Costa Rica, A Hurricane-Free Zone

While browsing the storefronts of Quepos the other day, I saw this Hurricane History Map in an office window.  What caught my attention was how Costa Rica was completely free of any direct hurricane/tropical storm trajectories.  People ask us if we get hit by hurricanes, and now it’s nice to have a chart showing just how ideally located Costa Rica is, especially on the Pacific side.  Clearly, the vast majority of tropical storms and hurricanes are born in the oceans to the west and especially the east of Costa Rica, and then almost always track north.  In recent years, only Hurricane Cesar and Hurricane Mitch (1996 and 1998, respectively) traveled all the way across the Central America landmass.


Even though Costa Rica is Hurricane-free Zone, it still feels the effects of heavy rainfall from time to time.

During the hurricane season, June 1st – Nov. 30th, Costa Rica will occasionally feel the effects of these major hydro-meteorological events.  Tropical storms are more common than hurricanes in Costa Rica, and it is important to note that heavy rain isn’t the same as heavy rain AND 100+ mph winds!

According to this NASA webpage, “Tropical cyclones are like giant engines that use warm, moist air as fuel. That is why they form only over warm ocean waters near the equator.” The small towns in our area (e.g., Dominical, Uvita and Ojochal) are located at approximately nine degrees north of the equator.  The benefit of being at this latitude, and on the Pacific side of Costa Rica, is the wind is significantly lighter than along the Caribbean storm corridor where hurricane winds can rip off your roof.  I suppose that’s why the famous Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan called the Pacific Ocean, Tepre Pacificum or “Peaceful Sea”.

What Does This Mean For Pacific Zone Residents and Investors?

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NEW-Old Plan for the International Airport in Costa Rica

The list of rumors regarding the southern zone Airport is long and varied— operational for international flights by 2010, moving to a new site in Sierpe, moving south closer to the border in a joint venture with the Panamanian Government… to name a few. The reason I am sharing this news story released by La Nacion a few days ago and forwarded by a reputable broker in the area is it actually sounds like the government has a (more) realistic plan.

Water In Costa Rica, Part Two

If you ask the World Bank or one of the mega-water corporations (e.g., Coke, Nestle, Vivendi), fresh drinking water is a commodity. If you ask virtually everyone else in the world (including the United Nations), fresh drinking water is a basic human right. Whether it is the encroachment of privatization or Nicaragua’s plan to divert the San Juan River[1], water in Costa Rica is an increasingly lively topic.

Water is a necessity.

One of the most popular questions for potential property owners is, “What is the water situation for this property?” Most of these new investors come from North America and Europe, areas that have hundreds of years of infrastructure development.  However, this southern Pacific region of Costa Rica is still early in the cycle of development.  We continue to see rapid growth in communications (cell phones and high speed internet), power (high tension power lines), and roads (the newly paved Costanera between Quepos and Dominical).  That being said, cell phones are a luxury, but water… is a necessity.

Property In A Development

Most quality developments have a water system that has been installed by the developer.  The most common sources for these systems are high flowing springs, and in some cases surface water (e.g., creeks and rivers).  Some developments, like Osa Estates in Uvita, even have back-up systems and extensive water storage capabilities.  The interesting thing is very few developments actually have a concession (permission to extract water from the ground).  The good news is the majority of them are “in process”.  Either way, the developer usually provides the property owner a prevista (water right document) which guarantees use of water into the future (assuming the property owner is in compliance with established CC&Rs and other laws).  Proof of a water document, like a prevista, is also required by the local Municipality before they will approve any construction project on a property.

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Houses In Our Future

For those with construction experience and a desire to build houses in a foreign country, this where there may be money to be made. The crystal ball formula is– buy a cheap ocean view lot, no more than 10 minutes from the Costanera (our paved coastal highway), and build an affordable house with a swimming pool. The main question we anticipate from potential builders is…

Guys In the Zone Talk Show – Episode 3

Build or Buy in Costa Rica Episode 3 features a discussion on the Pros and Cons of buying a house or building a house in Costa Rica’s southern Pacific zone.  Featured listings in the episode include– Casa by The Pond – #319; a lovely house located in central Ojochal with a pond, swimming pool and … Read more

Relocation – Surviving the Transition Financially

Are you an entrepreneur who wants to relocate in Costa Rica? Many of you have ideas of what you would like to do but you don’t know if it is feasible. Do you buy a well-priced piece of real estate then develop it to your liking? Or, do you buy a turnkey business in one of the small towns of the Southern Pacific Zone (SPZ)? Those are two questions The Guys In The Zone are asked often, and I thought I would shed a little light on the possibilities.

