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
Thursday, July 26, 2007
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
Foreign Investment in Local Property Trebles
Source (http://www.thebeachtimes.com/) By Leland Baxter-Neal
Central Bank Points To First Quarter in Puntarenas and GuanacasteForeign investment in Costa Rica’s real estate industry has nearly tripled in the past 12 months, according to Costa Rica’s Central Bank. By the bank’s estimate, mostly US investors and homebuyers bought at least $192 million worth of property in the first three months of this year, largely in the provinces of Guanacaste and Puntarenas. That compares to $70 million during the same period in 2006. The estimate excludes purchases of hotels, tourism businesses and deals worth less than $100,000, and is recognized to be likely short of the real figure. “Certainly, as the recent Central Bank study shows, an important factor in the increment of foreign investment in the last months has been real estate development and property acquisition by foreigners,” said the Minister of the Presidency, Rodrigo Arias. “Much of this development is related to the tourism industry, precisely one of the engines of the country’s economy.” In fact, real estate prices up and down the Pacific coast have risen over the last year, as Guanacaste’s market matures and the central Pacific looks to be entering its own boom. Real Estate agents up and down the coast told The beach Times this week the bank’s figures measure up to what they’re seeing in their areas, where business continues to be good with both price and demand rising. Development is also becoming more high-end, they concurred, with more sophisticated and environmentally conscious developers and buyers following the path beaten years earlier by The Four Seasons Hotel, on the Papagayo Peninsula. In the Central Pacific sales are booming, as condominium projects go up rapidly along the coast. Many investors are looking further toward the horizon, however, in expectation of high-end, name-brand projects like those that have drawn so much press further north. In Guanacaste, the high-volume land purchasing of past years has given way to concentrated development, as much of the valuable beachfront and ocean view property has been bought up and many of the projects that were sold under pre-construction deals are now under way. “We personally aren’t slow, but I know that the trend has slowed down an awful lot,” said Penelope Lent, of Lent Eckhart Properties, from her office in Flamingo this week. “The big parcels purchased in 2005 and 2006 are now going vertical,” she said. “There are all kinds of things in the pipeline, but they’re not available at this moment, and might not be available for another year.” Bob Davey, of Century 21 in Flamingo, however, described business as brisk.
© Zoraida Diaz
GRIEF-STRICKEN: The body of 19-year-old construction worker David Rocha Gonzalez lays on Penca Beach in Guanacaste. The man was struck by lightning during a short-lived but fierce electrical storm on Sunday. “Last year was the biggest sales volume year we’ve had, and our company has grown every year. So far, through June, we are way ahead of the pace of ‘06, and the end of the year looks strong,” Mr Davey said. “And it’s large, sophisticated investors, private and institutional, that we’re working with. “President Oscar Arias has really kicked into gear to follow up on his promises to improve infrastructure, and that’s really helped turn around the negative publicity we had over the last two years,” Mr Davey added. According to Les Nunez, of First Realty, in Guanacaste’s Playa Hermosa, land prices have “gone double, to double-and-a-half.” “Ocean views are $500 per square meter and up, easily,” Mr Nunez said. “There’s been reports in Tamarindo of $1,000 per meter.” Single family homes range from $600,000 to $1.5 million, and are being sold for about double what they got last year, he added, while raw land has, in some cases, “gone triple." Mr Nunez chalks up the jump in prices to the arrival of major name brand projects in the region, such as the Westin Hotels and Resorts and the Mandarin-Oriental. Some 20 high-end hotels are currently being planned or built for Guanacaste’s northern coast, which would add hundreds of rooms to the area’s offerings and represent hundreds of millions of dollars in investment. Mario Solano, an economist with the Central Bank who worked on the property investment estimate, said that, though tourism investment figures for 2007 are not yet available, it nearly tripled between 2005 and 2006. He expects this year’s growth to be “a little more than that,” which is a factor pushing real estate investment. “We see a relationship between the two. The Hyatt comes out promoting people to come stay at its hotel, and a lot of people are going to be interested in buying property in that area." That is precisely what has real estate agents in the Central Pacific, particularly around Jacó, excited. Last year, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide announced they would be building a St Regis Resort with residential elements in the central Pacific with Costa Rican development firm Genesis. In addition to 133 luxury hotel rooms, the project includes “49 condominium-hotel residences,” 42 “whole-ownership condos” and nine estate homes. In Esterillos, just south of Jacó, two golf courses and attached residential communities – Cabo Caletas and Del Pacífico – are under construction. In Jacó, an estimated 2000 condos are at different stages of development, from un-permitted plans to near-completion. “What’s happened is the central Pacific has really now started to move in a forward direction, with growth and bigger name projects with branding,” said Scott Williams, a real estate agent with 2 Costa Rica Realty. “Those things were before exclusively Guanacaste.”
