Understanding property purchase laws in Costa Rica

PRLog (Press Release) - Aug. 18, 2008 - An expert knows what to look for in the public registry such old tax liens and can prevent the foreigner from getting take advantage of.
After the property is officially declared legally purchasable than a lawyer should step in on behalf of the foreigner to make sure the sale is properly finalized and the paperwork acknowledging this matter is correctly filed.  
There are hardly any restrictions placed on foreign buyers in Costa Rica except that they do not have access to some properties that have been leased or given to private Costa Rican citizens, but after a certain amount of time passes they can even buy or trade land with the private citizen if they so wished.  The most significant drawback to buying property in Costa Rica is that for the foreign entrepreneur the most desirable land would be oceanfront land, but it is law that from the tide line towards shore the first 50 meters belong to the general public and that land can therefore never be owned by anyone but the general public.
After a general acceptance of that, even more frustrating is the fact that the next 150 yards of beach are only available through terms of a lease and a foreigner can only hold 49% of this lease unless he or she has been a resident of Costa Rica for over five years.  The simple solution is to have a native hold 51% of the lease in his name for a small fee, with the land really belonging to the foreign investor.  This law is not meant to keep foreigners from owning any beach property, it simply exists because unlike mainland plots of territory, the areas have not yet been zoned for electricity and roads yet and the Costa Rican government does not see why a foreigner should control the zoning of a whole countryside because he now holds the first developed piece of property, which is a legitimate concern.  As previously stated, for the most part the foreign investor is not going to care to get involved with zoning the areas outside of his parcel of land.
Beachfront property ( http://www.encuentra24.com/costa-rica/index.php/real-esta... ) purchases aside, the actual details to a purchase are very simple. Due to a shaky economy and growth rate, financing options from Costa Rica are unrealistically set so if an investor needs a loan to make a purchase he best borrow the money from his home country finance companies. The actual exchange of money is quite simple as Costa Rica has finally allowed the dollar to be used as an acceptable form of currency, which alleviates the problems or calculating the exchange rates between the two parties. Zoning regulations are responsible and the property tax rates are very low making adding to the attraction of buying up land for investment purposes in Costa Rica.
The only other pricing considerations are the closing costs which are reasonable since they only amount to a mere 5% of the final sale price which is split equally between the buyer and seller.
Although the paperwork may be a little difficult to interpret, and beachfront property can be a pain to handle the sales of due to maritime zoning laws ( http://www.encuentra24.com/costa-rica/index.php/costa-ric... ), the final costs and property taxes are so low that it is easy for a foreigner with proper expert advice to complete a sale and begin building property almost immediately.

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