Buy land, build structure, announce grand opening.

domrestaurant.jpg

Relocators who lean toward the Buy & Build model are the most common brand of investor. Rarely, does the building process go perfectly smooth especially if you are a “first timer” in Costa Rica. Even with a good contractor, we encourage most owners to be on-site often. In fact, the more you can be there to answer questions and provide direction, the better. There’s nothing worse than flying down to check on the status of your building only to discover the size of your custom kitchen and bathroom have been interchanged?! If you follow this advice and move down to oversee the building process, then there are the obvious costs associated with living here (rent, bills, food, gas, etc.). However, this increases your chances to end up with the small (or large) business you always dreamed of. I have attended a few “Grand Openings” in the past few years, and most owners smile with pride, albeit with a touch of fatigue.

Most of our commercial land sellers are open to negotiating price and/or carrying paper (seller financing) as long as there is a significant down payment. Currently, we have excellent “raw land” properties that can accommodate businesses ranging from a small hotel-restaurant and one of the best “large commercial” pieces on the Costanera.

Or, buy a landmark!

surf-shop.jpgUntil just recently there were very few businesses to buy in the SPZ. Over the past five years, the ticos and early bird gringos have successfully

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Curious and Unexplainable Building Practices of Costa Rica

So we wanted to remodel. Full scale, plumbing, electrical, tile, roof and so on. One of the big motivations for the remodel was the bat problem we had. We had lots of bats living up in the attic. I know, as you read this you are thinking of at least one solution that you know would work. Well, we’ve tried it, whatever it may be. I have put garlic all around, hung sharp blades of jungle grass up, lights, noise, moth balls, plug in devices for this purpose that didn’t work, etc…

So now we were going to try and rebuild the house in such a way that the little blighters wouldn’t call our home “home” anymore. We had heard that they hate fiberglass insulation, so we were going to put on a new roof and insulate it with fiberglass. I’ll go ahead and tell you how it ended up since this isn’t really the point of this article. It didn’t work. We now have a guy enshrouding the whole house with screen. I’m not sure how we’re going to get in and out of the house, but it might just work with respect to finally getting the bats to go away.

Remodeling is an interesting endeavor no matter where you live. But I have become convinced that it is super complex here, due to what I wrote in my previous article. Click here to view.

Europeans, North Americans, Icelanders, even other Latin American countries such as Mexico and Guatemala, all have a certain sense of style. Costa Rica doesn’t. Well it does in that the lack of style is universal. There is little to no attention given to the aesthetic of the living space. Look below the surface of the unimaginative décor and design of most Tico homes, offices, stores, whatever and you will find a poorly put together mechanical structure.
For instance:

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Building in Costa Rica – Step 1

June 6th, 2008

Step 1 of the construction process in Costa Rica really is that you have determined the cost of building what you want and you have determined that you’ve got the funds necessary to achieve your objective.

But that is not what this article is about. This one is about a meeting that I had yesterday with a client of mine that I’ll call Gabe for the sake of this article, (and due to the fact that that’s his name) and an engineer. Gabe is going to start building at the start of the next dry season. I think though that I’d like to go ahead and talk a minute about budgeting.

Right now when you ask the question “how much does it cost to build in Costa Rica?” you’re going to hear some diverse responses. What we are talking about here in Costa Rica’s southern zone: Dominical, Uvita, Ojochal, San Buenas and beyond, you’ll likely hear

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About Construction in Costa Rica

About Construction in Costa Rica I think that most of my clients come to me intending, or wanting, to buy an existing house. The vast majority of my clients end up buying raw land with the view of building on it. How does this happen? Well, I think that it helps to understand that we … Read more