in Guanacaste,” he explained.
Cornick said the main problem with the first impact study was that it lacked information, something that has been remedied with the new study SETENA is evaluating.
Cacique Costa Rica isn't the first time Case has turned an investment-minded eye toward Costa Rica.
Case bought an 80% stake in a company called Exclusive Resorts in 2004, according to Business Week magazine. Exclusive Resorts, now held by Revolution LLC, is an international club that owns over $1 billion worth of luxury properties around the world.
For a deposit and an annual fee, club members can spend several weeks out of the year at any one of the Exclusive Resorts properties, in lieu of owning their own vacation homes.
At the beginning of this year, Exclusive Resorts opened up one of those properties in Costa Rica – a resort called Poro Poro, on the Papagayo Peninsula, just north of Cacique Point. The $75 million, 20-acre “destination community” has 21 luxury residences for Exclusive Resorts members.
Exclusive Resorts is also one of the three luxury hospitality brands that will be operating residences on the Cacique Costa Rica project.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: http://www.century21incostarica.com/
Website: http://www.northpacificproperties.com/
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
By Peter KrupaTico Times Staff
In front of video cameras and reporters at Casa Presidencial, former Silicone Valley tycoon Steve Case formally announced plans for an $800 million luxury resort complex on Cacique Point, between Cocos and Hermosa beaches, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.
Case, one of the co-founders of America Online (AOL), made the announcement last Friday with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias at his side, saying that the project would “define a new generation of resort development” with its environmental and social responsibility.
“It's very important that business leaders realize that it has to be about more than just your profit,” the U.S. businessman said.
The elephant in the room, however, was that the environmental-impact study for Case's project had already been rejected by the National Technical Secretariat of the Environment Ministry (SETENA), precisely because the project lacked details for how it plans to mitigate its impact on the local environment and the community.
A new environmental-impact study – which SETENA is now evaluating – was submitted July 9. The study must be approved by SETENA before the project can move forward.
Announcing the Plan: Steve Case, left, one of the co-founders of America Online (AOL), announces plans for a luxury resort at a press conference with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.
Jeffrey Arguedas EFE
Case's proposed resort would be among the largest of several large tourism complexes in that part of the country. To be known as Cacique Costa Rica, the 263-hectare complex would feature three five-star hotel brands, private villas, an 18-hole Tom Doak golf course and a tennis and fitness center branded with the names of former tennis stars Andre Agassi and Stefi Graf.
The project would create 2,000 direct jobs and 500 indirect jobs, according to the company.
The resort would be the first to be developed by Revolution Places LLC, a luxury tourism developer founded by Case and held by the company Revolution LLC, which Case founded in 2005.
The Cacique Point development would have several hundred rooms and villas available for travelers, as well as 300 properties for sale. Hotel brands will include small houses operated by One & Only Resorts and a spa and hotel with the Miraval brand. The One & Only in Palmilla, Mexico, offers rooms for $450-2,600 per night.
The first phase of the Cacique project is slated for completion by 2010.
Slated for Development: Punta Cacique, between Cocos and Hermosa beaches in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, is the proposed location for a 263-hectare luxury resort complex that would include three hotels, private villas and a golf course.
Courtesy of Cacique Costa Rica
Case cited his upbringing in Hawaii as an inspiration for the project, which he said will integrate the luxury vacation complex with the local community, even going so far as to build a village that will be “a gathering place for the whole region” and include residences and local shops.
Both the publicity materials for the project and the press conference sounded triumphant notes on the project's sense of environmental and social responsibility.
The development promises to plant a million trees in river areas, as well as donate $1 million to local nonprofit organizations. Details of those programs will be announced next year, Case said.
Also, he noted that the development would be low impact and low density, developing nly 20% of the land and leaving the rest intact.
Less clear, however, are the details of how the development plans to go about mitigating its impact on the environment and community. On June 11, SETENA rejected Cacique's environmental-impact study, saying it failed to meet muster on 14 technical points.
Most of the problems had to do with lack of information in the study.
For example, SETENA notes that while the project (then known as Punta Cacique) proposes a desalinization plant to solve the region's water shortages, it does not explain how the plant would work or the environmental impact its operation would have.
In one complaint, SETENA called the study's soil analysis “very shallow,” while in another it noted that, “Considering the (area's) poor natural drainage, mitigating activities and works to protect the Penca Gully are not defined.”
The SETENA report said that the impact study also fails to catalogue the wildlife that inhabits the area, and problems of habitat fragmentation and the isolation of wildlife populations “are not considered in the design of the site.”
“The preceeding considerations put in doubt the environmental sustainability of the project,” SETENA's analysis continues.
Similarly, the analysis criticized the impact study for not presenting its methodology for its survey of the local community's perception of the project.
Neither did the impact study consult the local community regarding how it would be affected by the water use of the project, which the SETENA report called “highly relevant (and) directly concerning the health and quality of life of the population.”
Asked about Guanacaste's ongoing problems with water scarcity at the press conference, Case said Cacique had “acquired” access to water with the property, and that the project would “allocate some of that water to the community.”
Cacique spokesman Jorge Cornick said the project had presented a totally new impact study on July 9 using a new environmental study company – “People with more experience of a certain scale in Guanacaste,” he explained.
Cornick said the main problem with the first impact study was that it lacked information, something that has been remedied with the new study SETENA is evaluating.
Cacique Costa Rica isn't the first time Case has turned an investment-minded eye toward Costa Rica.
Case bought an 80% stake in a company called Exclusive Resorts in 2004, according to Business Week magazine. Exclusive Resorts, now held by Revolution LLC, is an international club that owns over $1 billion worth of luxury properties around the world.
For a deposit and an annual fee, club members can spend several weeks out of the year at any one of the Exclusive Resorts properties, in lieu of owning their own vacation homes.
At the beginning of this year, Exclusive Resorts opened up one of those properties in Costa Rica – a resort called Poro Poro, on the Papagayo Peninsula, just north of Cacique Point. The $75 million, 20-acre “destination community” has 21 luxury residences for Exclusive Resorts members.
Exclusive Resorts is also one of the three luxury hospitality brands that will be operating residences on the Cacique Costa Rica project.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: http://www.century21incostarica.com/
Website: http://www.northpacificproperties.com/
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
Developers Announce Hotel Projects in Guanacaste
Source: http://www.thebeachtimes.com/
By Ralph Nicholson and Zoraida Diaz - Friday, August 10, 2007
Rosewood, Miraval, One and Only to Open Mid-2010Developers have announced plans for three luxury hotels to be built on two properties within ten kilometers of each other on the northern Guanacaste coast. Steve Case, the founder of the internet giant America Online, announced plans Friday to open an $800 million beach resort just south of Playa Hermosa, featuring two boutique hotels, a tennis center designed by husband-and-wife tennis stars Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf and an 18-hole golf course by Tom Doak. Meanwhile, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, confirmed it has signed a management contract with developers HPC Costa Carmel Limitada to manage a new luxury resort to be built upon a 60-hectare (150-acre) property on Playa Guachipelín. Both developments are scheduled to open in 2010. Mr Case, who announced his project alongside President Oscar Arias, told a press conference the resort would be built on 263 hectares (650 acres) known as Punta Cacique. The resort will leave 80 per cent of that land undeveloped as a private natural reserve. “I first visited Costa Rica four years ago and instantly fell in love with it,” Mr Case told reporters. “It struck my heart. Cacique is one of the most beautiful peninsulas anywhere in the world.” The announcement also marks the launch of Revolution Places, the new destination resort unit of Revolution, a holding-and-operating company founded by Mr Case in 2005 with $500 million of his own money. The resort will have 270 guest rooms and 300 private homes. One and 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 owned by Revolution, will operate a facility with 120 rooms and 60 villas. Mr Case, who was born in Hawaii, said he wanted to avoid what developers have done to Waikiki, pledging to make the new resort an environmentally friendly destination. “We are making a number of commitments,” he said. “We will plant one million trees in nearby rivers. We want to give $1 million to universities and local businesses to nurture and incubate ideas. We are trying to live in peace with nature.” Mr Case also pledged to improve infrastructure in the area, particularly regarding water.
© Zoraida Diaz
PUNTA CACIQUE: The 260-hectare project will include a tennis center by husband and wife team, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf and an 18-hole golf course by Tom Doak, and a 75-slip marina for local boats. “I am very aware of the problems in the area. We understand there are short periods during the day when people do not have water,” he said in response to questions. “A part of what we acquired was access to water and we’ve told our people it’s a priority for us to allocate some back into the community. We’re hoping to release some of the water. I have not talked directly to them (the mayor, the community), but I know members of my group have.” President Arias described the Revolution Places project as the greatest investment yet to be made in Costa Rica. “Without doubt, Cacique will be extremely important for Guanacaste and Costa Rica,” he said. “I am grateful that of 263 hectares that were acquired only 20 per cent will be built upon.” Last week a group representing Revolution Places presented the project to the Municipality of Carrillo. Mr Case was not present, but the group’s President, Darren Linnartz, outlined the project, saying they would begin construction on roads by the end of the year. Work on 120 hotel rooms would begin between April and June next year. They will also apply for permission to build a marina and dock for up to 75 boats. “We aim to build a residential marina which is for the local community,” Mr Linnartz told the council. “In the first instance it is very important because it will generate jobs,” the Mayor, Carlos Gerardo Cantillo, said after the meeting. “They are not talking about just luxury homes, but a hotel that is a larger source for employment.” And there are the direct benefits to the municipality, which can expect one per cent of the total construction in building permit fees. That alone is $8 million. “We want to invest in this area,” Mr Linnartz told the council meeting last week. “…the idea is that as you are getting ready to approve next year’s budget we would like to help in this budgetary period so that your income will increase and with this, you can help the communities.”
© Zoraida Diaz
NEW FRIENDS: Steve Case (left) makes his way to a press conference with President Oscar Arias. The Minister of Tourism, Carlos Ricardo Benavides and Minister of the Presidency, Rodrigo Arias (right) bring up the rear. The Punta Cacique project will create 2500 jobs. The deal to put a Rosewood Hotel on Playa Zapotal, about ten kilometers south of the Revolution project, has been on the table for more than seven years, but it is now signed. The resort and residential properties will be built in two construction phases. Two-level, four-bedroom model residential units will begin construction in November this year, as will the complex’s beach club. The 80-room hotel, which will include 12 deluxe suites and one presidential suite, all to be built among the residential units, will start in August of 2008. “This is a very green construction,” said Ronald Arias, Project Manager for Rosewood Costa Carmel. “The hotel units will be next to the residential units, and no more than two levels,” he added. “When you open the windows you must see greenery. Nothing will be built higher than the tree line.” The complex will be designed by Three Architecture, a Dallas, Texas-based group that specializes in four and five-star hotels, resorts, country clubs and spas. It was founded 24 years ago, and has designed a Rosewood Hotel before --- the Rosewood Mayakoba Resort, in Riviera Maya, in Mexico. “As our brand continues to grow internationally, Costa Rica was a natural choice for a new Rosewood resort,” said John M. Scott III, President and CEO of Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, in a prepared release. Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, which is a privately-held luxury hotel management company, has no equity in the project and lends its brand in return for a management contract. The backers of the development are Roger Hall, a developer from California and owner of the land, and Grupo Inmobiliaria Génesis, which represents a group of investors. The resort, which is scheduled to open in April of 2008, has no golf course; instead the developers will negotiate a sharing arrangement with their neighbors. Farther south, the Baltimore, Maryland-based Union Box Company, has negotiated for a Ritz Carlton Hotel, probably with around 150 rooms, to be built on 405 hectares (1000 acres) in the Zapotal Valley. The project, which has direct access to Playa Guacamaya, will include a golf course.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: http://www.century21incostarica.com/
Website: http://www.northpacificproperties.com/
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
By Ralph Nicholson and Zoraida Diaz - Friday, August 10, 2007
Rosewood, Miraval, One and Only to Open Mid-2010Developers have announced plans for three luxury hotels to be built on two properties within ten kilometers of each other on the northern Guanacaste coast. Steve Case, the founder of the internet giant America Online, announced plans Friday to open an $800 million beach resort just south of Playa Hermosa, featuring two boutique hotels, a tennis center designed by husband-and-wife tennis stars Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf and an 18-hole golf course by Tom Doak. Meanwhile, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, confirmed it has signed a management contract with developers HPC Costa Carmel Limitada to manage a new luxury resort to be built upon a 60-hectare (150-acre) property on Playa Guachipelín. Both developments are scheduled to open in 2010. Mr Case, who announced his project alongside President Oscar Arias, told a press conference the resort would be built on 263 hectares (650 acres) known as Punta Cacique. The resort will leave 80 per cent of that land undeveloped as a private natural reserve. “I first visited Costa Rica four years ago and instantly fell in love with it,” Mr Case told reporters. “It struck my heart. Cacique is one of the most beautiful peninsulas anywhere in the world.” The announcement also marks the launch of Revolution Places, the new destination resort unit of Revolution, a holding-and-operating company founded by Mr Case in 2005 with $500 million of his own money. The resort will have 270 guest rooms and 300 private homes. One and 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 owned by Revolution, will operate a facility with 120 rooms and 60 villas. Mr Case, who was born in Hawaii, said he wanted to avoid what developers have done to Waikiki, pledging to make the new resort an environmentally friendly destination. “We are making a number of commitments,” he said. “We will plant one million trees in nearby rivers. We want to give $1 million to universities and local businesses to nurture and incubate ideas. We are trying to live in peace with nature.” Mr Case also pledged to improve infrastructure in the area, particularly regarding water.
© Zoraida Diaz
PUNTA CACIQUE: The 260-hectare project will include a tennis center by husband and wife team, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf and an 18-hole golf course by Tom Doak, and a 75-slip marina for local boats. “I am very aware of the problems in the area. We understand there are short periods during the day when people do not have water,” he said in response to questions. “A part of what we acquired was access to water and we’ve told our people it’s a priority for us to allocate some back into the community. We’re hoping to release some of the water. I have not talked directly to them (the mayor, the community), but I know members of my group have.” President Arias described the Revolution Places project as the greatest investment yet to be made in Costa Rica. “Without doubt, Cacique will be extremely important for Guanacaste and Costa Rica,” he said. “I am grateful that of 263 hectares that were acquired only 20 per cent will be built upon.” Last week a group representing Revolution Places presented the project to the Municipality of Carrillo. Mr Case was not present, but the group’s President, Darren Linnartz, outlined the project, saying they would begin construction on roads by the end of the year. Work on 120 hotel rooms would begin between April and June next year. They will also apply for permission to build a marina and dock for up to 75 boats. “We aim to build a residential marina which is for the local community,” Mr Linnartz told the council. “In the first instance it is very important because it will generate jobs,” the Mayor, Carlos Gerardo Cantillo, said after the meeting. “They are not talking about just luxury homes, but a hotel that is a larger source for employment.” And there are the direct benefits to the municipality, which can expect one per cent of the total construction in building permit fees. That alone is $8 million. “We want to invest in this area,” Mr Linnartz told the council meeting last week. “…the idea is that as you are getting ready to approve next year’s budget we would like to help in this budgetary period so that your income will increase and with this, you can help the communities.”