© Files Beach Times
STRATEGY ON TRACK: Minister of the Presidency Rodrigo Arias says the government strategy to attract foreign investment that will create jobs is still among President Arias’ priorities. Prices remain lower than in Guanacaste on the average, but have still increased dramatically, sometimes double, over the last year. Tim Kopatich, with Crystal Clear Realty, said that 1800-square-foot homes that his company is selling in Bejuco, south of Esterillos, have gone from $135,000 last year to $275,000 today. In general, however, he says prices in and around Jacó have increased about 35 to 40 percent over the last year. Jeff Fisher, of CR Beach Investment Real Estate, says prices in Jacó, Herradura and Playa Hermosa are up, and sometimes way up. “I worry when two-bedroom beachfront condos sell for more than $500,000, because the infrastructure hasn’t caught up with this new pattern of prices,” Mr Fisher said. “A year ago a two-bedroom beach front house was $375,000. It was cute that Jacó didn’t have any traffic lights or bike paths and had very few police. Now that prices have risen dramatically, its important that the new mayor and the chamber of commerce work quickly to demonstrate that changes are being made, as minor as putting a traffic light.” Mr Fisher added that, despite some extremes, the bulk of his condo sales are still around $250,000 to $350,000, and that condo prices in general have risen by about 25 per cent over the last year, while raw beachfront land has risen slightly more. “They’re asking $1000 to $1400 per square meter, while a year ago they were asking $600 to $1000,” he said. Most dramatic, however, has been the increase in rent for commercial space along Jacó’s main boulevard, Avenida Pastor Díaz, Mr Fisher said, where rent has gone from $300 per square meter to $1000. Mr Fisher said his buyers “are overwhelmingly buying condos, but a lot of my sales are also gated-community, single-family homes five blocks from the beach for $215,000. “Ninety per cent of the people are buying for investment purposes or for rental income. Ten per cent are telling me they want to move there,” Mr Fisher said. Further south, near Manuel Antonio, property values have risen less dramatically, according 2 Costa Rica Realty’s Williams. He estimates prices have increased about 15 to 20 per cent across the board. While raw beachfront land is now impossible to come by, 1000 to 1500-square-meter ocean view lots can be found for $250,000 to $350,000, 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
Central Bank Points To First Quarter in Puntarenas and GuanacasteForeign investment in Costa Rica’s real estate industry has nearly tripled in the past 12 months, according to Costa Rica’s Central Bank. By the bank’s estimate, mostly US investors and homebuyers bought at least $192 million worth of property in the first three months of this year, largely in the provinces of Guanacaste and Puntarenas. That compares to $70 million during the same period in 2006. The estimate excludes purchases of hotels, tourism businesses and deals worth less than $100,000, and is recognized to be likely short of the real figure. “Certainly, as the recent Central Bank study shows, an important factor in the increment of foreign investment in the last months has been real estate development and property acquisition by foreigners,” said the Minister of the Presidency, Rodrigo Arias. “Much of this development is related to the tourism industry, precisely one of the engines of the country’s economy.” In fact, real estate prices up and down the Pacific coast have risen over the last year, as Guanacaste’s market matures and the central Pacific looks to be entering its own boom. Real Estate agents up and down the coast told The beach Times this week the bank’s figures measure up to what they’re seeing in their areas, where business continues to be good with both price and demand rising. Development is also becoming more high-end, they concurred, with more sophisticated and environmentally conscious developers and buyers following the path beaten years earlier by The Four Seasons Hotel, on the Papagayo Peninsula. In the Central Pacific sales are booming, as condominium projects go up rapidly along the coast. Many investors are looking further toward the horizon, however, in expectation of high-end, name-brand projects like those that have drawn so much press further north. In Guanacaste, the high-volume land purchasing of past years has given way to concentrated development, as much of the valuable beachfront and ocean view property has been bought up and many of the projects that were sold under pre-construction deals are now under way. “We personally aren’t slow, but I know that the trend has slowed down an awful lot,” said Penelope Lent, of Lent Eckhart Properties, from her office in Flamingo this week. “The big parcels purchased in 2005 and 2006 are now going vertical,” she said. “There are all kinds of things in the pipeline, but they’re not available at this moment, and might not be available for another year.” Bob Davey, of Century 21 in Flamingo, however, described business as brisk.
