I receive inquiries like this on a fairly regular basis:
“I am considering an investment in real estate in Costa Rica with a budget of approximately USD 215,000. Ideally, we would be interested in a villa with a larger land plot close to the beach, or possibly directly by the ocean, in a location attractive both for leisure and tourist rentals. The property should be suitable for short-term vacation rentals while also allowing us to use it for our own family holidays.”
Yes, Costa Rica has been riding a strong wave of popularity in recent years. It is genuinely beautiful and highly photogenic. At first glance, it feels to many visitors like a tropical paradise – a place where life is pleasant, the air feels lighter, and where one can escape the pressure and pace of the modern world. It is therefore no coincidence that after the COVID period, and in the context of the current situation in Europe, interest in Costa Rica has increased significantly.
More and more people are looking for a safe, stable and enjoyable place to live, as well as a destination where they can allocate part of their capital. Costa Rica undoubtedly meets many of these criteria. We have no army, a long-term stable political environment, our own stable currency, a well-functioning democracy, and foreigners are allowed to own real estate without restrictions – as I have mentioned several times in my previous articles. It is precisely this combination of factors that makes Costa Rica so attractive. However, with every “A” naturally comes a “B”.
Growing demand also creates space for “very tempting” real estate offers, fast decisions driven by emotions, stories about exceptional opportunities, and visions of dreams coming true. And in the atmosphere of Costa Rica’s tropical paradise, it is surprisingly easy to get carried away by these dreams.
A PRACTICE THAT OCCURS MORE OFTEN THAN INVESTORS WOULD LIKE
At the end of 2025, within a relatively short period of time, two different property owners from the Czech Republic approached me independently with the same request: whether I could assist them with selling their houses in Costa Rica.
They did not know each other, they did not contact me together, and each came on their own, entirely independently of the other. Yet in many respects, their stories were strikingly similar. Both owners had purchased their properties approximately one to two years earlier. In both cases, these were detached family houses situated on larger plots of land, located outside the main investment areas.
From a typological perspective, these were simple, functional buildings corresponding to local residential standards - homes primarily intended for quiet, everyday living, the way many of us Costa Ricans live, rather than properties designed for investment purposes.
There were no established or proven development projects, no locations with consistent year-round tourist demand, and no supporting infrastructure for a functioning rental market. Each owner had a different personal reason for making the purchase. A different story, a different vision of the future.
Nevertheless, at first glance, I was able to identify the same fundamental issue in both cases very quickly. The problem was the location - more precisely, the fact that the location did not generate any real investment demand, neither in the short term nor in the long term. As a result, these properties were not investment-grade assets.
Both owners cited a change in their personal life circumstances as the reason for selling. Neither of them stated that the property “was not generating income.”
Nevertheless, it was evident that their investment expectations had by no means been fulfilled. I therefore politely declined to represent both properties for sale. The reason was straightforward: I cannot and do not want to sell properties where I know there is no real investment foundation. I do not want to create an impression of yield where the entire model is built on an unsuitable location.
I work with investors on a long-term basis, and my objective is not a one-off transaction, but trust.
The supply of real estate in Costa Rica is broad, and in today’s “online era” it is not particularly difficult for foreign buyers to find their dream home and initiate the entire process even without a broker who understands local specifics and can provide qualified guidance. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, owning property in Costa Rica’s tropical paradise with a budget of up to approximately USD 215,000 is highly attractive to many international investors.
And yes, properties in this price range do exist in Costa Rica. However, it is important to say out loud what many investors only realize later or too late.
Costa Rica is not a cheap country, and in practice, the difference between a quality investment property and a “price-driven purchase” is fundamental. Finding a large house on a large plot of land for a relatively low price is not particularly difficult.
The more difficult question is:
If, after one or two years, living in a secluded location, commuting, and the operational demands of the property begin to lose their appeal, a moment of truth inevitably arrives: who will you sell such a property to?
For local Costa Ricans, a property in this price range is already considered very expensive. Foreign buyers, on the other hand, typically look for an investment product first and foremost - meaning a location with proven demand, accessible professional management, available services, and clear marketability. And this is precisely where it becomes evident that while buying can be fast and easy, selling well and without a loss requires investment logic to be applied from the very beginning.
In foreign real estate investments, “location” is not limited to a nice view or proximity to the beach. It is a measurable set of factors that either create - or fail to create - economic demand.
In other words, the ability of a location to sustain long-term occupancy, rental pricing, and the future sale of the property (a liquid exit). When I evaluate a property through an investor’s lens, I always start with the location. Not the house. Not the price. Not the projected yield in an Excel spreadsheet. Because yield can be calculated, but demand cannot be invented. Either it exists in a given location, or it does not.
When investing in Costa Rica, there is an additional factor that foreign investors often underestimate simply because they do not know the country well and that factor is the:
As illogical as it may seem at first glance, even a difference of 100 to 200 meters can, in practice, mean a completely different type of demand, a different pricing ceiling, and a very different operational reality.
In short-term rentals, these differences are reflected immediately in occupancy rates and nightly prices and in the worst-case scenario, even in whether the property can be operated efficiently at all.
In Costa Rica, location is therefore both a question of return and operational risk. And that is exactly why “a few hundred meters” can determine whether you have an investment or a problem. You can have two properties just 200 meters apart, and the difference in their returns can easily exceed 50%.
Costa Rica is a beautiful country. Precisely because of that, it is very easy to fall under the illusion that every property is a good investment. It is not. If a property is to function as an investment, it must stand on its own – without emotions, without holidays, and without the owner’s personal presence. And that is exactly why the same rule applies here as it does everywhere else in the world:
If you are evaluating a real estate investment in Costa Rica and are seeking a property with real investment fundamentals, I would be glad to help.