© Zoraida Diaz
NEW FRIENDS: Steve Case (left) makes his way to a press conference with President Oscar Arias. The Minister of Tourism, Carlos Ricardo Benavides and Minister of the Presidency, Rodrigo Arias (right) bring up the rear. The Punta Cacique project will create 2500 jobs. The deal to put a Rosewood Hotel on Playa Zapotal, about ten kilometers south of the Revolution project, has been on the table for more than seven years, but it is now signed. The resort and residential properties will be built in two construction phases. Two-level, four-bedroom model residential units will begin construction in November this year, as will the complex’s beach club. The 80-room hotel, which will include 12 deluxe suites and one presidential suite, all to be built among the residential units, will start in August of 2008. “This is a very green construction,” said Ronald Arias, Project Manager for Rosewood Costa Carmel. “The hotel units will be next to the residential units, and no more than two levels,” he added. “When you open the windows you must see greenery. Nothing will be built higher than the tree line.” The complex will be designed by Three Architecture, a Dallas, Texas-based group that specializes in four and five-star hotels, resorts, country clubs and spas. It was founded 24 years ago, and has designed a Rosewood Hotel before --- the Rosewood Mayakoba Resort, in Riviera Maya, in Mexico. “As our brand continues to grow internationally, Costa Rica was a natural choice for a new Rosewood resort,” said John M. Scott III, President and CEO of Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, in a prepared release. Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, which is a privately-held luxury hotel management company, has no equity in the project and lends its brand in return for a management contract. The backers of the development are Roger Hall, a developer from California and owner of the land, and Grupo Inmobiliaria Génesis, which represents a group of investors. The resort, which is scheduled to open in April of 2008, has no golf course; instead the developers will negotiate a sharing arrangement with their neighbors. Farther south, the Baltimore, Maryland-based Union Box Company, has negotiated for a Ritz Carlton Hotel, probably with around 150 rooms, to be built on 405 hectares (1000 acres) in the Zapotal Valley. The project, which has direct access to Playa Guacamaya, will include a golf course.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: http://www.century21incostarica.com/
Website: http://www.northpacificproperties.com/
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
Going up: Number of tourists coming to CR continues upswing
Source: http://www.journalcr.com/
(Infocom) — The influx of tourists in Costa Rica continues to increase, and it appears that it will do so for quite some time, according to data from the National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) comparing the first half of 2007 and the first semester of last year.
CANATUR figures indicate that 832,604 tourists entered the country during the first six months of this year, while 782,346 did so during the same period in 2006. That accounts for an increase of little more than 50,000 visitors, or 6.42 percent.
Tourism sector authorities are optimistic, as the increase surpassed the 5 percent projected in the National Development Plan.
The data is an estimate of the number of tourists arriving through the country’s two international airports, San Jose’s Juan Santamaria and Liberia’s Daniel Oduber.
Of the total of tourists arriving this year, 595,405 came through Juan Santamaria, while 237,199 flew to Daniel Oduber. Nonetheless, the Liberia airport has experienced the biggest growth, as it saw a 15.66 increase while Juan Santamaria only grew by 3.14 percent.
In addition, the growth at the Liberia airport was sustained throughout the six months, while in San Jose the number of tourists only increased in April, May and June.
The high increase at Daniel Oduber is particularly significant, as it demonstrates that the terminal is an important economic development engine for Guanacaste province.
Gonzalo Vargas, president of CANATUR, said that even though the data is not official, it does provide a good idea of the tourism industry’s behavior and current trends.
Vargas also indicated that the increase in the frequency of flights by airlines already flying to Costa Rica and the arrival of new carriers in the market have been a significant factor behind the upswing in tourists. He highlighted the role the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) has played in achieving the current increase, especially as numbers fell last year.
“No doubt this rate of recovery is due in large part to ICT’s efforts managing to attract new airlines to the country, as well as increasing the number of flights of carriers already flying here,” Vargas said.
Currently, tourism is the economic activity that generates the highest profit for the country: $1.6 billion in foreign currency, which represents 8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. It also represents 23 percent of total exports, surpassing traditional crops such as coffee and bananas.
Tourism also generates approximately 110,000 direct and 550,000 indirect jobs.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: http://www.century21incostarica.com/
Website: http://www.northpacificproperties.com/
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
(Infocom) — The influx of tourists in Costa Rica continues to increase, and it appears that it will do so for quite some time, according to data from the National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) comparing the first half of 2007 and the first semester of last year.
CANATUR figures indicate that 832,604 tourists entered the country during the first six months of this year, while 782,346 did so during the same period in 2006. That accounts for an increase of little more than 50,000 visitors, or 6.42 percent.
Tourism sector authorities are optimistic, as the increase surpassed the 5 percent projected in the National Development Plan.
The data is an estimate of the number of tourists arriving through the country’s two international airports, San Jose’s Juan Santamaria and Liberia’s Daniel Oduber.
Of the total of tourists arriving this year, 595,405 came through Juan Santamaria, while 237,199 flew to Daniel Oduber. Nonetheless, the Liberia airport has experienced the biggest growth, as it saw a 15.66 increase while Juan Santamaria only grew by 3.14 percent.
In addition, the growth at the Liberia airport was sustained throughout the six months, while in San Jose the number of tourists only increased in April, May and June.
The high increase at Daniel Oduber is particularly significant, as it demonstrates that the terminal is an important economic development engine for Guanacaste province.
Gonzalo Vargas, president of CANATUR, said that even though the data is not official, it does provide a good idea of the tourism industry’s behavior and current trends.
Vargas also indicated that the increase in the frequency of flights by airlines already flying to Costa Rica and the arrival of new carriers in the market have been a significant factor behind the upswing in tourists. He highlighted the role the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) has played in achieving the current increase, especially as numbers fell last year.
“No doubt this rate of recovery is due in large part to ICT’s efforts managing to attract new airlines to the country, as well as increasing the number of flights of carriers already flying here,” Vargas said.
Currently, tourism is the economic activity that generates the highest profit for the country: $1.6 billion in foreign currency, which represents 8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. It also represents 23 percent of total exports, surpassing traditional crops such as coffee and bananas.
Tourism also generates approximately 110,000 direct and 550,000 indirect jobs.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: http://www.century21incostarica.com/
Website: http://www.northpacificproperties.com/
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
Municipalities update property values
Source: www.journalcr.com
(Infocom) — The appraised value of all of the country’s properties, including those in Guanacaste, will be updated during the next year, thanks to National Registry’s Project for Updating the Value Platform of Lands in Homogeneous Areas.
To carry out this new appraisal, the state institution contracted Roche Ltd. Consulting Group for $1 million. The firm has committed to having all appraisals done by April of next year.
The funds to pay for the project will come from a loan provided by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Justice Minister Laura Chinchilla explained.
The project began recently and will consist of appraising lands according to where they are located, as the country will be divided into regions based on the price of a square meter of land.
These regions will be called homogeneous zones, having an average square-meter price based on the properties contained within.
Each municipality will be charged with estimating the value of each individual property, based on the average land value of each homogeneous zone.
The project is of great importance to local governments, as it is expected that by 2009 it will help them double their income from real estate taxes. That means annual collection from this tax will climb to 60 billion colones ($115 million).
“Some 20 people will be working on this (appraisal) project, which will provide security to the owners of lots and better tax income to municipalities once the properties are appraised,” said Bernabe Leal, coordinator of the project for Roche.
According to Chinchilla, 90 percent of properties in Costa Rica report to their respective municipalities values much lower than their real values.
On some occasions, the difference between reported and real values are ridiculous, as some lots are reported for 1 colon — amount upon which taxes are paid. Claudio Ansorena, general coordinator of the project’s Executing Unit, said most Costa Rican properties are appraised for values that represent only between 20 percent and 25 percent of the actual market value.
In places such as San Rafael de Heredia, for instance, a square-meter in residential areas is sold for around $40, while the value reported to the municipality for taxation purposes is $10.
This project is part of a larger effort to update the country’s land registry, which seeks to make an official description of all properties here.
This will be the first time in 10 years that property values will be updated. The last time the Ministry of the Treasury conducted a study of property values was 1997.
And despite such update, today only 35 of the country’s 81 municipalities apply the current value platform for taxing real estate. The Ministry of the Treasury’s Technical Normalization Unit (ONT) will be in charge of supervising the new appraisals.
While the appraisals take place, firms Telespazio and Novotecni will begin performing a registry study of each property, that is, they will look into whether the physical characteristics of the property coincide with the information on the land surveys.
An estimate indicates that in 2002 there were 1.2 million lots in Costa Rica. The number has grown to 1.5 million in the past five years due to the increased real estate development experienced in the country — especially in some areas of San Jose and in Guanacaste.
The new appraisals will also mean that property owners will have to pay more in taxes, which could make these properties and construction more expensive, said Alexander Mora, administrative manager of Estrategia Inmobiliaria.
“This is a new cost that will passed on to the clients, who in the future will have to pay more in land taxes, and this will affect sale prices. People will have to think a little harder when trying to decide whether to buy a property,” Mora said. “Developers will also have figure out if they will absorb the new costs, as we cannot just get out of the market because of prices.”
The real estate sector is interested in seeing whether the increase in property tax collection will translate into more investment in infrastructure, which would aid in the development of new construction, said Felipe Sequeira, president of the real estate company Grupo Inmobiliario Tzion.
Sequiera indicated that, to maintain the level of development and the contributions large real estate projects provide to society, it is important that municipalities invest more in the infrastructure necessary to support new buildings, such as roads and water supply. He also said it’s important that municipalities invest some of the money collected in taxes to giving permits for construction of urban development programs.
“The country’s real estate growth has been large, but it will become unsustainable in about three years if we don’t invest more in infrastructure,” pointed out Sequeira, whose company is developing a housing complex less than one kilometer from Liberia, on the road to the Daniel Oduber airport.
Information about property values for each region will be available online, through each municipality’s Web site or through the Ministry of the Treasury’s Web site. Online, the municipalities will also be able to show the lot, its physical characteristics and the updated value as they talk about it with the owners.
The project also includes training for the municipalities.
Recuadro:
Each of the country’s 81 cantons has been assigned a beginning and end date for the appraisal work, based on the information provided by consulting firm Roche according to available information from each municipality and the number of lots in its jurisdiction. The following chart shows important dates for Guanacaste.
GUANACASTE
Date when the program’s cartography is available
Registry study (beginning and end dates)
Date when value platform updates will begin
Liberia
5/22//2008
11/1/2007
Nicoya
7/22/2007
11/01/07- 02/22/2008
12/01/2007
Santa Cruz
10/22/2007
09/01/07 – 11/22/07
12/01/2007
Bagaces
11/22/2007
01/02/08 - 02/22/2008
07/01/2007
Carrillo
12/22/2007
01/02/08 – 02/22/2008
09/01/2007
Cañas
12/22/2007
02/02/08- 03/22/2008
07/01/2007
Abangares
05/22/2008
08/01/2007
Tilaran
05/22/2008
08/01/2007
Nandayure
11/22/2007
12/01/07 -01/22/2008
08/01/2007
La Cruz
05/22/2008
04/01/2008
Hojancha
11/22/2007
12/01/07- 01/22/2008
09/01//2007
Source: Executing Unit of the Project for Updating the Value Platform of Lands in Homogeneous Areas.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: www.century21incostarica.com
Website: www.northpacificproperties.com
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
(Infocom) — The appraised value of all of the country’s properties, including those in Guanacaste, will be updated during the next year, thanks to National Registry’s Project for Updating the Value Platform of Lands in Homogeneous Areas.
To carry out this new appraisal, the state institution contracted Roche Ltd. Consulting Group for $1 million. The firm has committed to having all appraisals done by April of next year.
The funds to pay for the project will come from a loan provided by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Justice Minister Laura Chinchilla explained.
The project began recently and will consist of appraising lands according to where they are located, as the country will be divided into regions based on the price of a square meter of land.
These regions will be called homogeneous zones, having an average square-meter price based on the properties contained within.
Each municipality will be charged with estimating the value of each individual property, based on the average land value of each homogeneous zone.
The project is of great importance to local governments, as it is expected that by 2009 it will help them double their income from real estate taxes. That means annual collection from this tax will climb to 60 billion colones ($115 million).
“Some 20 people will be working on this (appraisal) project, which will provide security to the owners of lots and better tax income to municipalities once the properties are appraised,” said Bernabe Leal, coordinator of the project for Roche.
According to Chinchilla, 90 percent of properties in Costa Rica report to their respective municipalities values much lower than their real values.
On some occasions, the difference between reported and real values are ridiculous, as some lots are reported for 1 colon — amount upon which taxes are paid. Claudio Ansorena, general coordinator of the project’s Executing Unit, said most Costa Rican properties are appraised for values that represent only between 20 percent and 25 percent of the actual market value.
In places such as San Rafael de Heredia, for instance, a square-meter in residential areas is sold for around $40, while the value reported to the municipality for taxation purposes is $10.
This project is part of a larger effort to update the country’s land registry, which seeks to make an official description of all properties here.
This will be the first time in 10 years that property values will be updated. The last time the Ministry of the Treasury conducted a study of property values was 1997.
And despite such update, today only 35 of the country’s 81 municipalities apply the current value platform for taxing real estate. The Ministry of the Treasury’s Technical Normalization Unit (ONT) will be in charge of supervising the new appraisals.
While the appraisals take place, firms Telespazio and Novotecni will begin performing a registry study of each property, that is, they will look into whether the physical characteristics of the property coincide with the information on the land surveys.
An estimate indicates that in 2002 there were 1.2 million lots in Costa Rica. The number has grown to 1.5 million in the past five years due to the increased real estate development experienced in the country — especially in some areas of San Jose and in Guanacaste.
The new appraisals will also mean that property owners will have to pay more in taxes, which could make these properties and construction more expensive, said Alexander Mora, administrative manager of Estrategia Inmobiliaria.
“This is a new cost that will passed on to the clients, who in the future will have to pay more in land taxes, and this will affect sale prices. People will have to think a little harder when trying to decide whether to buy a property,” Mora said. “Developers will also have figure out if they will absorb the new costs, as we cannot just get out of the market because of prices.”
The real estate sector is interested in seeing whether the increase in property tax collection will translate into more investment in infrastructure, which would aid in the development of new construction, said Felipe Sequeira, president of the real estate company Grupo Inmobiliario Tzion.