© Zoraida Diaz
GRIEF-STRICKEN: The body of 19-year-old construction worker David Rocha Gonzalez lays on Penca Beach in Guanacaste. The man was struck by lightning during a short-lived but fierce electrical storm on Sunday. “Last year was the biggest sales volume year we’ve had, and our company has grown every year. So far, through June, we are way ahead of the pace of ‘06, and the end of the year looks strong,” Mr Davey said. “And it’s large, sophisticated investors, private and institutional, that we’re working with. “President Oscar Arias has really kicked into gear to follow up on his promises to improve infrastructure, and that’s really helped turn around the negative publicity we had over the last two years,” Mr Davey added. According to Les Nunez, of First Realty, in Guanacaste’s Playa Hermosa, land prices have “gone double, to double-and-a-half.” “Ocean views are $500 per square meter and up, easily,” Mr Nunez said. “There’s been reports in Tamarindo of $1,000 per meter.” Single family homes range from $600,000 to $1.5 million, and are being sold for about double what they got last year, he added, while raw land has, in some cases, “gone triple." Mr Nunez chalks up the jump in prices to the arrival of major name brand projects in the region, such as the Westin Hotels and Resorts and the Mandarin-Oriental. Some 20 high-end hotels are currently being planned or built for Guanacaste’s northern coast, which would add hundreds of rooms to the area’s offerings and represent hundreds of millions of dollars in investment. Mario Solano, an economist with the Central Bank who worked on the property investment estimate, said that, though tourism investment figures for 2007 are not yet available, it nearly tripled between 2005 and 2006. He expects this year’s growth to be “a little more than that,” which is a factor pushing real estate investment. “We see a relationship between the two. The Hyatt comes out promoting people to come stay at its hotel, and a lot of people are going to be interested in buying property in that area." That is precisely what has real estate agents in the Central Pacific, particularly around Jacó, excited. Last year, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide announced they would be building a St Regis Resort with residential elements in the central Pacific with Costa Rican development firm Genesis. In addition to 133 luxury hotel rooms, the project includes “49 condominium-hotel residences,” 42 “whole-ownership condos” and nine estate homes. In Esterillos, just south of Jacó, two golf courses and attached residential communities – Cabo Caletas and Del Pacífico – are under construction. In Jacó, an estimated 2000 condos are at different stages of development, from un-permitted plans to near-completion. “What’s happened is the central Pacific has really now started to move in a forward direction, with growth and bigger name projects with branding,” said Scott Williams, a real estate agent with 2 Costa Rica Realty. “Those things were before exclusively Guanacaste.”
© Files Beach Times
STRATEGY ON TRACK: Minister of the Presidency Rodrigo Arias says the government strategy to attract foreign investment that will create jobs is still among President Arias’ priorities. Prices remain lower than in Guanacaste on the average, but have still increased dramatically, sometimes double, over the last year. Tim Kopatich, with Crystal Clear Realty, said that 1800-square-foot homes that his company is selling in Bejuco, south of Esterillos, have gone from $135,000 last year to $275,000 today. In general, however, he says prices in and around Jacó have increased about 35 to 40 percent over the last year. Jeff Fisher, of CR Beach Investment Real Estate, says prices in Jacó, Herradura and Playa Hermosa are up, and sometimes way up. “I worry when two-bedroom beachfront condos sell for more than $500,000, because the infrastructure hasn’t caught up with this new pattern of prices,” Mr Fisher said. “A year ago a two-bedroom beach front house was $375,000. It was cute that Jacó didn’t have any traffic lights or bike paths and had very few police. Now that prices have risen dramatically, its important that the new mayor and the chamber of commerce work quickly to demonstrate that changes are being made, as minor as putting a traffic light.” Mr Fisher added that, despite some extremes, the bulk of his condo sales are still around $250,000 to $350,000, and that condo prices in general have risen by about 25 per cent over the last year, while raw beachfront land has risen slightly more. “They’re asking $1000 to $1400 per square meter, while a year ago they were asking $600 to $1000,” he said. Most dramatic, however, has been the increase in rent for commercial space along Jacó’s main boulevard, Avenida Pastor Díaz, Mr Fisher said, where rent has gone from $300 per square meter to $1000. Mr Fisher said his buyers “are overwhelmingly buying condos, but a lot of my sales are also gated-community, single-family homes five blocks from the beach for $215,000. “Ninety per cent of the people are buying for investment purposes or for rental income. Ten per cent are telling me they want to move there,” Mr Fisher said. Further south, near Manuel Antonio, property values have risen less dramatically, according 2 Costa Rica Realty’s Williams. He estimates prices have increased about 15 to 20 per cent across the board. While raw beachfront land is now impossible to come by, 1000 to 1500-square-meter ocean view lots can be found for $250,000 to $350,000, 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
Job opportunities on the rise in Guanacaste
(source http://www.journalcr.com/)
(C.A. News) — From being a province traditionally dedicated to agriculture and livestock production, Guanacaste has been transformed in a broad epicenter of job options thanks to the tourism and real estate boom it now experiences.
