Foreign investment — Costa Rica
What a non-resident buyer needs to weigh a purchase in Costa Rica: the legal rules, what closing and holding cost, what the market returns in USD terms, and the macro and risk backdrop — from the same data as the rest of REAL NOW.
What a purchase costs
Closing costs as the buyer pays them, and a worked example at the market median so the percentages become dollars.
Closing costs
1.5% transfer tax plus about 1.35% in stamps and registry; the notary fee is usually split between buyer and seller.
Worked example at the market median
| Purchase price | US$500,000 |
| Closing costs (4.0%) | US$20,000 |
| All-in at closing | US$520,000 |
| Annual property tax band | US$1,250 – US$1,250 |
| Gross rent a year (median rent × 12) | US$24,000 |
| After operating costs (30% rule) | US$16,800 |
| Residency threshold (US$150,000) | cleared |
Ownership and residency
| Direct ownership by foreigners | Yes |
| Same legal protection as nationals. Exception: the first 200 m of beach is the maritime-terrestrial zone — municipal concession only, no ownership — and foreigners with under 5 years in the country cannot hold a concession. | |
| Usual structure | For beachfront: a national partner, or wait 5 years for a personal concession. |
| Annual property tax | Bienes Inmuebles · 0.25–0.25% |
| Assessed on | declared value, with a municipal minimum |
| Plus a 0.25–0.55% luxury-home tax when the value exceeds about US$240,000. | |
Residency routes
What the market returns, in USD terms
Price level, rent and yield from the aggregated public offer, then the two things a foreign buyer adds on top: operating costs and the currency.
Price level and rent
Apartments for sale (1,000+): US$2,366 per m², median US$350,000, gross yield 7.1%.
REAL NOW list-price index: 100.2 (+0.2% since 2026-06, 35 zones paired, solid quality).
From gross yield to a USD view
rent × 12 ÷ price
after 30% operating costs
CRC vs USD, 2020–2025
cap rate + drift
The CRC gained about 3.0% a year against the dollar over 2020–2025; that helped USD holders, and it can reverse. Rents in premium zones are often quoted in dollars even where the currency floats; check the lease currency before applying the drift.
| CRC per USD | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| year average | 584.90 | 620.78 | 647.14 | 544.05 | 515.11 | 503.50 |
Macro backdrop
Growth, prices, rates and capital flows from the World Bank and the central bank — the context a lender or a fund would ask for first.
Recent years
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GDP growth | +2.7% | -4.1% | +8.2% | +5.5% | +4.8% | +4.1% | +4.6% |
| Inflation | +2.1% | +0.7% | +1.7% | +8.3% | +0.5% | -0.4% | -0.1% |
Risk context
What two foreign ministries say about travelling here, and how often nature has hit the country in the last decade.
The 8 markets side by side
Same definitions in every column. Click a row to open that country.
| Country | Ownership | Closing | Property tax | Residency from | Currency, 5 y | Median US$/m² | Gross yield | USD view | GDP, 5-y avg | Mortgage | US advisory |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇬🇹 Guatemala | direct | 5.0% | 0.2–0.9% | by income | GTQ +0.5% 2020–2025 | 1,800 | 6.3% | 4.5% | 4.7% | — | Level 3 |
| 🇸🇻 El Salvador | direct, limits | 4.5% | 0.0–0.5% | US$1,000,000 | US dollar | 1,296 | 5.7% | 4.0% | 5.0% | 7.7% | Level 1 |
| 🇭🇳 Honduras | direct, limits | 5.0% | 0.3–0.4% | by income | HNL -5.3% 2020–2025 | 2,322 | — | — | 5.5% | 11.6% | Level 3 |
| 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | direct, limits | 4.0% | 0.25–0.25% | US$150,000 | CRC +16.2% 2020–2025 | 2,107 | 6.4% | 7.5% | 5.4% | 7.8% | Level 2 |
| 🇧🇿 Belice | direct | 10.0% | 1.0–1.5% | by income | BZD · pegged to USD | 1,612 | 5.5% | 3.8% | 6.8% | 7.5% | Level 2 |
| 🇩🇴 República Dominicana | direct | 4.5% | 0.0–1.0% | US$200,000 | DOP -8.8% 2020–2025 | 2,029 | 7.1% | 3.1% | 5.7% | 11.4% | Level 2 |
| 🇵🇦 Panamá | direct | 3.5% | 0.0–1.0% | US$200,000 | US dollar | 2,162 | 6.5% | 4.6% | 8.4% | 6.2% | Level 2 |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | direct, limits | 5.0% | 0.6–1.5% | US$140,000 | BRL -7.7% 2020–2025 | 1,529 | 6.8% | 3.1% | 3.3% | 11.3% | Level 2 |
How this page is built
What each number is made of, so you can judge it before quoting it.
| Closing costs | Curated per country from notarial and tax-authority schedules, as the buyer pays them; shared with the calculator. · reviewed 2026-06-07 |
| Legal rules | Immigration and tax law as published by each government; reviewed yearly. Not legal advice — every purchase still needs a local attorney. |
| Prices, rent, yield | Country-wide medians over the aggregated public offer, rebuilt nightly; sale and rent are never mixed. Gross yield comes from the rent benchmarks: for each property type and bedroom count, median asking rent × 12 ÷ median asking price over the last 90 days, cross-listings removed, then combined across segments. · 2026-10-25 |
| Cap-rate estimate | Gross yield less a flat 30% for vacancy, tax, maintenance and management — the same rule in every country and in the AI briefings. |
| Currency drift | Annualised change in the USD value of the local currency over the last 5 years of World Bank annual averages; zero for the dollarised and pegged economies. |
| Rates and macro | Central bank and banking-superintendency releases for rates and monthly inflation; World Bank for annual macro. |
| Risk | US State Department and UK Foreign Office advisories as published; ThinkHazard! (GFDRR / World Bank) for natural-hazard levels by municipality. · checked 2026-10-25 |
How to read it
- Closing costs are what the buyer typically pays; where the seller carries the transfer tax, it is left out of the buyer figure.
- Medians describe the whole country. A capital-city apartment and a beach lot sit at opposite ends of the band; use the zone analytics before pricing anything.
- The USD view is arithmetic on history, not a projection. Currencies that fell for five years can stabilise, and pegs can break.
- Residency thresholds are the legal minimum; processing fees, dependants and proof-of-funds rules add to them.