Sequiera indicated that, to maintain the level of development and the contributions large real estate projects provide to society, it is important that municipalities invest more in the infrastructure necessary to support new buildings, such as roads and water supply. He also said it’s important that municipalities invest some of the money collected in taxes to giving permits for construction of urban development programs.
“The country’s real estate growth has been large, but it will become unsustainable in about three years if we don’t invest more in infrastructure,” pointed out Sequeira, whose company is developing a housing complex less than one kilometer from Liberia, on the road to the Daniel Oduber airport.
Information about property values for each region will be available online, through each municipality’s Web site or through the Ministry of the Treasury’s Web site. Online, the municipalities will also be able to show the lot, its physical characteristics and the updated value as they talk about it with the owners.
The project also includes training for the municipalities.
Recuadro:
Each of the country’s 81 cantons has been assigned a beginning and end date for the appraisal work, based on the information provided by consulting firm Roche according to available information from each municipality and the number of lots in its jurisdiction. The following chart shows important dates for Guanacaste.
GUANACASTE
Date when the program’s cartography is available
Registry study (beginning and end dates)
Date when value platform updates will begin
Liberia
5/22//2008
11/1/2007
Nicoya
7/22/2007
11/01/07- 02/22/2008
12/01/2007
Santa Cruz
10/22/2007
09/01/07 – 11/22/07
12/01/2007
Bagaces
11/22/2007
01/02/08 - 02/22/2008
07/01/2007
Carrillo
12/22/2007
01/02/08 – 02/22/2008
09/01/2007
Cañas
12/22/2007
02/02/08- 03/22/2008
07/01/2007
Abangares
05/22/2008
08/01/2007
Tilaran
05/22/2008
08/01/2007
Nandayure
11/22/2007
12/01/07 -01/22/2008
08/01/2007
La Cruz
05/22/2008
04/01/2008
Hojancha
11/22/2007
12/01/07- 01/22/2008
09/01//2007
Source: Executing Unit of the Project for Updating the Value Platform of Lands in Homogeneous Areas.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: www.century21incostarica.com
Website: www.northpacificproperties.com
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Costa Rica becoming popular wedding destination
Source: www.journalcr.com
(Infocom) — The chance to wed in the midst of a breathtaking beach sunset, in the middle of a lush rainforest or against the backdrop of a furious volcano lighting up the night are certainly tempting options for having an unforgettable exchange of marital vows.
Costa Rica’s natural beauty and plenty of exotic locales are not only excellent hooks for attracting conventional tourism. Now they are also drawing the interest of many people who wish to get hitched in a romantic and stunning atmosphere.
This trend has been growing parallel to the booming influx of tourists here. Many hotels currently adapt their facilities for wedding ceremonies and even market packages that include thorough planning of the event. Through these packages, hotels offer food, decorations, stylist and photographer services and even take care of any legal paperwork, to mention just a few services.
Weddings are turning into their own tourism specialization here. Proof of that is that now there are companies dedicated exclusively to the planning of this type of events, taking the worries out of a Costa Rican wedding experience. That’s the case of Costa Rica Paradise Weddings and Weddings Costa Rica, which provide consulting services on all aspects related to tying the knot in style here.
These companies offer services such as negotiating with purveyors, developing Web sites with information for guests, creating unique designs for the decoration, wedding and dinner rehearsals, purchasing the bride and groom’s wardrobes and rings, coordinating travel plans for the couple and guests, honeymoon planning and overall consultation for the entire wedding process.
Why get married in Costa Rica?
Reasonable prices, high quality of services, variety of options and the country’s natural beauty are the main reasons motivating couples to choose Costa Rica to say “I do.”
“Our job is to help the couple find the ideal place for them and design both the ceremony and the reception, according to their budget, style and personality. We adapt to whatever to client wants,” said Sylvia Chaves, weeding planner for Costa Rica Paradise Weddings.
According to Chaves, her customers are mostly young couples between 25 and 35 years of age, upper-middle class, and from countries such as England, Canada and the United States.
Larissa Banting, president of Weddings Costa Rica, said that even though the country still hasn’t reached the popularity of other wedding destinations such as Mexico and Hawaii, it’s on its way to doing so thanks to multiple reasons: variety of exotic locations, frequency of flights coming here, quality of services, security, and the number of activities (whitewater rafting, canopy tours, etc.) the couple and their guests can enjoy as part of the trip.
Marcus and Marina Doherty are one of the couples that decided to tie the knot in Costa Rica. The Ireland natives said their wedding was all they expected it to be thanks to the amiability of the people and the “perfect paradise” they found for the event.
“We chose Costa Rica because of its rich diversity. We wanted a holiday in paradise, which meant it had to have beaches as well as rainforest. Also, Cost Rica is not too big so you can get around quite easily, which we did. Plus, the weather in February is terrific,” explained Marcus, who added that language and cultural differences were not a problem for them.
Moreover, Costa Rica offers certain advantages for this type of tourism other countries don’t. One is that Costa Rica doesn’t require blood tests for people to marry, which is the case in Mexico. And couples don’t have to live here during a minimum period of time before they can exchange vows — in Italy, for example, foreign couples must stay in the country at least 30 days prior to the wedding.
Banting said most of her clients are foreigners, though she also organizes weddings for locals.
“All the weddings we plan are personalized. We don’t offer pre-set packages, as we believe each wedding should be as unique as each couple,” said Banting, adding her company works together with the couples to coordinate all details, from the perfect location to the design of the reception space.
A complete wedding here costs between $10,000 and $50,000, depending on the clients’ preferences and budget. A simple, intimate ceremony is cheaper. Prices go up as the ceremony becomes more complex and luxurious and the number of guests increases.
According to Banting, that’s up to 50 percent less than what comparable weddings would cost in the couples’ countries of origin.
Among the most popular locations for weddings are Manuel Antonio, the Guanacaste beaches, Arenal Volcano and rainforest regions such Sarapiqui, Turrialba and San Ramon.
“I would say 99 percent of the couples look for the beach, especially Guanacaste and the Central Pacific, but some of them look for waterfalls or volcanoes also,” Banting said.
Although most couples prefer a traditional ceremony, the trend of having theme weddings — drawing on aspects of Costa Rican culture — is becoming increasingly popular.
Some couples like to enjoy a typical Costa Rican wedding, with marimba music, traditional clothing and food, and even masquerades accompanied by spirited cimarrona music.
Others have chosen an Indian-themed ceremony, complete with magic-religious rituals officiated by a shaman and Indigenous clothing and dances.
Fantasy weddings are also popular, featuring fireworks and magicians. Others pick a bird theme or concentrate on other flora and fauna typical of Costa Rica.
Also for the rich and famous
Costa Rica’s growing reputation as a wedding destination has also attracted celebrities. Last year, U.S. singer Pink and motocross racer Carey Hart chose to marry at the luxury Four Seasons hotel in Guanacaste’s Papagayo Peninsula.
Actress Bree Williamson, of the U.S. soap opera “One Life to Live,” also got married last year here, in Malpais, Puntarenas.
“I know there are many celebrities coming. What they like the most is that people in Costa Rica are discreet and don’t bother them. Here they can be an intimate wedding; in their countries, they know their wedding would become a circus,” Chaves pointed out.
Banting said her company has worked with high-profile clients, among them millionaires, writers, actors, singers and media executives — but company policies and the clients’ requests keep her from revealing their names
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: www.century21incostarica.com
Website: www.northpacificproperties.com
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
(Infocom) — The chance to wed in the midst of a breathtaking beach sunset, in the middle of a lush rainforest or against the backdrop of a furious volcano lighting up the night are certainly tempting options for having an unforgettable exchange of marital vows.
Costa Rica’s natural beauty and plenty of exotic locales are not only excellent hooks for attracting conventional tourism. Now they are also drawing the interest of many people who wish to get hitched in a romantic and stunning atmosphere.
This trend has been growing parallel to the booming influx of tourists here. Many hotels currently adapt their facilities for wedding ceremonies and even market packages that include thorough planning of the event. Through these packages, hotels offer food, decorations, stylist and photographer services and even take care of any legal paperwork, to mention just a few services.
Weddings are turning into their own tourism specialization here. Proof of that is that now there are companies dedicated exclusively to the planning of this type of events, taking the worries out of a Costa Rican wedding experience. That’s the case of Costa Rica Paradise Weddings and Weddings Costa Rica, which provide consulting services on all aspects related to tying the knot in style here.
These companies offer services such as negotiating with purveyors, developing Web sites with information for guests, creating unique designs for the decoration, wedding and dinner rehearsals, purchasing the bride and groom’s wardrobes and rings, coordinating travel plans for the couple and guests, honeymoon planning and overall consultation for the entire wedding process.
Why get married in Costa Rica?
Reasonable prices, high quality of services, variety of options and the country’s natural beauty are the main reasons motivating couples to choose Costa Rica to say “I do.”
“Our job is to help the couple find the ideal place for them and design both the ceremony and the reception, according to their budget, style and personality. We adapt to whatever to client wants,” said Sylvia Chaves, weeding planner for Costa Rica Paradise Weddings.
According to Chaves, her customers are mostly young couples between 25 and 35 years of age, upper-middle class, and from countries such as England, Canada and the United States.
Larissa Banting, president of Weddings Costa Rica, said that even though the country still hasn’t reached the popularity of other wedding destinations such as Mexico and Hawaii, it’s on its way to doing so thanks to multiple reasons: variety of exotic locations, frequency of flights coming here, quality of services, security, and the number of activities (whitewater rafting, canopy tours, etc.) the couple and their guests can enjoy as part of the trip.
Marcus and Marina Doherty are one of the couples that decided to tie the knot in Costa Rica. The Ireland natives said their wedding was all they expected it to be thanks to the amiability of the people and the “perfect paradise” they found for the event.
“We chose Costa Rica because of its rich diversity. We wanted a holiday in paradise, which meant it had to have beaches as well as rainforest. Also, Cost Rica is not too big so you can get around quite easily, which we did. Plus, the weather in February is terrific,” explained Marcus, who added that language and cultural differences were not a problem for them.
Moreover, Costa Rica offers certain advantages for this type of tourism other countries don’t. One is that Costa Rica doesn’t require blood tests for people to marry, which is the case in Mexico. And couples don’t have to live here during a minimum period of time before they can exchange vows — in Italy, for example, foreign couples must stay in the country at least 30 days prior to the wedding.
Banting said most of her clients are foreigners, though she also organizes weddings for locals.
“All the weddings we plan are personalized. We don’t offer pre-set packages, as we believe each wedding should be as unique as each couple,” said Banting, adding her company works together with the couples to coordinate all details, from the perfect location to the design of the reception space.
A complete wedding here costs between $10,000 and $50,000, depending on the clients’ preferences and budget. A simple, intimate ceremony is cheaper. Prices go up as the ceremony becomes more complex and luxurious and the number of guests increases.
According to Banting, that’s up to 50 percent less than what comparable weddings would cost in the couples’ countries of origin.
Among the most popular locations for weddings are Manuel Antonio, the Guanacaste beaches, Arenal Volcano and rainforest regions such Sarapiqui, Turrialba and San Ramon.
“I would say 99 percent of the couples look for the beach, especially Guanacaste and the Central Pacific, but some of them look for waterfalls or volcanoes also,” Banting said.
Although most couples prefer a traditional ceremony, the trend of having theme weddings — drawing on aspects of Costa Rican culture — is becoming increasingly popular.
Some couples like to enjoy a typical Costa Rican wedding, with marimba music, traditional clothing and food, and even masquerades accompanied by spirited cimarrona music.
Others have chosen an Indian-themed ceremony, complete with magic-religious rituals officiated by a shaman and Indigenous clothing and dances.
Fantasy weddings are also popular, featuring fireworks and magicians. Others pick a bird theme or concentrate on other flora and fauna typical of Costa Rica.
Also for the rich and famous
Costa Rica’s growing reputation as a wedding destination has also attracted celebrities. Last year, U.S. singer Pink and motocross racer Carey Hart chose to marry at the luxury Four Seasons hotel in Guanacaste’s Papagayo Peninsula.
Actress Bree Williamson, of the U.S. soap opera “One Life to Live,” also got married last year here, in Malpais, Puntarenas.
“I know there are many celebrities coming. What they like the most is that people in Costa Rica are discreet and don’t bother them. Here they can be an intimate wedding; in their countries, they know their wedding would become a circus,” Chaves pointed out.
Banting said her company has worked with high-profile clients, among them millionaires, writers, actors, singers and media executives — but company policies and the clients’ requests keep her from revealing their names
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: www.century21incostarica.com
Website: www.northpacificproperties.com
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Smart investments in paradise
Source: www.journalcr.com
By Nicholas P. VIALE
It’s a fact that baby boomers in their early 40s continue to spend more money than any other generation. This is particularly interesting as it pertains to the Gold Coast, where many North Americans nearing their prime years, end up vacationing around here as a way to enjoy eco-travel, sports, relaxation and the exploration of the Latin culture.
After a few days of enjoyment, many tinker with the idea of investing in a second home to use for future vacations and as an income producer between personal trips.
The temptation to invest in a rental producer in a tourism destination is hard to resist, especially when the facts of the benefits are explained by qualified professionals.
There are many varieties of purchases available, but the most common, and the one that would generate the best return on your investment are condominiums. There are many reasons for that:
1) Condos have become popular as the perfect alternative to a classic hotel room and offers more intimacy, liberty, as well as the sensation of “being in a home away from home.”
2) On internet search engines, “Condos For Rent” is the most-sought-after entry, simply because the prices are very affordable (especially when the rental price for a 2- or 3-bedroom unit can be shared between two or three couples).
3) Condominium communities generally offer good security, with spacious common areas and several amenities including, but limited to, property management, pools, tropical gardens, kids’ playgrounds, tennis, trails, laundry facilities, tourism or concierge services, etc. etc. but also security guards, laundry, tours,
4) Lastly, condos are easier to resell than a home, and typically are sold at a much higher value than the original purchase price. Remember that when you sell a rental condo, not only are you selling a piece of real estate, but also an income producer.
Furthermore, there are many ways to plan your investment in a rental income producer in the Gold Coast area. The simplest way is to get your feet wet by investing in a nice, comfortable unit located in a project offering spacious common areas. Or, you might consider investing in pre-sales stage in order to minimize your initial investment and maximize your potential profit in the future. Ordinarily, the price at pre-sales is lower than when construction begins, and at that point the value of the property increases.
You can also create a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) along with some friends or family. This permits you to invest in several rental income producers at once, allowing maximum rental income while creating a solid, dynamic portfolio.