The recent arrival of tourists and investors has generated jobs not only in the tourism and real estate fields, but also in areas such as services, transportation and commerce. Construction, hotels and real estate activities are, however, the ones demanding the most workers.
This boom has meant a sustained increase in employment opportunities for people of the province and also for professionals from San Jose’s metropolitan area, who migrate to Guanacaste attracted by the many and diverse jobs available.
According to data by the Homes and Multiple Purposes Census carried out by the National Statistics Institute, the working population in the Chorotega Region went up from 110,971 in 2002 to 130,529 in 2006, which shows how dynamic the job market has been in the area.
As of July 2006, there were 10,384 people in the Chorotega Region working in construction and 12,457 in the hotel industry. Real estate activities employed another 4,438 Guanacastecans.
Opportunities in many fields
Chances of finding employment in Guanacaste are now high and diverse, according to business people and representatives of the tourism and real estate sectors.
Mauricio Cespedes, director of the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism (CATURGUA), said all trades and skills are sought after in the province now, since not only firms dedicated to tourism need qualified personnel, but also those that offer services related to this industry, such as travel agencies and transportation companies.
A similar opinion is that of Ignacio Pignataro, sales manager of the Tamarindo Heights project, who said the opening of shopping centers and real estate developments will generate better-paid jobs in the future.
“Guanacaste has depended on agriculture and livestock during a long time,” Pignataro said. “However, real estate developments and the opening of new shopping and business centers, office complexes and others, are beginning to create job opportunities that are better paid and have more growth possibilities.”
Tamarindo Heights, for example, employs 420 people, among them construction workers, sales personnel, administrators and accountants. Opening of the Garden Boutique Plaza shopping center, which belongs to the project, will soon provide even more jobs.
Randall Murillo, executive director of the Costa Rican Chamber of Construction, confirmed that demand in Guanacaste is high.
“There is a high demand in construction, so much so that we can’t find enough workers right now. We are needing engineering professionals, contractors and field workers,” Murillo pointed out.
Those interviewed agreed that the areas of services and commerce and the ones experiencing the largest growth.
An example is the expansion of renowned attorney firms to Guanacaste, as well as the opening of private banks in the province and the increasing demand for financial, accounting and administrative services. Likewise, the real estate industry has created openings for people experienced in sales to work as agents.
“The tourism industry generates employment in areas related or linked to its development, such as education, commerce, services and sectors such as construction, engineering and similar trades,” said Patricia Sanchez, director of Peninsula Papagayo Human Development.
This project, for instance, has 435 collaborators who work in different tourism, services and development occupations.
The opening of well-known supermarket, restaurant, pharmacy, gas station, car rental and shopping/office center chains is also an indication that employment in services and commerce is more abundant day by day. The Automercado supermarket chain will open new stores in Tamarindo and Playas del Coco by the end of the year, in alliance with the Tamarindo Heights and Pacifico real estate projects.
Murillo added that in terms of construction, every direct job generates two indirect positions in areas such as plumbing, electricity, gardening, transportation, and many more.
What do businesses need?
Although each productive sector and each company requires personnel with different characteristics, sources agree that knowledge of English is the main requirement of area employers.
“Knowing English is almost a basic requirement; it’s no longer an added value. Now the companies need people who also speak German, Italian and French, and many are betting on Mandarin Chinese anticipating the future,” said Cespedes, who added that knowledge of computer software is another key skill.
Companies such as Tamarindo Heights and Peninsula Papagayo indicated they also seek people with good service skills, strong work ethics and a sense of commitment.
“Attitude and the desire to improve, combined with an adequate academic background, are what we are looking for,” Pignataro explained. “To be successful in such a competitive market is increasingly difficult for those who don’t have the right attitude to carry out this kind of work.”
Murillo said that in the construction business, companies seek engineers who have some kind of specialized training. But he insisted that there are still gaps in the training of laborers and technicians in areas such as electricity and machinery, for example.
The growing competitiveness in the tourism and real estate industry have already created challenges, since finding enough bilingual workers in Guanacaste is some times complicated. Additionally, employers also have to deal with issues such as finding accommodations or providing transportation to workers who come from other areas.
Who works in Guanacaste?
Experts agree that shortcomings in academic training and the lack of experience of the locals in management positions are the reasons behind the migration of many professionals from San Jose to Guanacaste. Companies prefer to have qualified and experienced personnel, even if they have to bring them from other parts of the country or from overseas and have to invest more in salaries and operational costs.
For instance, 80 percent of the workforce at Tamarindo Heights comes from other provinces or countries. However, the developers hope that the inauguration of the project’s shopping center will mean more jobs for people from the area.
The opposite happens in the case of Peninsula Papagayo, where 87 percent of workers are Costa Ricans and 13 percent foreigners. Of that 87 percent, 76 percent are from Guanacaste, 18 percent from San Jose and 6 percent from the rest of the country.
“The migration of professionals from urban areas to Guanacaste happens mostly in positions that can’t still be filled by local people because of training or experience, and that’s why it’s so important to promote training among Guanacastecans,” explained Sanchez, who added that Peninsula Papagayo works with national institutions to promote educational programs and employment fairs so that Guanacaste can take advantage of the opportunities brought about by tourism.
Institutions that work with Peninsula Papagayo include the University of Costa Rica (UCR), the National University (UNA), the National Learning Institute (INA), the Federation of Guanacaste Municipalities, CATURGUA and the Costa Rican Association of Tourism Professionals (ACOPROT).
“Public and public universities, INA and other learning institutions became aware of the great need and opportunity in training competent workers, and have made strides to meet such needs,” Sanchez concluded.
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
(C.A. News) — From being a province traditionally dedicated to agriculture and livestock production, Guanacaste has been transformed in a broad epicenter of job options thanks to the tourism and real estate boom it now experiences.
The recent arrival of tourists and investors has generated jobs not only in the tourism and real estate fields, but also in areas such as services, transportation and commerce. Construction, hotels and real estate activities are, however, the ones demanding the most workers.
This boom has meant a sustained increase in employment opportunities for people of the province and also for professionals from San Jose’s metropolitan area, who migrate to Guanacaste attracted by the many and diverse jobs available.
According to data by the Homes and Multiple Purposes Census carried out by the National Statistics Institute, the working population in the Chorotega Region went up from 110,971 in 2002 to 130,529 in 2006, which shows how dynamic the job market has been in the area.
As of July 2006, there were 10,384 people in the Chorotega Region working in construction and 12,457 in the hotel industry. Real estate activities employed another 4,438 Guanacastecans.
Opportunities in many fields
Chances of finding employment in Guanacaste are now high and diverse, according to business people and representatives of the tourism and real estate sectors.
Mauricio Cespedes, director of the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism (CATURGUA), said all trades and skills are sought after in the province now, since not only firms dedicated to tourism need qualified personnel, but also those that offer services related to this industry, such as travel agencies and transportation companies.
A similar opinion is that of Ignacio Pignataro, sales manager of the Tamarindo Heights project, who said the opening of shopping centers and real estate developments will generate better-paid jobs in the future.
“Guanacaste has depended on agriculture and livestock during a long time,” Pignataro said. “However, real estate developments and the opening of new shopping and business centers, office complexes and others, are beginning to create job opportunities that are better paid and have more growth possibilities.”
Tamarindo Heights, for example, employs 420 people, among them construction workers, sales personnel, administrators and accountants. Opening of the Garden Boutique Plaza shopping center, which belongs to the project, will soon provide even more jobs.
Randall Murillo, executive director of the Costa Rican Chamber of Construction, confirmed that demand in Guanacaste is high.
“There is a high demand in construction, so much so that we can’t find enough workers right now. We are needing engineering professionals, contractors and field workers,” Murillo pointed out.
Those interviewed agreed that the areas of services and commerce and the ones experiencing the largest growth.
An example is the expansion of renowned attorney firms to Guanacaste, as well as the opening of private banks in the province and the increasing demand for financial, accounting and administrative services. Likewise, the real estate industry has created openings for people experienced in sales to work as agents.
“The tourism industry generates employment in areas related or linked to its development, such as education, commerce, services and sectors such as construction, engineering and similar trades,” said Patricia Sanchez, director of Peninsula Papagayo Human Development.
This project, for instance, has 435 collaborators who work in different tourism, services and development occupations.
The opening of well-known supermarket, restaurant, pharmacy, gas station, car rental and shopping/office center chains is also an indication that employment in services and commerce is more abundant day by day. The Automercado supermarket chain will open new stores in Tamarindo and Playas del Coco by the end of the year, in alliance with the Tamarindo Heights and Pacifico real estate projects.
Murillo added that in terms of construction, every direct job generates two indirect positions in areas such as plumbing, electricity, gardening, transportation, and many more.
What do businesses need?