The more conservative approach in investing would be to buy a unit, then immediately put it on the market as a long-term rental. This results in lower income for your pocket, but is a more secure, long-term strategy oriented toward profit that will eventually be generated on resale. This path is excellent, if you are a young couple with children, with plans to create a college fund for their future, for example.
To accomplish any of the aforementioned goals, you might decide to use a local source of financing in order to secure your investment in one of the various rental income producers in our area. This is a viable option, with many local alternatives and in the United States as well, including utilizing an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). An IRA is one of several specific retirement accounts allowed by the IRS to provide tax-deferral or other tax advantages, in order to purchase real estate in Costa Rica.
If you are interested in getting started with your investment and would like to get more information and documentation about the best rental producers available in Guanacaste and the Gold Coast, as well as property management companies, and the financing available to make a purchase, please contact our office today. Our agents will give you a general overview of the local market, help you define your strategy, and plan your custom designed investment exactly to your needs and resources.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: www.century21incostarica.com
Website: www.northpacificproperties.com
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
By Nicholas P. VIALE
It’s a fact that baby boomers in their early 40s continue to spend more money than any other generation. This is particularly interesting as it pertains to the Gold Coast, where many North Americans nearing their prime years, end up vacationing around here as a way to enjoy eco-travel, sports, relaxation and the exploration of the Latin culture.
After a few days of enjoyment, many tinker with the idea of investing in a second home to use for future vacations and as an income producer between personal trips.
The temptation to invest in a rental producer in a tourism destination is hard to resist, especially when the facts of the benefits are explained by qualified professionals.
There are many varieties of purchases available, but the most common, and the one that would generate the best return on your investment are condominiums. There are many reasons for that:
1) Condos have become popular as the perfect alternative to a classic hotel room and offers more intimacy, liberty, as well as the sensation of “being in a home away from home.”
2) On internet search engines, “Condos For Rent” is the most-sought-after entry, simply because the prices are very affordable (especially when the rental price for a 2- or 3-bedroom unit can be shared between two or three couples).
3) Condominium communities generally offer good security, with spacious common areas and several amenities including, but limited to, property management, pools, tropical gardens, kids’ playgrounds, tennis, trails, laundry facilities, tourism or concierge services, etc. etc. but also security guards, laundry, tours,
4) Lastly, condos are easier to resell than a home, and typically are sold at a much higher value than the original purchase price. Remember that when you sell a rental condo, not only are you selling a piece of real estate, but also an income producer.
Furthermore, there are many ways to plan your investment in a rental income producer in the Gold Coast area. The simplest way is to get your feet wet by investing in a nice, comfortable unit located in a project offering spacious common areas. Or, you might consider investing in pre-sales stage in order to minimize your initial investment and maximize your potential profit in the future. Ordinarily, the price at pre-sales is lower than when construction begins, and at that point the value of the property increases.
You can also create a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) along with some friends or family. This permits you to invest in several rental income producers at once, allowing maximum rental income while creating a solid, dynamic portfolio.
The more conservative approach in investing would be to buy a unit, then immediately put it on the market as a long-term rental. This results in lower income for your pocket, but is a more secure, long-term strategy oriented toward profit that will eventually be generated on resale. This path is excellent, if you are a young couple with children, with plans to create a college fund for their future, for example.
To accomplish any of the aforementioned goals, you might decide to use a local source of financing in order to secure your investment in one of the various rental income producers in our area. This is a viable option, with many local alternatives and in the United States as well, including utilizing an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). An IRA is one of several specific retirement accounts allowed by the IRS to provide tax-deferral or other tax advantages, in order to purchase real estate in Costa Rica.
If you are interested in getting started with your investment and would like to get more information and documentation about the best rental producers available in Guanacaste and the Gold Coast, as well as property management companies, and the financing available to make a purchase, please contact our office today. Our agents will give you a general overview of the local market, help you define your strategy, and plan your custom designed investment exactly to your needs and resources.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: www.century21incostarica.com
Website: www.northpacificproperties.com
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
CondeDuque unveils ambitious development project
Source: www.journalcr.com
By Alex Lane
In the present competitive climate of development companies in Costa Rica, it’s easy to blend in as an imitator and difficult to stand out as an innovator. Grupo CondeDuque and its partner company, Desarrollos del Pacifico, have managed the latter by developing a project in Guanacaste that rises above its competitors in both quality and innovation.
Grupo CondeDuque, a 5-years-old business, is unique because it prides itself on creating a sustainable environment for its developments. According to company president Federico Apestegui, current developments rely on a self-contained water system drawn from the company’s own wells.
The location he describes is a conglomerate of projects situated on the fertile plains west of the Liberia airport and just before the road veers towards Playa Del Coco.
The company’s current focus is on two self-sustainable luxury communities, Costa Mar and Prados Del Rio. Other projects named Golf Monte Claro and Plaza Monte Claro are also being planned. There are six private resident and community-related projects currently underway split between the two companies. Currently, four are being marketed.
Carlos Chinchilla, 33-year-old general manager of Desarrollos del Pacifico, has full confidence in their projects. “We have the best location for a development. Our plan is to keep on going and make a name for ourselves as responsible builders.”
The impressive computer generated layout of Costa Mar boasts a development designed with the resident in mind. It includes 400 condominium and loft units, with the condos approximately 800 square feet and the lofts at 500 square feet. Also included, a bridge and a 2-acre lake. The condos are designed as the epitome of luxury and range in price from $43,000 to $115,000. Or, more aptly put in the words of Chinchilla, “they’ve got everything.”
The advantage over their competitors, according to Luis Alejandro Giralt, development manager for Grupo CondeDuque, is two-fold. “We are giving the best prices and our housing is the most affordable. Because we have owned the land for the last seventy years, the crazy price hikes that are going on in this area haven’t affected us. We also have our own architect and engineer team.”
The team he describes consists of 25 people. All additional jobs, like construction, are outsourced.
These two companies are all about relationships. Besides planning much of the development on a private piece of property owned by members of the Grupo Condeduque company, Chinchilla and Giralt also have a close personal relationship. As a result of the business Grupo Condeduque was generating, Chinchilla and his company felt obliged to join in.
“Guanacaste is moving fast. We already have a lot of pre-sales on these projects and they are going quick,” said Apestegui.
Permits are currently being finalized and construction is intended to begin in April or sooner.
Upcoming projects in the same location include the tentatively titled Golf Monte Claro, an ambitious project spanning 300 acres and including 600 residential lots surrounding by an 18-hole golf course. Monte Claro, a shopping center, is being constructed adjacent to the Costa Mar condominiums.
Apestegui and Chinchilla are grateful for the involvement of Grupo CondeDuque and Desarrollos del Pacifico’s sponsors and partner companies, including Stewart Title, which guarantees all the properties, and Fortune House International Realty, which manages all the international sales.
If you would like more information on Grupo CondeDuque and Desarrollos del Pacifico’s current and upcoming projects, please visit there website at www.desarrollosdelpacifico.net or www.condeduque.net, or contact them by phone at 291-5544.
By Alex Lane
In the present competitive climate of development companies in Costa Rica, it’s easy to blend in as an imitator and difficult to stand out as an innovator. Grupo CondeDuque and its partner company, Desarrollos del Pacifico, have managed the latter by developing a project in Guanacaste that rises above its competitors in both quality and innovation.
Grupo CondeDuque, a 5-years-old business, is unique because it prides itself on creating a sustainable environment for its developments. According to company president Federico Apestegui, current developments rely on a self-contained water system drawn from the company’s own wells.
The location he describes is a conglomerate of projects situated on the fertile plains west of the Liberia airport and just before the road veers towards Playa Del Coco.
The company’s current focus is on two self-sustainable luxury communities, Costa Mar and Prados Del Rio. Other projects named Golf Monte Claro and Plaza Monte Claro are also being planned. There are six private resident and community-related projects currently underway split between the two companies. Currently, four are being marketed.
Carlos Chinchilla, 33-year-old general manager of Desarrollos del Pacifico, has full confidence in their projects. “We have the best location for a development. Our plan is to keep on going and make a name for ourselves as responsible builders.”
The impressive computer generated layout of Costa Mar boasts a development designed with the resident in mind. It includes 400 condominium and loft units, with the condos approximately 800 square feet and the lofts at 500 square feet. Also included, a bridge and a 2-acre lake. The condos are designed as the epitome of luxury and range in price from $43,000 to $115,000. Or, more aptly put in the words of Chinchilla, “they’ve got everything.”
The advantage over their competitors, according to Luis Alejandro Giralt, development manager for Grupo CondeDuque, is two-fold. “We are giving the best prices and our housing is the most affordable. Because we have owned the land for the last seventy years, the crazy price hikes that are going on in this area haven’t affected us. We also have our own architect and engineer team.”
The team he describes consists of 25 people. All additional jobs, like construction, are outsourced.
These two companies are all about relationships. Besides planning much of the development on a private piece of property owned by members of the Grupo Condeduque company, Chinchilla and Giralt also have a close personal relationship. As a result of the business Grupo Condeduque was generating, Chinchilla and his company felt obliged to join in.
“Guanacaste is moving fast. We already have a lot of pre-sales on these projects and they are going quick,” said Apestegui.
Permits are currently being finalized and construction is intended to begin in April or sooner.
Upcoming projects in the same location include the tentatively titled Golf Monte Claro, an ambitious project spanning 300 acres and including 600 residential lots surrounding by an 18-hole golf course. Monte Claro, a shopping center, is being constructed adjacent to the Costa Mar condominiums.
Apestegui and Chinchilla are grateful for the involvement of Grupo CondeDuque and Desarrollos del Pacifico’s sponsors and partner companies, including Stewart Title, which guarantees all the properties, and Fortune House International Realty, which manages all the international sales.
If you would like more information on Grupo CondeDuque and Desarrollos del Pacifico’s current and upcoming projects, please visit there website at www.desarrollosdelpacifico.net or www.condeduque.net, or contact them by phone at 291-5544.
Foreign investment rising
Source (www.journalcr.com) By Rosibel Pérez C.
In the southern part of Liberia, near the Daniel Oduber International Airport, the growth of real estate development projects has become one of the most important in the province because of the wealth of available resources. But the lack of planning could turn this growth into a future urban mess.
“The main investment dollars come from the United States, though there is no statistical information,” said Enrique Egloff, vice president of the Real Estate Development Council (CODI). “Development in this area is fueled by the expectations of expansion of the airport.”
In the surroundings of the airport, there are 24 projects with an investment of $19 million, according to the Municipality of Liberia’s Engineering Department. They all have their permits to begin construction as long as they comply with current rules regarding land use, number of levels allowed for each building, and others.
The main projects include businesses, warehouses, condominiums and residential communities, which span investments from $23,000 to $2 million.
“This growth should be in harmony with the environmental and the social, taking into consideration aspects such as health, education, roads and water resources,” Egloff pointed out.
Next targets
Developers have their eyes on the country’s coastal areas, with the Liberia-Carrillo-Santa Cruz coastal corridor being No. 1. The Garabito-Parrita-Aguirre corridor is the next target.
It’s important to highlight that the Liberia-Carrillo-Santa Cruz corridor encompasses 62 percent of projects and 75 percent of investment in residential developments outside of Costa Rica’s Great Metropolitan Area. Beyond the country’s borders, there are new destinations to explore in Panama, the country with the highest growth in the area. Nicaragua is another investment target due to the incentives given and the easy paperwork, in addition to the low land prices, all of which navigate in the current political uncertainty.
Strategic alliances
One of Costa Rica’s weaknesses as a destination for investors in the excessive paperwork that must be completed in order to obtain construction permits. That’s why a strategic alliance between the Federated Engineers and Architects Association (CFIA), the Real Estate Development Council (CODI) and the Costa Rican Chamber of Construction has created the Program for Competitiveness and Efficiency in Construction (POSECO).
This program seeks to influence the central government to eliminate unnecessary paperwork.
“There’s all this tramitología (paperwork and requirements) that is excessive and illogical, as there’s very poor control once construction begins and the developers do whatever they please,” said Olman Vargas, director of CFIA.
In addition to this alliance, CFIA offers a Web site where blueprints are okayed so they can be printed and taken to all the institutions that must provide permits. It is expected that by the middle of 2007, a platform of services that includes all institutions involved in the process will be implemented.
As Vargas sees it, the construction boom must be accompanied by plans to make sure public infrastructure can sustain growth, considering key services such as water, electricity and roads. He said one way to address this issue is to have the public and private sectors come together.
CODI is one effort to bridge the gap between both sectors. It is a private entity aimed at finding solutions to optimal land use as well as establishing legal requirements in accordance with real estate development.
“Our role is working with the government and public institutions to improve procedures,” Egloff said. “We work with the Environmental Technical Secretariat, the National Housing and Urban Development Institute, and others.”
Costa Rican growth has not been planned well and there has been little control of needed services. In addition, land prices are very low compared to international prices, all of which has given way to the current construction boom.
Near the Daniel Oduber International Airport, land is divided in two parts: urban zone and rural zone. The square meter is used to measure the urban zone, and the current price is $2.9 per square meter. The rural zone is measured in hectares, each with a fiscal value of approximately $681 — but the commercial value can grow up to 600 percent.
“Land prices are going to go up, and the boom is going to stop there, and that’s going to happen relatively fast,” Vargas said.
In the southern part of Liberia, near the Daniel Oduber International Airport, the growth of real estate development projects has become one of the most important in the province because of the wealth of available resources. But the lack of planning could turn this growth into a future urban mess.
“The main investment dollars come from the United States, though there is no statistical information,” said Enrique Egloff, vice president of the Real Estate Development Council (CODI). “Development in this area is fueled by the expectations of expansion of the airport.”
In the surroundings of the airport, there are 24 projects with an investment of $19 million, according to the Municipality of Liberia’s Engineering Department. They all have their permits to begin construction as long as they comply with current rules regarding land use, number of levels allowed for each building, and others.
The main projects include businesses, warehouses, condominiums and residential communities, which span investments from $23,000 to $2 million.
“This growth should be in harmony with the environmental and the social, taking into consideration aspects such as health, education, roads and water resources,” Egloff pointed out.
Next targets
Developers have their eyes on the country’s coastal areas, with the Liberia-Carrillo-Santa Cruz coastal corridor being No. 1. The Garabito-Parrita-Aguirre corridor is the next target.
It’s important to highlight that the Liberia-Carrillo-Santa Cruz corridor encompasses 62 percent of projects and 75 percent of investment in residential developments outside of Costa Rica’s Great Metropolitan Area. Beyond the country’s borders, there are new destinations to explore in Panama, the country with the highest growth in the area. Nicaragua is another investment target due to the incentives given and the easy paperwork, in addition to the low land prices, all of which navigate in the current political uncertainty.
Strategic alliances
One of Costa Rica’s weaknesses as a destination for investors in the excessive paperwork that must be completed in order to obtain construction permits. That’s why a strategic alliance between the Federated Engineers and Architects Association (CFIA), the Real Estate Development Council (CODI) and the Costa Rican Chamber of Construction has created the Program for Competitiveness and Efficiency in Construction (POSECO).
This program seeks to influence the central government to eliminate unnecessary paperwork.
“There’s all this tramitología (paperwork and requirements) that is excessive and illogical, as there’s very poor control once construction begins and the developers do whatever they please,” said Olman Vargas, director of CFIA.
In addition to this alliance, CFIA offers a Web site where blueprints are okayed so they can be printed and taken to all the institutions that must provide permits. It is expected that by the middle of 2007, a platform of services that includes all institutions involved in the process will be implemented.
As Vargas sees it, the construction boom must be accompanied by plans to make sure public infrastructure can sustain growth, considering key services such as water, electricity and roads. He said one way to address this issue is to have the public and private sectors come together.
CODI is one effort to bridge the gap between both sectors. It is a private entity aimed at finding solutions to optimal land use as well as establishing legal requirements in accordance with real estate development.
“Our role is working with the government and public institutions to improve procedures,” Egloff said. “We work with the Environmental Technical Secretariat, the National Housing and Urban Development Institute, and others.”
Costa Rican growth has not been planned well and there has been little control of needed services. In addition, land prices are very low compared to international prices, all of which has given way to the current construction boom.
Near the Daniel Oduber International Airport, land is divided in two parts: urban zone and rural zone. The square meter is used to measure the urban zone, and the current price is $2.9 per square meter. The rural zone is measured in hectares, each with a fiscal value of approximately $681 — but the commercial value can grow up to 600 percent.
“Land prices are going to go up, and the boom is going to stop there, and that’s going to happen relatively fast,” Vargas said.
Flamingo / Tamarindo area remains a hot market
Source (www.journalcr.com) By Dave Casey
The stretch of Pacific Coast between Flamingo and Tamarindo has been developing steadily for more than a decade, and it remains one of the hottest real estate markets in Costa Rica despite soaring prices and concerns about inadequate infrastructure.
Denise Shantz, sales manager for Century 21 Coastal Estates in Tamarindo, tells a personal anecdote when asked about the rise in property values there.
One of the agents found a real estate brochure from 1998 while rummaging through a desk drawer in the office recently.
“It was hysterical,” Shantz said. “Condos at Pueblo del Mar were listing for $66,000 and being sold at $55,000 or $58,000. Now those condos are selling from $175,000 to $178,000.”
Shantz, a Canadian who has lived in the Tamarindo area almost six years, was looking for a home for herself three years ago. At the Villas Mariposa, which she described as “very nice, very private,” units were selling for about $90,000.
“Now we have one of them listed for $259,000,” Shantz said.
But Shantz believes prices in Tamarindo have peaked out for the time being because of the hundreds of new condominiums and houses coming on the market.
“I think we’re going to see a bit of a shift,” she said when asked if sellers were being unrealistic in their asking prices. “I hate to use the word correction.
“We say to our clients, ‘Do you want to list it or do you want to sell it?’ People have to be realistic and realize that they can’t just keep asking higher and higher prices, especially for luxury homes. They end up having them on the market for a year or more,” Shantz said.
Some would-be sellers “don’t just put their price up by $100,000, they will put it on the market for a half million dollars or more at one jump,” she said.
Currently, Shantz said, condominiums are the big market.
“Some developers are being more realistic and some are not. There are so many (units) coming online now, the competiton is fierce. It’s a buyer’s market now,” she said.
“What’s been interesting this past year with the condos is that we’re seeing a lot come on the market in the same range -- from $300,000 to a half million. The lower end stuff has sold much more quickly. Anything we’ve got for less than $200,000 gets snapped up very quickly. But most developers don’t want to build low-end.”
So what advice would Shantz offer to a new developer?
“Right now in this area, get a little more realistic. Look out for the middle class guy. Not all of us have a half million dollars to spend on a condominium.”
Another change in recent years is that the market is moving inland, Shantz said. “Tamarindo already is pushing out toward Villareal. You see more developments in Santa Rosa and Hernandez -- smaller gated communities,” she said.
“You get some people who are retiring down here and who are middle class. They can’t afford to be in Tamarindo, or they don’t want the hustle and bustle of downtown Tamarindo. They want to be close enough to utilize the amenities but live in a more tranquil setting.”
Despite the changes in availability and pricing, Shantz foresees continued success for the real estate market in the Tamarindo area.
“I think any coastal area -- it doesn’t matter whether in the U.S. or Canada or in Costa Rica -- it’s always going to be prime real estate because people simply want to be by the ocean,” she said.
While Shantz is cautiously optimistic about the Tamarindo area, some real estate professionals in Flamingo believe that property values in that community have not even approached their potential worth.
Bob Davey, broker-owner of Century 21 Marina Trading Post, scoffs at the idea that property there has peaked.
“Ridiculous,” he said. “It’s the beginning of time for us. We’re just at the start.”
Although the company handles properties throughout Guanacaste, its office is in Flamingo and that community is where it does a significant portion of its business.
“You can’t get a piece of property here for less than $1 million,” Davey said. “We have a great project in Playa Grande, with lots in the low hundreds. People are buying them sight unseen from the United States. It’s very early on for this market.”
One reason Davey cites for his enthusiasm is the current administration of Costa Rica President Oscar Arias and what it is doing to sustain good development by improving infrastructure and security.
“This administration has put it in place a good plan,” Davey said. “The last administration didn’t do anything. They might have even gone backwards.
Davey said some visitors and potential investors “left here and gave Costa Rica a bad rap” because of its poor roads and other problems.
“It’s indescribable how poor the roads were. People were leaving here with back and neck injuries. And the (Liberia) airport experience was bad. There were the bad headlines we had for the past year -- the security situation got out of control. Not just for tourists; the foreigner residents and the locals were prey, too.”
But the creation of a new tourist police force and the decision by several coastal communities to hire private security is turning that situation around, Davey said.
Developers have helped fix some infrastructure needs, and the new administration is committed to improving roads, bridges and the airports.
“I’ve been here for 17 years,” Davey said. “I’ve watched every quirk and quiver of this market. It’s never been stronger.”
The stretch of Pacific Coast between Flamingo and Tamarindo has been developing steadily for more than a decade, and it remains one of the hottest real estate markets in Costa Rica despite soaring prices and concerns about inadequate infrastructure.
Denise Shantz, sales manager for Century 21 Coastal Estates in Tamarindo, tells a personal anecdote when asked about the rise in property values there.
One of the agents found a real estate brochure from 1998 while rummaging through a desk drawer in the office recently.
“It was hysterical,” Shantz said. “Condos at Pueblo del Mar were listing for $66,000 and being sold at $55,000 or $58,000. Now those condos are selling from $175,000 to $178,000.”
Shantz, a Canadian who has lived in the Tamarindo area almost six years, was looking for a home for herself three years ago. At the Villas Mariposa, which she described as “very nice, very private,” units were selling for about $90,000.
“Now we have one of them listed for $259,000,” Shantz said.
But Shantz believes prices in Tamarindo have peaked out for the time being because of the hundreds of new condominiums and houses coming on the market.
“I think we’re going to see a bit of a shift,” she said when asked if sellers were being unrealistic in their asking prices. “I hate to use the word correction.
“We say to our clients, ‘Do you want to list it or do you want to sell it?’ People have to be realistic and realize that they can’t just keep asking higher and higher prices, especially for luxury homes. They end up having them on the market for a year or more,” Shantz said.
Some would-be sellers “don’t just put their price up by $100,000, they will put it on the market for a half million dollars or more at one jump,” she said.
Currently, Shantz said, condominiums are the big market.
“Some developers are being more realistic and some are not. There are so many (units) coming online now, the competiton is fierce. It’s a buyer’s market now,” she said.
“What’s been interesting this past year with the condos is that we’re seeing a lot come on the market in the same range -- from $300,000 to a half million. The lower end stuff has sold much more quickly. Anything we’ve got for less than $200,000 gets snapped up very quickly. But most developers don’t want to build low-end.”
So what advice would Shantz offer to a new developer?
“Right now in this area, get a little more realistic. Look out for the middle class guy. Not all of us have a half million dollars to spend on a condominium.”
Another change in recent years is that the market is moving inland, Shantz said. “Tamarindo already is pushing out toward Villareal. You see more developments in Santa Rosa and Hernandez -- smaller gated communities,” she said.
“You get some people who are retiring down here and who are middle class. They can’t afford to be in Tamarindo, or they don’t want the hustle and bustle of downtown Tamarindo. They want to be close enough to utilize the amenities but live in a more tranquil setting.”
Despite the changes in availability and pricing, Shantz foresees continued success for the real estate market in the Tamarindo area.
“I think any coastal area -- it doesn’t matter whether in the U.S. or Canada or in Costa Rica -- it’s always going to be prime real estate because people simply want to be by the ocean,” she said.
While Shantz is cautiously optimistic about the Tamarindo area, some real estate professionals in Flamingo believe that property values in that community have not even approached their potential worth.
Bob Davey, broker-owner of Century 21 Marina Trading Post, scoffs at the idea that property there has peaked.
“Ridiculous,” he said. “It’s the beginning of time for us. We’re just at the start.”
Although the company handles properties throughout Guanacaste, its office is in Flamingo and that community is where it does a significant portion of its business.
“You can’t get a piece of property here for less than $1 million,” Davey said. “We have a great project in Playa Grande, with lots in the low hundreds. People are buying them sight unseen from the United States. It’s very early on for this market.”
One reason Davey cites for his enthusiasm is the current administration of Costa Rica President Oscar Arias and what it is doing to sustain good development by improving infrastructure and security.
“This administration has put it in place a good plan,” Davey said. “The last administration didn’t do anything. They might have even gone backwards.
Davey said some visitors and potential investors “left here and gave Costa Rica a bad rap” because of its poor roads and other problems.
“It’s indescribable how poor the roads were. People were leaving here with back and neck injuries. And the (Liberia) airport experience was bad. There were the bad headlines we had for the past year -- the security situation got out of control. Not just for tourists; the foreigner residents and the locals were prey, too.”
But the creation of a new tourist police force and the decision by several coastal communities to hire private security is turning that situation around, Davey said.
Developers have helped fix some infrastructure needs, and the new administration is committed to improving roads, bridges and the airports.
“I’ve been here for 17 years,” Davey said. “I’ve watched every quirk and quiver of this market. It’s never been stronger.”
Build in Guanacaste, and investors will come
Source (www.journalcr.com) By Peter Freeman
The road leading to Costa Blanca del Pacifico, a luxury resort in Guanacaste, is flawlessly paved. The roads winding through the hills of the surrounding Papagayo Bay are also perfectly maintained. They’re a dream come true to the foreign tourist coming to Costa Rica with recounted horror stories of potholes and muddy banks around every turn.
The government is not the first to thank for the smooth ride, however, but rather the resorts, who have personally laid and maintained the roads that service their properties.
Maintaining even roads is only a part of a more general practice in Costa Rica’s tourism industry: privately filling the holes in public infrastructure and services left undeveloped by the federal and local governments. Holes that, to the foreign tourist coming to the country to travel or retire in luxury, are aggravating. The developers are taking the same attitude towards the country’s local economies, as well. If their guests can’t find the high scale stores and restaurants in town that they’re accustomed to, the resort will build the facilities. If the medical services available in town don’t meet the guests’ standards, the resort will build a clinic that does. Because many of the foreigners entering the country these days are here to live long term, they are bringing with them their standards of living acquired in their home countries - well developed first-world economies like the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Few are able to better observe these trends than Michael Simons of Remax Tres Amigos in Playa Hermosa, the most successful Remax agency in the world outside of the United States.
“There is a very good camaraderie between the developers here. They understand that they have to bring in the water and the electricity because the government isn’t going to do it. Because they’re making the money here, not the government. And its not the buyers’ responsibility, either - its the developers’. And most of them are doing a good job,” Simons said.
Nowhere yet has private investment been as noticeable as in Costa Rica’s seventh and largest province, Guanacaste. The northwest region is currently experiencing a development boom, receiving 59 percent of real estate investment nationwide last year. “Location, location, location” still being the central tenet of real estate value, Guanacaste’s close proximity to the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, the capital of Guanacaste, is the heart of the region’s rapid growth. Proximity to the airport is so important because, as Brad Schaepp from Costa Blanca del Pacifico said,“many tourists are looking for a base camp.” The flight to Liberia from Miami, Florida is two hours long; three hours from Houston, Texas. Costa Rica is a quick, convenient flight for many, and they want the time it takes to get to a hotel or second home, drop off their suitcase, and hit the sun to be relatively as short. After touching down, tourists only have to travel half an hour to an hour to reach Guanacaste’s most popular beaches. From the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, it usually takes four or more hours to reach the same destinations.
When Liberia’s airport first began servicing direct international flights three years ago, only 50,000 people a year were arriving. In 2005, 300,000 travelers landed and 450,000 came through the airport in 2006. Continental Airlines, who uses Liberia as its Central American hub, will soon double the number of weekly flights from eight to sixteen. Yet many are finding that the terminal is already too small to accommodate the traffic. It is not uncommon to have to wait outside for a taxi or shuttle to avoid the crowd inside. Of course, there is a canopy to provide shade from the sun. But it is provided by the local businesses receiving guests, not the airport itself.
The nature of the tourism market in Guanacaste is one of isolation on a number of levels. “We’re not really competing with the central Pacific,” Schaepp said. “It’s a different market.”
It’s true, the market in Guanacaste is unique, mostly because of the mega-resorts and residence communities that seem to be popping up everywhere. Enormous tracts of land – 200 acres or more - are being developed to be self-sufficient, virtual towns. Playa de Coco, a small beach town twenty minutes from the airport in Liberia, will soon become the model of this development trend in Guanacaste. Ten minutes north around the corner is Papagayo Gulf, dotted with mega-resorts, including Costa Blanca del Pacifico and the Four Seasons Resort, Peninsula Papagayo. Fifteen minutes south is the Papagayo Golf Club, a mega-resort and residence community with the region’s only golf course. In Coco, the Pacifico Beach Club is under construction and will soon be a model of an integrated business and residential community.
The Pacifico Beach Club looks like a luxury hotel in Dubai might look. Its design is clean and stylish, the beach side pools are carved into a stone patio, the water coming flush to the edge, and the tanning mattresses laid out match the beige tents and deck chairs. This area and the clubhouse are look like an oasis closed off from the beach by a large Guanacaste Stone wall. The guests socializing are noticeably international, speaking Russian, Polish, French, English, and Spanish, amongst other languages. Uphill from the club is 175 acres of land cleared for the development of 500 residences in total, including town homes for one or multiple families, custom built homes, condos, and vacant lots available for purchase and private development. Pacifico has already laid the access roads and utilities. New construction, aside from having to pass a loose architectural review, is up to the buyer to design. Pacifico is hoping that this freedom to design will produce a varied landscape of homes, rather than the matching housing complexes that many tourists find dull.