Although each productive sector and each company requires personnel with different characteristics, sources agree that knowledge of English is the main requirement of area employers.
“Knowing English is almost a basic requirement; it’s no longer an added value. Now the companies need people who also speak German, Italian and French, and many are betting on Mandarin Chinese anticipating the future,” said Cespedes, who added that knowledge of computer software is another key skill.
Companies such as Tamarindo Heights and Peninsula Papagayo indicated they also seek people with good service skills, strong work ethics and a sense of commitment.
“Attitude and the desire to improve, combined with an adequate academic background, are what we are looking for,” Pignataro explained. “To be successful in such a competitive market is increasingly difficult for those who don’t have the right attitude to carry out this kind of work.”
Murillo said that in the construction business, companies seek engineers who have some kind of specialized training. But he insisted that there are still gaps in the training of laborers and technicians in areas such as electricity and machinery, for example.
The growing competitiveness in the tourism and real estate industry have already created challenges, since finding enough bilingual workers in Guanacaste is some times complicated. Additionally, employers also have to deal with issues such as finding accommodations or providing transportation to workers who come from other areas.
Who works in Guanacaste?
Experts agree that shortcomings in academic training and the lack of experience of the locals in management positions are the reasons behind the migration of many professionals from San Jose to Guanacaste. Companies prefer to have qualified and experienced personnel, even if they have to bring them from other parts of the country or from overseas and have to invest more in salaries and operational costs.
For instance, 80 percent of the workforce at Tamarindo Heights comes from other provinces or countries. However, the developers hope that the inauguration of the project’s shopping center will mean more jobs for people from the area.
The opposite happens in the case of Peninsula Papagayo, where 87 percent of workers are Costa Ricans and 13 percent foreigners. Of that 87 percent, 76 percent are from Guanacaste, 18 percent from San Jose and 6 percent from the rest of the country.
“The migration of professionals from urban areas to Guanacaste happens mostly in positions that can’t still be filled by local people because of training or experience, and that’s why it’s so important to promote training among Guanacastecans,” explained Sanchez, who added that Peninsula Papagayo works with national institutions to promote educational programs and employment fairs so that Guanacaste can take advantage of the opportunities brought about by tourism.
Institutions that work with Peninsula Papagayo include the University of Costa Rica (UCR), the National University (UNA), the National Learning Institute (INA), the Federation of Guanacaste Municipalities, CATURGUA and the Costa Rican Association of Tourism Professionals (ACOPROT).
“Public and public universities, INA and other learning institutions became aware of the great need and opportunity in training competent workers, and have made strides to meet such needs,” Sanchez concluded.
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
Saturday, July 7, 2007
HERMOSA DEL MAR CONDOMINIUM
Located in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, and only 20 minutes away from Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, Hermosa del Mar is nestled along the sparkling sands of Playa Hermosa with crystal clear waters flowing across the exotic tropical scenery......soothing ocean breezes await you in what will without a doubt become your private refuge.
Great Ocean View - only 200 yard from the beach.
One of the most exclusive project in Costa Rica.
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
Great Ocean View - only 200 yard from the beach.
One of the most exclusive project in Costa Rica.
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
Pacifico unveils model homes
Source: www.journalcr.com
Edition # 94
(C.A. News) — Exotic, comfortable and nice. Those are the adjectives that come to mind when observing the eight homes recently inaugurated by the Pacifico project in Playas del Coco, Guanacaste. An open house was organized to unveil the project, giving the public the chance to enjoy its amenities and entice them to get one of the homes.
Pacifico is a development of the Jack Parker Corporation, of U.S. capital, which with more than 50 years of experience in the business saw on the Guanacaste coast an ideal place to establish a resort-style community that would include all services and amenities possible, in an exotic locale of great natural beauty.
The model homes are identical to the ones currently being built, all decorated by U.S. company Robb and Stucky, which has more than 90 years of experience in interior design.
In total, the development has 350 condos, townhouses and villas, in addition to 20 apartments for rent and 150 lots for home sites, some of which have a superb view of the ocean.
The project occupies 75 hectares, for an investment of $100.
The first stage of the project, which began in October 2006, consists of 56 homes. Construction of this first phase is expected to be completed by August, but already more than 40 percent of the residences have been sold. A total of 61 lots for home sites and 25 residences have been sold.
The Pacifico Beach Club House, which will be available to all homeowners in the first phase, is almost ready as well.
“We are very satisfied with the number of buyers and the pace of sales at Pacifico. In contrast with the real estate market in the United States, the Latin American market has not slowed down, and continues to be a interesting market for buyers from all over the world,” said Kerry Trowbridge, senior vice president for Jack Parker Corporation.