The home sites are starting at $75,000 for a .22 acre lot with a 324 square meter buildable pad lot size. Jayson Matthews at Pacifico considers this price a steal, pointing out that, “you can’t find any comparable property in Coco for under $100,000.” The most expensive plots are priced up to $275,000 for .52 acres and a 736.7 square meter buildable pad lot size. A range of already built homes are also available with a variety of custom features and design aspects, although, as Matthews said, “the view is the most important factor in determining price.”
Pacifico’s largest selling point, however, is its savvy for community design and development. First of all, the community is gated with only one guarded entrance. “Security is a huge issue,” said Matthews. Secondly, when the buyers move in (the first closings are set for late March, 2007) they will be able to shop at Pacifico’s retail village, which will include a design center, a furniture store, and an AutoMercado, as well as various other upscale businesses. It will be open to the public, although is designed to serve the wealthier Pacifico residents. One must wonder if the jobs created by the village will balance out the economic division it will create between Coco town and Pacifico’s residents.
Such a push to the economy by developers is not an unnatural step, however, and many think that it is necessary. As Simons points out, “it always takes a while for infrastructure to catch up to growth. The same thing happens in the United States.” Simons is optimistic that the Costa Rican government will pick up speed. “In time, the government will take [such development] over,” he said. “They are doing their job already. Look, roads are better, the airport is bigger. Things will improve, especially with the new president.”
Neither are developers looking to crowd out the local economy. Costa Rica is internationally recognized as a country that takes care of its residents and its environment during economic transitions. Dave Reynolds, the owner of the Papagayo Golf and Country Club, attributes the success of his mega-resort and housing community to an intelligent, considerate business approach. Papagayo offers 138 plots for purchase (only 26 are left). Most are 1.25 – 3 acre plots at about $22 per square meter, located on and around their golf course. The houses built are ranging from $400,000 to $650,000 and the 130 condos available have been going for between $240,000 and $325,000.
Reynolds has seen that customers want to stay and live at the Club for two reasons. One, the golf: “one fifth of tourists come to Costa Rica to play golf,” he says. “And the census went up accordingly. We really don’t have any competition in the region because we are the only resort in the Coco area that has a golf course.” Secondly, however, Reynolds has been very sensitive to customers’ demands that the resort pay attention to the impact it is making on the community, especially with regard to the environment. For that reason, Reynolds only cut 52 old growth trees on the property, planted 3,000 fruit trees, and preserved 18 percent (82 acres) of the land as green space in order to maintain wildlife corridors. In addition, Papagayo uses a type of grass on the course that lives on salt water. This allows the resort to avoid using insecticides and fungicides, as well as limiting the runoff of fresh water into the surrounding coastal area. “It is usually seen as a loss not to develop land, but this sort of conservation does not loose any money,” Reynolds said. He attributes this to a clientele that comes to Costa Rica with a particular eco-friendly profile in mind and are pleased to know that they are not damaging the country’s rich environment - one reason they came in the first place.
Guanacaste’s profile is undoubtedly changing. It is many times more expensive than it was a couple of years ago, but still very cheap to the wealthy foreigners that are driving the market. As Simons points out, “most clients laugh at the prices. They see how cheap it is and say, ‘I’ll take two.’” A $300,000 house in Playa Hermosa, for example, would go for $2 million in Hawaii. One of the attractions of Costa Rica is that it’s less expensive than Florida, the Caribbean, the Virgin Islands, and Hawaii, the most comparable alternative locations. As cheap as it may be, however, it’s still all relative, he says: “Most of my transactions are in cash, and if a client doesn’t have that kind of money, he’s probably not looking to come to Costa Rica anyway.” In addition, those moving to Costa Rica right now are those who are here to retire or have a second or third home. Most of them have $300,000 or more in the bank.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie celebrated New Year’s at the Four Seasons, Peninsula Papagayo. They drove out to the resort on a well paved road and did not have to worry about the high-speed Internet in their room failing, as the publicly provided Internet service sometimes does, because Four Seasons provides its own service off the public grid. Guanacaste is at the forefront of Costa Rica’s tourism boom and is the first to see these sorts of pushes towards privatization. With the pending passing of the CAFTA (a free trade agreement between Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and the United States), Costa Rica is gearing up for a largescale privatization of the state-monopolized telecommunications and securities industries, as well as a general economic aperture. Many see Guanacaste as the vanguard of this transformation, simply anticipating the inevitable nation-wide sweep. Much change has already taken place, but the market is still young and still a good investment on any level. And why not? The roads are nice, the shopping is great, and the beaches are beautiful.
The road leading to Costa Blanca del Pacifico, a luxury resort in Guanacaste, is flawlessly paved. The roads winding through the hills of the surrounding Papagayo Bay are also perfectly maintained. They’re a dream come true to the foreign tourist coming to Costa Rica with recounted horror stories of potholes and muddy banks around every turn.
The government is not the first to thank for the smooth ride, however, but rather the resorts, who have personally laid and maintained the roads that service their properties.
Maintaining even roads is only a part of a more general practice in Costa Rica’s tourism industry: privately filling the holes in public infrastructure and services left undeveloped by the federal and local governments. Holes that, to the foreign tourist coming to the country to travel or retire in luxury, are aggravating. The developers are taking the same attitude towards the country’s local economies, as well. If their guests can’t find the high scale stores and restaurants in town that they’re accustomed to, the resort will build the facilities. If the medical services available in town don’t meet the guests’ standards, the resort will build a clinic that does. Because many of the foreigners entering the country these days are here to live long term, they are bringing with them their standards of living acquired in their home countries - well developed first-world economies like the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Few are able to better observe these trends than Michael Simons of Remax Tres Amigos in Playa Hermosa, the most successful Remax agency in the world outside of the United States.
“There is a very good camaraderie between the developers here. They understand that they have to bring in the water and the electricity because the government isn’t going to do it. Because they’re making the money here, not the government. And its not the buyers’ responsibility, either - its the developers’. And most of them are doing a good job,” Simons said.
Nowhere yet has private investment been as noticeable as in Costa Rica’s seventh and largest province, Guanacaste. The northwest region is currently experiencing a development boom, receiving 59 percent of real estate investment nationwide last year. “Location, location, location” still being the central tenet of real estate value, Guanacaste’s close proximity to the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, the capital of Guanacaste, is the heart of the region’s rapid growth. Proximity to the airport is so important because, as Brad Schaepp from Costa Blanca del Pacifico said,“many tourists are looking for a base camp.” The flight to Liberia from Miami, Florida is two hours long; three hours from Houston, Texas. Costa Rica is a quick, convenient flight for many, and they want the time it takes to get to a hotel or second home, drop off their suitcase, and hit the sun to be relatively as short. After touching down, tourists only have to travel half an hour to an hour to reach Guanacaste’s most popular beaches. From the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, it usually takes four or more hours to reach the same destinations.
When Liberia’s airport first began servicing direct international flights three years ago, only 50,000 people a year were arriving. In 2005, 300,000 travelers landed and 450,000 came through the airport in 2006. Continental Airlines, who uses Liberia as its Central American hub, will soon double the number of weekly flights from eight to sixteen. Yet many are finding that the terminal is already too small to accommodate the traffic. It is not uncommon to have to wait outside for a taxi or shuttle to avoid the crowd inside. Of course, there is a canopy to provide shade from the sun. But it is provided by the local businesses receiving guests, not the airport itself.
The nature of the tourism market in Guanacaste is one of isolation on a number of levels. “We’re not really competing with the central Pacific,” Schaepp said. “It’s a different market.”
It’s true, the market in Guanacaste is unique, mostly because of the mega-resorts and residence communities that seem to be popping up everywhere. Enormous tracts of land – 200 acres or more - are being developed to be self-sufficient, virtual towns. Playa de Coco, a small beach town twenty minutes from the airport in Liberia, will soon become the model of this development trend in Guanacaste. Ten minutes north around the corner is Papagayo Gulf, dotted with mega-resorts, including Costa Blanca del Pacifico and the Four Seasons Resort, Peninsula Papagayo. Fifteen minutes south is the Papagayo Golf Club, a mega-resort and residence community with the region’s only golf course. In Coco, the Pacifico Beach Club is under construction and will soon be a model of an integrated business and residential community.
The Pacifico Beach Club looks like a luxury hotel in Dubai might look. Its design is clean and stylish, the beach side pools are carved into a stone patio, the water coming flush to the edge, and the tanning mattresses laid out match the beige tents and deck chairs. This area and the clubhouse are look like an oasis closed off from the beach by a large Guanacaste Stone wall. The guests socializing are noticeably international, speaking Russian, Polish, French, English, and Spanish, amongst other languages. Uphill from the club is 175 acres of land cleared for the development of 500 residences in total, including town homes for one or multiple families, custom built homes, condos, and vacant lots available for purchase and private development. Pacifico has already laid the access roads and utilities. New construction, aside from having to pass a loose architectural review, is up to the buyer to design. Pacifico is hoping that this freedom to design will produce a varied landscape of homes, rather than the matching housing complexes that many tourists find dull.
The home sites are starting at $75,000 for a .22 acre lot with a 324 square meter buildable pad lot size. Jayson Matthews at Pacifico considers this price a steal, pointing out that, “you can’t find any comparable property in Coco for under $100,000.” The most expensive plots are priced up to $275,000 for .52 acres and a 736.7 square meter buildable pad lot size. A range of already built homes are also available with a variety of custom features and design aspects, although, as Matthews said, “the view is the most important factor in determining price.”
Pacifico’s largest selling point, however, is its savvy for community design and development. First of all, the community is gated with only one guarded entrance. “Security is a huge issue,” said Matthews. Secondly, when the buyers move in (the first closings are set for late March, 2007) they will be able to shop at Pacifico’s retail village, which will include a design center, a furniture store, and an AutoMercado, as well as various other upscale businesses. It will be open to the public, although is designed to serve the wealthier Pacifico residents. One must wonder if the jobs created by the village will balance out the economic division it will create between Coco town and Pacifico’s residents.
Such a push to the economy by developers is not an unnatural step, however, and many think that it is necessary. As Simons points out, “it always takes a while for infrastructure to catch up to growth. The same thing happens in the United States.” Simons is optimistic that the Costa Rican government will pick up speed. “In time, the government will take [such development] over,” he said. “They are doing their job already. Look, roads are better, the airport is bigger. Things will improve, especially with the new president.”
Neither are developers looking to crowd out the local economy. Costa Rica is internationally recognized as a country that takes care of its residents and its environment during economic transitions. Dave Reynolds, the owner of the Papagayo Golf and Country Club, attributes the success of his mega-resort and housing community to an intelligent, considerate business approach. Papagayo offers 138 plots for purchase (only 26 are left). Most are 1.25 – 3 acre plots at about $22 per square meter, located on and around their golf course. The houses built are ranging from $400,000 to $650,000 and the 130 condos available have been going for between $240,000 and $325,000.
Reynolds has seen that customers want to stay and live at the Club for two reasons. One, the golf: “one fifth of tourists come to Costa Rica to play golf,” he says. “And the census went up accordingly. We really don’t have any competition in the region because we are the only resort in the Coco area that has a golf course.” Secondly, however, Reynolds has been very sensitive to customers’ demands that the resort pay attention to the impact it is making on the community, especially with regard to the environment. For that reason, Reynolds only cut 52 old growth trees on the property, planted 3,000 fruit trees, and preserved 18 percent (82 acres) of the land as green space in order to maintain wildlife corridors. In addition, Papagayo uses a type of grass on the course that lives on salt water. This allows the resort to avoid using insecticides and fungicides, as well as limiting the runoff of fresh water into the surrounding coastal area. “It is usually seen as a loss not to develop land, but this sort of conservation does not loose any money,” Reynolds said. He attributes this to a clientele that comes to Costa Rica with a particular eco-friendly profile in mind and are pleased to know that they are not damaging the country’s rich environment - one reason they came in the first place.
Guanacaste’s profile is undoubtedly changing. It is many times more expensive than it was a couple of years ago, but still very cheap to the wealthy foreigners that are driving the market. As Simons points out, “most clients laugh at the prices. They see how cheap it is and say, ‘I’ll take two.’” A $300,000 house in Playa Hermosa, for example, would go for $2 million in Hawaii. One of the attractions of Costa Rica is that it’s less expensive than Florida, the Caribbean, the Virgin Islands, and Hawaii, the most comparable alternative locations. As cheap as it may be, however, it’s still all relative, he says: “Most of my transactions are in cash, and if a client doesn’t have that kind of money, he’s probably not looking to come to Costa Rica anyway.” In addition, those moving to Costa Rica right now are those who are here to retire or have a second or third home. Most of them have $300,000 or more in the bank.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie celebrated New Year’s at the Four Seasons, Peninsula Papagayo. They drove out to the resort on a well paved road and did not have to worry about the high-speed Internet in their room failing, as the publicly provided Internet service sometimes does, because Four Seasons provides its own service off the public grid. Guanacaste is at the forefront of Costa Rica’s tourism boom and is the first to see these sorts of pushes towards privatization. With the pending passing of the CAFTA (a free trade agreement between Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and the United States), Costa Rica is gearing up for a largescale privatization of the state-monopolized telecommunications and securities industries, as well as a general economic aperture. Many see Guanacaste as the vanguard of this transformation, simply anticipating the inevitable nation-wide sweep. Much change has already taken place, but the market is still young and still a good investment on any level. And why not? The roads are nice, the shopping is great, and the beaches are beautiful.
Real Estate in Costa Rica is maturing
Source (www.journalcr.com) By Peter Freeman
The real estate market in Costa Rica, in response to booming investment and international attention, is entering a stage of sophistication. With better financing options, more established developers, and more savvy consumers and businessmen alike, Costa Rica is a secure and transparent investment. As the market matures, however, it is also tightening, and prices across the country are reacting quickly. Nevertheless, very few buyers are feeling excluded from the rush and the full gamut is making the plunge.
Costa Rica, with an average annual growth rate of 4.5 percent over the past ten years, has become increasingly seen as a strong and sustainable economic environment for both foreign and domestic investors. Where the country used to rely on exportation of produce like bananas and coffee, real estate is the currently indispensable market.
The economic environment over the past few years has reflected investor confidence in Costa Rica. Capital investments in 2006 grew at a rate large enough to cover the public sector’s account spending. There were $1.89 billion worth of private capital investments in 2006, which translates into 8.7 percent of Costa Rica’s gross national product (GDP). Similar investment in 2005 was limited to $1.4 billion – 6.8 percent of the country’s GDP.
According to Dr. Luis Massalles, Costa Rican economic think tank analyst, a large portion of this investment is coming from foreign direct investment in real estate. Real estate FDI alone accounted for 1.1 percent of GDP in 2005, and Masalles expects it to amount to a similar figure for 2006 and continue to grow.
The real estate hot spot last year was the northwest Guanacaste region, Costa Rica’s seventh and largest province and home of some of the country’s most coveted beaches. In 2005, Guanacaste captured 53.2 percent of real estate FDI. The San Jose province, including the Central Valley, captured 25.4 percent. The Puntarenas province, including Jaco, Manuel Antonio, and the South Pacific, received 29.7 percent. Alajuela received 12.7 percent, Cartago 7.9 percent, Heredia 13.7 percent, and Limón 4.4 percent.
Guanacaste is dominating both the volume and nature of real estate investment in the country. It has some of the country’s most beautiful beaches and can be quickly reached by the Daniel Odubar International Airport in Liberia, the province’s capital.
The controlling trend is the development of resort and residence communities designed to provide the services and amenities of a full town. The Los Suenos Resort in Jaco was the leader of this trend, although communities like Pacifico Beach Club and the Papagayo Golf Club in the Playa de Coco area seem to be popping up everywhere. Like the course of development booms everywhere, infrastructure and services have taken a while to catch up to the speed of construction in Costa Rica. Instead of waiting for the government, such projects are taking the initiative to flesh out the local economies with anything from luxury furniture stores to medical clinics. The Four Seasons, Papagayo Peninsula in Guanacaste provides its guests Internet access from their own private grid, for example, because they feel it is more consistent than the service provided by the government run monopoly, from which the rest of the country connects.
The condominium market is also in full swing in areas of Guanacaste like Tamarindo, and the rates of appreciation are offering various opportunities for investors to make a quicker profit than through the purchase of land. Many think that prices have peaked in the area, however, for the time being.
The Central Valley is becoming a less expensive alternative to the beach, as well as having access to more developed infrastructure and governmental services. In addition, the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose is centrally located in the middle of the most populated suburbs. For those who are raising a family, the education is notably superior to the options in periphery, especially for private schools.
In contrast to the residential developments dominating the coastal regions, the driving force in the Central Valley is commercial construction. Most of this investment is in speculation of a future residential boom, although many think that it is outpacing residential growth and an over saturation of the market is occurring.
In the southern Nicoya Peninsula region, prices have been shooting up for the past five years. Properties are appreciating at rates between 20 and 100 percent and the low-end market is becoming non-existent as a lot of any size five minutes from the beach can’t be found for less than $150,000.
The low end market is still robust in the South Pacific regions of Golfito, however. The Caribbean side is largely undeveloped and cheap, although has not seen much investment due to security concerns.
Countrywide, analysts are seeing the beginning of a boom, and there are a number of reasons why the market is growing now and will continue to grow. Due a number of factors regarding Costa Rica’s economic and political climate, Costa Rica is, according to Jim Gale at Paradise Brokers in Dominical, “one of the best and most secure real estate purchases in the world.”
The number one reason Gale cites is accessibility, principally convenience of travel to and within the country. There are now two international airports - the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste and the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose - welcoming almost 1.7 million tourists last year. The large majority of those tourists are still form the United States, who fly here in two hours from Miami, three from Dallas, Texas, for example. After touching down, the beach can be as close as 20 minutes away from Oduber, never more than a three hour car ride from Juan Santamaria.
The second most influential factor is an aging demographic of buyers sitting on retirement funds. Gale has seen evidence of the baby boomer generation putting the same pressure on foreign markets as it has in the United States. 70 percent of his customers are from the United States, he says, mostly looking for a retirement getaway.
Second home sales surged this past year, equalling a third of the market in the United States; Costa Rica is the size of West Virginia. Most attribute the attractiveness of Costa Rica to the growth potential, citing the figure that properties can appreciate three or four times before they reach the price of a comparable property in the United States or Europe.
Another motive to get away has been the rising concern over terrorism amongst United States citizens. Aside from creating a drive out of the States, Costa Rica, with a long tradition of democracy (some say Latin America’s longest, although Venezuela would debate that) and no standing army, is a refreshingly peaceful option.
Gale, along with investors around the country, have seen a recent maturation of the financial markets. The availability of financing, especially through pre-packaged mortgages and standardized plans, has attracted investors that may have been wary to put money into the country before. “Investors and buyers alike are not willing to invest until they see that these things are already underway,” says Brad Schaepp of Costa Blanca del Pacifico in Guanacaste. “Now, we are seeing the market become more sophisticated. The process is becoming standardized.”
Financing options are also expanding on all levels, says Schaepp. “Banks are competing for mortgage financing, where before, investors were financing themselves or reaching out to private lenders. Approved financing options are taking off, as well. “I am very excited about [Banco Nacional] organizing around qualified projects,” Schaepp says.
The market to the south in Manuel Antonio is seeing a similar development. Banks there are starting to offer 30 percent down financing with the option to defer payments, for example. “This is a new thing,” says Richard Lemire from Manuel Antonio Estates, one of the area’s leading real estate agency.
The standardization of the financial market is only one aspect of the progress Costa Rica’s real estate market has made. The growing market has also created more sophisticated business standards. Investing and developing in the country is becoming a more educated, professional practice. One only has to Google ‘Costa Rica’ to learn the in’s and out’s of the whole process of investing here. Much of this information is intentionally made clear by the development companies as an effort to ease buyers’ tension about dealing long distance “Developers are coming in to build up the marketing and advertising markets,” says Schaepp. “As well as more professional P.R.”
The businesses themselves are internally more sophisticated, as well. “Projects are coming in with an understanding of pro forma,” says Schaepp. This is a necessary step to reassuring and attracting capitalized investors. “This security is driving up investment because it is much easier to foretell how the process will run and how the market will reward the investment,” Schaepp says.
Costa Rica also has famously low taxes. Today, a homeowner has to pay four percent property taxes. Setting aside alternatives in the United States and Europe, Costa Rica is seen as a better investment than its neighbors. In Panama, for example, property taxes are payed on an accumulating scale that adds up to almost six percent once the value of the house exceeds $100,000. In Nicaragua, taxes are lower than in Costa Rica but the political situation is tenuous for foreign investors. In addition, there are no capital gains taxes on properties in Costa Rica and the rates of business taxation are comparably low.
No matter who you are, you will not be restricted from owning property in Costa Rica. This is not the case in Mexico and most ofCentral America and is a huge draw for foreign buyers looking to retire and put legalities behind them.
What buyers are demanding once in Costa Rica is recreation and convenient amenities. Costa Rica is the land of recreation, ranging from the extreme rip cord rides through the rain forest canopy to the decidedly safe suntanning. The retiring demographic, while probably more active than the average, is favoring the more leisurely activities. According to Dave Reynolds at Papagayo Golf Club in Guanacaste, one fifth of foreigners coming to the country are coming to play golf. The second largest leisure activity is boating and fishing, and the proximity to a marina is increasingly determining where homeowners settle.
No matter what the taste, Costa Rica is internationally recognized as being able to deliver. If one can’t already find satisfaction in the existing landscape and economy, it can probably be created. The range of possibility is has been attractive to the range of real estate investors; what is actually attracting them is the increased sophistication of the financial market. With it, the business community on both sides of the transaction is maturing.
For its seemingly irrational fluctuations and high prices, there is a firm foundation being laid to the real estate market to support a sustained growth to match the country’s strong economic progress.
The real estate market in Costa Rica, in response to booming investment and international attention, is entering a stage of sophistication. With better financing options, more established developers, and more savvy consumers and businessmen alike, Costa Rica is a secure and transparent investment. As the market matures, however, it is also tightening, and prices across the country are reacting quickly. Nevertheless, very few buyers are feeling excluded from the rush and the full gamut is making the plunge.
Costa Rica, with an average annual growth rate of 4.5 percent over the past ten years, has become increasingly seen as a strong and sustainable economic environment for both foreign and domestic investors. Where the country used to rely on exportation of produce like bananas and coffee, real estate is the currently indispensable market.
The economic environment over the past few years has reflected investor confidence in Costa Rica. Capital investments in 2006 grew at a rate large enough to cover the public sector’s account spending. There were $1.89 billion worth of private capital investments in 2006, which translates into 8.7 percent of Costa Rica’s gross national product (GDP). Similar investment in 2005 was limited to $1.4 billion – 6.8 percent of the country’s GDP.
According to Dr. Luis Massalles, Costa Rican economic think tank analyst, a large portion of this investment is coming from foreign direct investment in real estate. Real estate FDI alone accounted for 1.1 percent of GDP in 2005, and Masalles expects it to amount to a similar figure for 2006 and continue to grow.
The real estate hot spot last year was the northwest Guanacaste region, Costa Rica’s seventh and largest province and home of some of the country’s most coveted beaches. In 2005, Guanacaste captured 53.2 percent of real estate FDI. The San Jose province, including the Central Valley, captured 25.4 percent. The Puntarenas province, including Jaco, Manuel Antonio, and the South Pacific, received 29.7 percent. Alajuela received 12.7 percent, Cartago 7.9 percent, Heredia 13.7 percent, and Limón 4.4 percent.
Guanacaste is dominating both the volume and nature of real estate investment in the country. It has some of the country’s most beautiful beaches and can be quickly reached by the Daniel Odubar International Airport in Liberia, the province’s capital.
The controlling trend is the development of resort and residence communities designed to provide the services and amenities of a full town. The Los Suenos Resort in Jaco was the leader of this trend, although communities like Pacifico Beach Club and the Papagayo Golf Club in the Playa de Coco area seem to be popping up everywhere. Like the course of development booms everywhere, infrastructure and services have taken a while to catch up to the speed of construction in Costa Rica. Instead of waiting for the government, such projects are taking the initiative to flesh out the local economies with anything from luxury furniture stores to medical clinics. The Four Seasons, Papagayo Peninsula in Guanacaste provides its guests Internet access from their own private grid, for example, because they feel it is more consistent than the service provided by the government run monopoly, from which the rest of the country connects.
The condominium market is also in full swing in areas of Guanacaste like Tamarindo, and the rates of appreciation are offering various opportunities for investors to make a quicker profit than through the purchase of land. Many think that prices have peaked in the area, however, for the time being.
The Central Valley is becoming a less expensive alternative to the beach, as well as having access to more developed infrastructure and governmental services. In addition, the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose is centrally located in the middle of the most populated suburbs. For those who are raising a family, the education is notably superior to the options in periphery, especially for private schools.
In contrast to the residential developments dominating the coastal regions, the driving force in the Central Valley is commercial construction. Most of this investment is in speculation of a future residential boom, although many think that it is outpacing residential growth and an over saturation of the market is occurring.
In the southern Nicoya Peninsula region, prices have been shooting up for the past five years. Properties are appreciating at rates between 20 and 100 percent and the low-end market is becoming non-existent as a lot of any size five minutes from the beach can’t be found for less than $150,000.
The low end market is still robust in the South Pacific regions of Golfito, however. The Caribbean side is largely undeveloped and cheap, although has not seen much investment due to security concerns.
Countrywide, analysts are seeing the beginning of a boom, and there are a number of reasons why the market is growing now and will continue to grow. Due a number of factors regarding Costa Rica’s economic and political climate, Costa Rica is, according to Jim Gale at Paradise Brokers in Dominical, “one of the best and most secure real estate purchases in the world.”
The number one reason Gale cites is accessibility, principally convenience of travel to and within the country. There are now two international airports - the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste and the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose - welcoming almost 1.7 million tourists last year. The large majority of those tourists are still form the United States, who fly here in two hours from Miami, three from Dallas, Texas, for example. After touching down, the beach can be as close as 20 minutes away from Oduber, never more than a three hour car ride from Juan Santamaria.
The second most influential factor is an aging demographic of buyers sitting on retirement funds. Gale has seen evidence of the baby boomer generation putting the same pressure on foreign markets as it has in the United States. 70 percent of his customers are from the United States, he says, mostly looking for a retirement getaway.
Second home sales surged this past year, equalling a third of the market in the United States; Costa Rica is the size of West Virginia. Most attribute the attractiveness of Costa Rica to the growth potential, citing the figure that properties can appreciate three or four times before they reach the price of a comparable property in the United States or Europe.
Another motive to get away has been the rising concern over terrorism amongst United States citizens. Aside from creating a drive out of the States, Costa Rica, with a long tradition of democracy (some say Latin America’s longest, although Venezuela would debate that) and no standing army, is a refreshingly peaceful option.
Gale, along with investors around the country, have seen a recent maturation of the financial markets. The availability of financing, especially through pre-packaged mortgages and standardized plans, has attracted investors that may have been wary to put money into the country before. “Investors and buyers alike are not willing to invest until they see that these things are already underway,” says Brad Schaepp of Costa Blanca del Pacifico in Guanacaste. “Now, we are seeing the market become more sophisticated. The process is becoming standardized.”
Financing options are also expanding on all levels, says Schaepp. “Banks are competing for mortgage financing, where before, investors were financing themselves or reaching out to private lenders. Approved financing options are taking off, as well. “I am very excited about [Banco Nacional] organizing around qualified projects,” Schaepp says.
The market to the south in Manuel Antonio is seeing a similar development. Banks there are starting to offer 30 percent down financing with the option to defer payments, for example. “This is a new thing,” says Richard Lemire from Manuel Antonio Estates, one of the area’s leading real estate agency.
The standardization of the financial market is only one aspect of the progress Costa Rica’s real estate market has made. The growing market has also created more sophisticated business standards. Investing and developing in the country is becoming a more educated, professional practice. One only has to Google ‘Costa Rica’ to learn the in’s and out’s of the whole process of investing here. Much of this information is intentionally made clear by the development companies as an effort to ease buyers’ tension about dealing long distance “Developers are coming in to build up the marketing and advertising markets,” says Schaepp. “As well as more professional P.R.”
The businesses themselves are internally more sophisticated, as well. “Projects are coming in with an understanding of pro forma,” says Schaepp. This is a necessary step to reassuring and attracting capitalized investors. “This security is driving up investment because it is much easier to foretell how the process will run and how the market will reward the investment,” Schaepp says.
Costa Rica also has famously low taxes. Today, a homeowner has to pay four percent property taxes. Setting aside alternatives in the United States and Europe, Costa Rica is seen as a better investment than its neighbors. In Panama, for example, property taxes are payed on an accumulating scale that adds up to almost six percent once the value of the house exceeds $100,000. In Nicaragua, taxes are lower than in Costa Rica but the political situation is tenuous for foreign investors. In addition, there are no capital gains taxes on properties in Costa Rica and the rates of business taxation are comparably low.