Convenience and amenities
The idea behind Pacifico is to provide residents all amenities in the same place, so that they don’t have to go out of the complex to enjoy them.
Benefits include membership in the Pacifico Beach Club House, which will have a bar, restaurant, recreational areas and a pool, and access to the ocean. A shuttle service will be offered in the future to residents to go to the beach.
In addition, residents will be able to enjoy the Sunset Bar, pools for adults and children, tennis courts, a health club and spa, BBQ areas and a kids’ play area. All of this can be enjoyed with the peace of mind of 24-hour security services in the complex.
About 26 percent of the project’s total area will be landscaped, allowing for enjoyable walks. Residents will be able to relax, exercise and enjoy a water pavilion.
Also part of the project will be an Automercado grocery store and the Pacific Retail Village, a shopping center with 12 business spaces for professionals, boutiques, art galleries, restaurants and a tour operator. Robb and Stucky will have its first art studio outside of the United States here.
Both the supermarket and the shopping center will be located at the entrance of Pacifico, and they are expected to open in December. They will cater both to residents and the community.
Luxury residences
Pacifico offers its clients three types of residences: lifestyle, clubhouse and townhouse.
The difference among them has to do with the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Townhouses are bigger, with four bedrooms and four bathrooms on three roomy levels. All homes have a garage, with space for one or two cars.
All residences come equipped with appliances, kitchen furniture and first-class accessories. They are also wired for phone, Internet and cable.
For interior decoration, Pacifico established a strategic alliance with Robb and Stucky, which took care of the last little detail in the homes.
If the customer so wishes, he or she can request a non-decorated house. But for those who don’t want to worry about interior design, Robb and Stucky offers four decoration packages: Bali, Tortola, Watercolors and Carmel, including furniture, dish sets, curtains, towels and even table decorations.
This is Robb and Stucky’s first job overseas. They had worked in Europe and the Caribbean, but only in sales. In the case of Pacifico, the firm decided to bring its own designers to work with local experts, in order to adapt its styles to the tropics.
Dan Lubner, Robb and Stucky’s marketing vice president, said what sets his company apart from competitors is that it offers large quantities, volume and reasonable prices, in addition to providing customers total satisfaction.
“It’s a combination of quality, low prices and volume. Besides, we make sure the service is delivered correctly, that everything is put into place”, Lubner said.
Lubner added that one unique aspect of Pacifico’s decorations is the use of impermeable materials in outside furniture, with the goal of protecting them from water and salinity. The colors were also carefully chosen to be in harmony with nature.
Great expectations
Pacifico was conceived to be built and sold in five years. However, sales have been so good that the developers are considering accelerating construction.
Company calculations were conservative, as they initially estimated there will be 100 sales per year during four years. But in only five months there have been 86 sales.
Trowbridge underscored that an interesting situation has taken place: lots have been very well received, especially by Costa Ricans. Of the 61 that have been sold so far, 54 percent have been acquired by Ticos, followed by 36 percent by Americans.
This means that Costa Ricans are seeing Playas del Coco as a great investment opportunity, and not only as a traditional vacation spot.
The homes, on the other hand, have been bought mostly by Americans.
Jayson Matthews, sales team leader in Playas del Coco, said the buyers are many and very different.
“We see young families, retirees, people from Canada, Bermuda, the U.S. Locals are buying too, as they like the amenities of Pacífico,” Matthews said, adding that people invest in Costa Rica because they like the country, its people and the pace of life.
Home and lot prices start at around $150,000.
Trowbridge qualified this first international endeavor by Jack Parker as “a very positive experience,” as they have had the opportunity to work with very good professionals, both in the United States and in Costa Rica. Thanks to this, they are thinking about starting other projects, most likely in Guanacaste.
The project will continue collaborating with the community of Playas del Coco by donating money to pave the roads, beautify the boulevard and protect water sources.
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
Edition # 94
(C.A. News) — Exotic, comfortable and nice. Those are the adjectives that come to mind when observing the eight homes recently inaugurated by the Pacifico project in Playas del Coco, Guanacaste. An open house was organized to unveil the project, giving the public the chance to enjoy its amenities and entice them to get one of the homes.
Pacifico is a development of the Jack Parker Corporation, of U.S. capital, which with more than 50 years of experience in the business saw on the Guanacaste coast an ideal place to establish a resort-style community that would include all services and amenities possible, in an exotic locale of great natural beauty.
The model homes are identical to the ones currently being built, all decorated by U.S. company Robb and Stucky, which has more than 90 years of experience in interior design.
In total, the development has 350 condos, townhouses and villas, in addition to 20 apartments for rent and 150 lots for home sites, some of which have a superb view of the ocean.
The project occupies 75 hectares, for an investment of $100.
The first stage of the project, which began in October 2006, consists of 56 homes. Construction of this first phase is expected to be completed by August, but already more than 40 percent of the residences have been sold. A total of 61 lots for home sites and 25 residences have been sold.
The Pacifico Beach Club House, which will be available to all homeowners in the first phase, is almost ready as well.
“We are very satisfied with the number of buyers and the pace of sales at Pacifico. In contrast with the real estate market in the United States, the Latin American market has not slowed down, and continues to be a interesting market for buyers from all over the world,” said Kerry Trowbridge, senior vice president for Jack Parker Corporation.
Convenience and amenities
The idea behind Pacifico is to provide residents all amenities in the same place, so that they don’t have to go out of the complex to enjoy them.
Benefits include membership in the Pacifico Beach Club House, which will have a bar, restaurant, recreational areas and a pool, and access to the ocean. A shuttle service will be offered in the future to residents to go to the beach.
In addition, residents will be able to enjoy the Sunset Bar, pools for adults and children, tennis courts, a health club and spa, BBQ areas and a kids’ play area. All of this can be enjoyed with the peace of mind of 24-hour security services in the complex.
About 26 percent of the project’s total area will be landscaped, allowing for enjoyable walks. Residents will be able to relax, exercise and enjoy a water pavilion.
Also part of the project will be an Automercado grocery store and the Pacific Retail Village, a shopping center with 12 business spaces for professionals, boutiques, art galleries, restaurants and a tour operator. Robb and Stucky will have its first art studio outside of the United States here.
Both the supermarket and the shopping center will be located at the entrance of Pacifico, and they are expected to open in December. They will cater both to residents and the community.
Luxury residences
Pacifico offers its clients three types of residences: lifestyle, clubhouse and townhouse.
The difference among them has to do with the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Townhouses are bigger, with four bedrooms and four bathrooms on three roomy levels. All homes have a garage, with space for one or two cars.
All residences come equipped with appliances, kitchen furniture and first-class accessories. They are also wired for phone, Internet and cable.
For interior decoration, Pacifico established a strategic alliance with Robb and Stucky, which took care of the last little detail in the homes.
If the customer so wishes, he or she can request a non-decorated house. But for those who don’t want to worry about interior design, Robb and Stucky offers four decoration packages: Bali, Tortola, Watercolors and Carmel, including furniture, dish sets, curtains, towels and even table decorations.
This is Robb and Stucky’s first job overseas. They had worked in Europe and the Caribbean, but only in sales. In the case of Pacifico, the firm decided to bring its own designers to work with local experts, in order to adapt its styles to the tropics.
Dan Lubner, Robb and Stucky’s marketing vice president, said what sets his company apart from competitors is that it offers large quantities, volume and reasonable prices, in addition to providing customers total satisfaction.
“It’s a combination of quality, low prices and volume. Besides, we make sure the service is delivered correctly, that everything is put into place”, Lubner said.
Lubner added that one unique aspect of Pacifico’s decorations is the use of impermeable materials in outside furniture, with the goal of protecting them from water and salinity. The colors were also carefully chosen to be in harmony with nature.
Great expectations
Pacifico was conceived to be built and sold in five years. However, sales have been so good that the developers are considering accelerating construction.
Company calculations were conservative, as they initially estimated there will be 100 sales per year during four years. But in only five months there have been 86 sales.
Trowbridge underscored that an interesting situation has taken place: lots have been very well received, especially by Costa Ricans. Of the 61 that have been sold so far, 54 percent have been acquired by Ticos, followed by 36 percent by Americans.
This means that Costa Ricans are seeing Playas del Coco as a great investment opportunity, and not only as a traditional vacation spot.
The homes, on the other hand, have been bought mostly by Americans.
Jayson Matthews, sales team leader in Playas del Coco, said the buyers are many and very different.
“We see young families, retirees, people from Canada, Bermuda, the U.S. Locals are buying too, as they like the amenities of Pacífico,” Matthews said, adding that people invest in Costa Rica because they like the country, its people and the pace of life.
Home and lot prices start at around $150,000.
Trowbridge qualified this first international endeavor by Jack Parker as “a very positive experience,” as they have had the opportunity to work with very good professionals, both in the United States and in Costa Rica. Thanks to this, they are thinking about starting other projects, most likely in Guanacaste.
The project will continue collaborating with the community of Playas del Coco by donating money to pave the roads, beautify the boulevard and protect water sources.
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
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