No matter who you are, you will not be restricted from owning property in Costa Rica. This is not the case in Mexico and most ofCentral America and is a huge draw for foreign buyers looking to retire and put legalities behind them.
What buyers are demanding once in Costa Rica is recreation and convenient amenities. Costa Rica is the land of recreation, ranging from the extreme rip cord rides through the rain forest canopy to the decidedly safe suntanning. The retiring demographic, while probably more active than the average, is favoring the more leisurely activities. According to Dave Reynolds at Papagayo Golf Club in Guanacaste, one fifth of foreigners coming to the country are coming to play golf. The second largest leisure activity is boating and fishing, and the proximity to a marina is increasingly determining where homeowners settle.
No matter what the taste, Costa Rica is internationally recognized as being able to deliver. If one can’t already find satisfaction in the existing landscape and economy, it can probably be created. The range of possibility is has been attractive to the range of real estate investors; what is actually attracting them is the increased sophistication of the financial market. With it, the business community on both sides of the transaction is maturing.
For its seemingly irrational fluctuations and high prices, there is a firm foundation being laid to the real estate market to support a sustained growth to match the country’s strong economic progress.
FIFCO Unloads Stake In Paradisus Playa Conchal
Source (www.thebeachtimes.com) By Staff Beach Times
Florida Ice and Farm Company, Costa Rica’s brewing and real estate giant, has unloaded its stake in the Hotel Paradisus Playa Conchal, one of Guancaste’s most prestigious all-inclusive resorts.Reserva Conchal, the parent company of the 930-hectare (2,297 acres) real-estate development project of the same name, in Cabo Velas, has sold a 90 per cent stake in the 302-room hotel to Caribbean Property Group, a US investment fund.The deal is worth $135 million.Under the arrangement, Florida Ice and Farm Company (FIFCO) retains a ten per cent interest in the hotel, which carries the Meliá brand.“The reason we did this is because we are not hotel operators or owners,” said Carlos Francisco Echeverriá, head of public affairs for FIFCO, late this week.“We wanted to keep a minimum ownership only in as much as it is closely related to our real estate business,” Mr Echeverriá said.FIFCO also retains the Garra de Leon Golf Course, as well as the remaining 700 hectares outside the hotel.The deal has been several years in the making.It began to move when FIFCO acquired three key Costa Rican assets of SAB Miller, one of the world’s biggest brewers with brewing interests or distribution agreements in more than 60 countries across six continents.Specifically, FIFCO wanted the Central American bottler, Embotelladora Centroamericana S.A. (ECSA), the drinks distributor, Distribuidora Centroamericana de Bebidas S.A., and critically, SAB Miller’s 42.5 per cent interest in Reserva Conchal.That gave FIFCO an 85 per cent interest in the Cabo Velas property.“As the controller of Reserva Conchal, we decided to sell our majority shareholding in the hotel business,” said Mr Echeverriá. “We formed a new company and now own just ten per cent, while CPG owns 90 per cent.”The Caribbean Property Group manages the Caribbean Real Estate Opportunity Fund 2005, an investment fund of private capital of $500 million. It is sponsored by Goldman Sachs and includes Perry Capital and about 15 other, smaller investors.According to Jorge Volio, the Chief Executive Officer of Volio Capital, since January 2006 CPG has embarked upon an aggressive acquisition campaign. “They raised a fund from sophisticated, US investors, of about $500 million which gives them the opportunity to leverage the capital across about $2 billion in assets,” said Mr Volio.“The purpose of the fund is to acquire ongoing concerns with cash flows already happening.”Volio Capital represents CPG in Central America, and Mr Volio negotiated the latest deal.CPG has concentrated on four types of acquisitions --- hotels and other assets in the hospitality industry, office buildings, commercial and retail properties, plus industrial facilities.In Costa Rica they have acquired the Fiesta Premier Hotels in Papagayo and Puntarenas. In a deal with the Hilton Hotels Corporation, those properties have been re-branded a Hilton Hotel and a Doubletree by Hilton.In Costa Rica, the investments of CPG include the industrial free zone of Global Park, plus the Court Marriott Hotel in San José. The group also owns hotels in the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and Aruba.Mr Volio said there were no plans to alter the operations of the Hotel Paradisus Playa Conchal.“There are no plans to re-brand the property,” Mr Volio said. “The Melia is a successful hotel, it is profitable, and we would not have done this if it were not.”Both sides in the negotiation say they expect the deal to be finalized when due diligence is complete, probably within about 60 days.Reserva Conchal is one of the foremost tourist developments on the Pacific Coast.It started with Paradisus Playa Conchal, the Melia-operated, five-star, 400-plus-room, hotel, finished July of 1996, and was followed a year later with the opening of the 18-hold Garra de León golf course.Under the 15-year Master Plan, the property will eventually be divided up into three main areas.A second resort is to be built, as well as another golf course, and an equestrian center. Plans call for more than 700 lots to be released containing a mixture of condominiums, duplexes, single dwelling houses, villas and in some cases, building lots.The group also plans to develop Los Altos, a small outcrop of land overlooking Playa Conchal from the south. Here will be a six-star, 70-room, boutique hotel, high-priced condominiums, duplexes and villas all overlooking an isolated beach whose only access will be by boat.Reserva Conchal is known to be in active negotiations to begin building the second resort, to take advantage of the lack of all-inclusive accommodation along the coast. Management will not be drawn on how that hotel project might be developed.One possibility, given the recent deal over the Paradisus Playa Conchal, would be to simply sell property, allow other developers to build the hotel and use the facility to draw buyers for their real estate.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: www.century21incostarica.com
Website: www.northpacificproperties.com
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
Florida Ice and Farm Company, Costa Rica’s brewing and real estate giant, has unloaded its stake in the Hotel Paradisus Playa Conchal, one of Guancaste’s most prestigious all-inclusive resorts.Reserva Conchal, the parent company of the 930-hectare (2,297 acres) real-estate development project of the same name, in Cabo Velas, has sold a 90 per cent stake in the 302-room hotel to Caribbean Property Group, a US investment fund.The deal is worth $135 million.Under the arrangement, Florida Ice and Farm Company (FIFCO) retains a ten per cent interest in the hotel, which carries the Meliá brand.“The reason we did this is because we are not hotel operators or owners,” said Carlos Francisco Echeverriá, head of public affairs for FIFCO, late this week.“We wanted to keep a minimum ownership only in as much as it is closely related to our real estate business,” Mr Echeverriá said.FIFCO also retains the Garra de Leon Golf Course, as well as the remaining 700 hectares outside the hotel.The deal has been several years in the making.It began to move when FIFCO acquired three key Costa Rican assets of SAB Miller, one of the world’s biggest brewers with brewing interests or distribution agreements in more than 60 countries across six continents.Specifically, FIFCO wanted the Central American bottler, Embotelladora Centroamericana S.A. (ECSA), the drinks distributor, Distribuidora Centroamericana de Bebidas S.A., and critically, SAB Miller’s 42.5 per cent interest in Reserva Conchal.That gave FIFCO an 85 per cent interest in the Cabo Velas property.“As the controller of Reserva Conchal, we decided to sell our majority shareholding in the hotel business,” said Mr Echeverriá. “We formed a new company and now own just ten per cent, while CPG owns 90 per cent.”The Caribbean Property Group manages the Caribbean Real Estate Opportunity Fund 2005, an investment fund of private capital of $500 million. It is sponsored by Goldman Sachs and includes Perry Capital and about 15 other, smaller investors.According to Jorge Volio, the Chief Executive Officer of Volio Capital, since January 2006 CPG has embarked upon an aggressive acquisition campaign. “They raised a fund from sophisticated, US investors, of about $500 million which gives them the opportunity to leverage the capital across about $2 billion in assets,” said Mr Volio.“The purpose of the fund is to acquire ongoing concerns with cash flows already happening.”Volio Capital represents CPG in Central America, and Mr Volio negotiated the latest deal.CPG has concentrated on four types of acquisitions --- hotels and other assets in the hospitality industry, office buildings, commercial and retail properties, plus industrial facilities.In Costa Rica they have acquired the Fiesta Premier Hotels in Papagayo and Puntarenas. In a deal with the Hilton Hotels Corporation, those properties have been re-branded a Hilton Hotel and a Doubletree by Hilton.In Costa Rica, the investments of CPG include the industrial free zone of Global Park, plus the Court Marriott Hotel in San José. The group also owns hotels in the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and Aruba.Mr Volio said there were no plans to alter the operations of the Hotel Paradisus Playa Conchal.“There are no plans to re-brand the property,” Mr Volio said. “The Melia is a successful hotel, it is profitable, and we would not have done this if it were not.”Both sides in the negotiation say they expect the deal to be finalized when due diligence is complete, probably within about 60 days.Reserva Conchal is one of the foremost tourist developments on the Pacific Coast.It started with Paradisus Playa Conchal, the Melia-operated, five-star, 400-plus-room, hotel, finished July of 1996, and was followed a year later with the opening of the 18-hold Garra de León golf course.Under the 15-year Master Plan, the property will eventually be divided up into three main areas.A second resort is to be built, as well as another golf course, and an equestrian center. Plans call for more than 700 lots to be released containing a mixture of condominiums, duplexes, single dwelling houses, villas and in some cases, building lots.The group also plans to develop Los Altos, a small outcrop of land overlooking Playa Conchal from the south. Here will be a six-star, 70-room, boutique hotel, high-priced condominiums, duplexes and villas all overlooking an isolated beach whose only access will be by boat.Reserva Conchal is known to be in active negotiations to begin building the second resort, to take advantage of the lack of all-inclusive accommodation along the coast. Management will not be drawn on how that hotel project might be developed.One possibility, given the recent deal over the Paradisus Playa Conchal, would be to simply sell property, allow other developers to build the hotel and use the facility to draw buyers for their real estate.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: www.century21incostarica.com
Website: www.northpacificproperties.com
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
Century 21 At the Beach in Playas del Coco
A new Century 21 office have been opened in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
The new office name is Century 21 At the Beach located in Playas del Coco.
Office Broker: Roger Vlasos
Broker's Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
Office phone number: 011-506-670-0397
Office Web site: www.century21incostarica.com
The new office name is Century 21 At the Beach located in Playas del Coco.
Office Broker: Roger Vlasos
Broker's Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
Office phone number: 011-506-670-0397
Office Web site: www.century21incostarica.com
The Glare of a Spotlight as the British Arrive
Source (http://www.thebeachtimes.com/) By Ralph Nicholson
They looked a little stunned by all the attention, 258 British tourists getting off a flight that had taken exactly 11 hours and 11 minutes, stepping into both Guanacaste’s heat and a throng of reporters, photographers and camera operators. But while it might have been just another annual vacation to the weary holiday makers, eager to get to their package hotels, to the tourist industry it is another indication the Costa Rican tourism industry is alive and kicking. When First Choice Airways, one of Britain’s leading leisure airlines, touched down in Guanacaste this week, it became the first direct charter flight from Europe to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. And if to indicate they mean business, the airline arrived with a huge, refurbished, Boeing 767-300. Which immediately caused a problem. Ground crew had practiced with the hand-made, manually-operated staircase, but when they pulled it up to the front door of the airplane, it didn’t reach. After some red faces, another staircase was pulled into place. “That’s part of the problem,” said John Pratt, ground operations manager of First Choice. “It’s a big plane, and this airport is really set up for the smaller, short-haul US aircraft.” Which is why Aviation officials agreed to ship from San José a Lantis Loader, a specially-designed freight-handler which will allow baggage to be lifted high enough to load in the 767’s cargo bay.
© Ralph Nicholson
The flight, which will operate every Monday until October, is believed to be the first charter service with a first-class (or what First Choice call a Premium Star Class) section. All 60 seats were full for the incoming trip. Holiday-makers paid between $1200 and $2600 for the one and two-week packages depending upon whether they just wanted the sun and the beach, or were prepared to head inland. The flight also included 20 First Choice staff --- mostly vacation package sellers back in the United Kingdom --- who are in the country for two weeks, guests of their employer, so they can better sell packages. Rachel Holmes, from Dunstable in Bedfordshire, had won her trip because her travel agency had sold the most tickets to Costa Rica ---- 18 in all. Many others had also won the trips. “This is important,” said Alvaro Conejo, President of the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism. “It is interesting because this flight is arriving during the traditionally low season and this could help stabilize the tourism industry.” For the Minister of Tourism, the arrival was more simple. “Something has to right with the destination when people are prepared to fly for 11 hours to visit Costa Rica,” he said.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: www.century21incostarica.com
Website: www.northpacificproperties.com
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
They looked a little stunned by all the attention, 258 British tourists getting off a flight that had taken exactly 11 hours and 11 minutes, stepping into both Guanacaste’s heat and a throng of reporters, photographers and camera operators. But while it might have been just another annual vacation to the weary holiday makers, eager to get to their package hotels, to the tourist industry it is another indication the Costa Rican tourism industry is alive and kicking. When First Choice Airways, one of Britain’s leading leisure airlines, touched down in Guanacaste this week, it became the first direct charter flight from Europe to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. And if to indicate they mean business, the airline arrived with a huge, refurbished, Boeing 767-300. Which immediately caused a problem. Ground crew had practiced with the hand-made, manually-operated staircase, but when they pulled it up to the front door of the airplane, it didn’t reach. After some red faces, another staircase was pulled into place. “That’s part of the problem,” said John Pratt, ground operations manager of First Choice. “It’s a big plane, and this airport is really set up for the smaller, short-haul US aircraft.” Which is why Aviation officials agreed to ship from San José a Lantis Loader, a specially-designed freight-handler which will allow baggage to be lifted high enough to load in the 767’s cargo bay.
© Ralph Nicholson
The flight, which will operate every Monday until October, is believed to be the first charter service with a first-class (or what First Choice call a Premium Star Class) section. All 60 seats were full for the incoming trip. Holiday-makers paid between $1200 and $2600 for the one and two-week packages depending upon whether they just wanted the sun and the beach, or were prepared to head inland. The flight also included 20 First Choice staff --- mostly vacation package sellers back in the United Kingdom --- who are in the country for two weeks, guests of their employer, so they can better sell packages. Rachel Holmes, from Dunstable in Bedfordshire, had won her trip because her travel agency had sold the most tickets to Costa Rica ---- 18 in all. Many others had also won the trips. “This is important,” said Alvaro Conejo, President of the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism. “It is interesting because this flight is arriving during the traditionally low season and this could help stabilize the tourism industry.” For the Minister of Tourism, the arrival was more simple. “Something has to right with the destination when people are prepared to fly for 11 hours to visit Costa Rica,” he said.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: www.century21incostarica.com
Website: www.northpacificproperties.com
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
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