For a country that has two coast you can imagine that boats are pretty common here in Costa Rica. Now it all depends on what type of boat you might be interested in but you can find everything from the local fisherman in the Puntarenas area, the fancy cruise ships arriving to Limon, or even some of the finest private yachts docked at the Los Suenos Marina at the Marriott in Herradura.
With the popularity in Costa Rican Real Estate along the Pacific coast boaters have found interest in owning a piece of land or those that own a piece of land have found interest in becoming a boater. There are different clubs you can join if you have a boat and there is even a club out at the Lake Arenal in the northern part of Costa Rica.
Costa Rica Marinas
Marinas have also become an important part of investors along the coast. There are plans for Marinas to go up in different places and there are some that are already built. For a complete guide to Costa Rica Marina’s visithttp://www.costaricahomepages.com/travel_and_tourism/marinas/index
Even if you do not own a boat sometimes owning a piece of land with views of a sailboat making its way through the waters of the Pacific on it’s way down to the Panama canal might be all the adventure you need.
Recent studies have shown that construction is up after two years of decline in Costa Rica. This is a large boost to builders and investors which goes to show that much of the inventory from before the recession has been sold. Many builders will not be taking on new projects in the coming months. Along with homes and condos, there are other sectors that have taken on constructions such as hotels and shopping centers.
Costa Rica Construction Rebounds
The area of Escazu has a number of new constructions just in the last year as you drive pass the CIMA hospital it is now surrounded by new hotels and modern extensions to the Multi-Plaza mall. This is a perfect time to invest on some Escazu Condos as many builders are looking to get started on new projects.
Randall Murrillo, executive director of the Chamber of Construction states that he expects to see growth to continue in the coming months. He mentions that he is hoping to close the year with a 12% total growth in Construction around the country. Expect to see the areas of beach front properties to show positive signs of growth also.
This is great news after 25 consecutive months of construction being on a decline it is now making a solid rebound.
If you have ever owned an Apple anything you will know that they have some of the best customer service on the planet. Well it looks as if Apple is going to take the gamble and let ICE represent their customer service on the new IPhone 4. If you want an IPhone 4 it was stated in La Nacion that ICE will be distributing them and also giving the customer service.
This should be interesting and personally if I was an owner of one of the new IPhone 4’s which someday would be nice I would probably get on line or call one of Apple’s 800 numbers. Nothing against ICE but do you really think the customer service of an IPhone 4 fits into the daily agenda of the many things ICE has going on?
I will say though on a bit of a more positive note for ICE I have always been impressed how the tech support in your local ICE office has quite a bit of knowledge of the many different brands and types of cell phones that come their way. I am a blackberry guy and they have been able to do everything needed so I guess we should give them a chance with the I Phone 4 before we make any assumptions that it might be too much for them.
With the so called “green-movement” becoming more and more a part of everyday lives it is without question a part of the developing and construction sector of Costa Rica. Costa Rica is a country that is known for having some of the most lush tropical biodiversity on the planet that almost everyone can agree is worth protecting. For this reason it has become a destination for ecotourism family adventures and vacation home real estate.
Well it turns out you do not have to be living in a vacation home or visiting Costa Rica and staying in an ecolodge to experience living green. There are more and more technologies making their way into the market for everyday living and building. The new science of biomimicry is one of the fastest growing trends that architects feel will take living green to the next level. The biomimicry is basically designing homes and other parts of society around some of the concepts of nature.
Costa Rica is the perfect country to take on the new challenges of developing in a sustainable and green form as the country has a number of sources of clean-energy, a booming ecotourism market, and the desire to be carbon neutral by 2020.
If there was ever a better time to buy property Guanacaste I think many that know the area would say it is NOW! The tourism has gone up by 23% from last year which is an astonishing number. What is happening is there are still people that have some pretty good deals for sale in Guanacaste and now is the time to make that investment before everyone catches on to the idea that Guanacaste might be getting it’s second wind.
Where to buy in Guanacaste
It all depends what you are looking for when you are deciding what to shop for in Guanacaste. There are a number of different places you can shop. The airport of Liberia lets not forget is just less than an hour on good roads to the town of Tamarindo. The Tamarindo area is a bit crowded and very developed and is often used as a place for people on their Costa Rica family vacation. It is still a great spot and great investment if that is the vibe you are looking for. Also you can find a number of beaches that run along the peninsula of Guanacaste such as Playas del Coco, Playa Potrero, Playa Conchal, and Playa Flamingo just to name a few. All of these beaches are beautiful in their own way
If you have been to the Multi Plaza Mall recently you might want to make your way down to the very end of the new section. Here you will find one of the most fastest growing brand names that has arrived to Costa Rica. The store of North Face is in the Multi Plaza Mall now and it is doing very well.
The North Face brand is one of the more common outdoor brands in the USA and produces quality clothing, bags, and shoes. You can even buy a tent if you are looking for one or just get a rain jacket for the soon to come rainy season here in Costa Rica.
There are many new stores in Costa Rica and this is one that the country of Costa Rica was missing. Being a place of outdoor beauties they were lacking the outdoor apparel stores which Columbia is now also competing for the market with North Face. The Multi-Plaza Mall is located in Escazu and the North Face store is located on top floor at the exit of the new extension of the mall.
Take a look at one of Costa Rica’s prime beach areas called Hermosa which translates to Beautiful in English and certainly fits the the description. This house in the video is a perfect description of being surrounded by the jungle and still having a view of the ocean.
Playa Hermosa is in the Guanacaste area and located just a short drive from the Liberia International airport.
If you have visited Costa Rica in the last few months you know that the San Jose Airport Juan SantaMaria is a little different than it was a few years back. There has been a long awaited expansion of the already modern looking airport. During the last year the airport has really been working hard on making this expansion a reality. This expansion will benefit all visiting Costa Rica for business purposes or coming for a Costa Rica vacation.
The expansion has made the airport larger and also the line at customs move more smoothly. With the hard work that has been done with the Juan SantaMaria they were voted “the most improved airport” in all of Central America and the Caribbean. This also put them on the list of the 3rd best airport in the region only behind Cancun, Mexico and Guayaquil, Ecuador. This was according to an article in the TicoTimes.
It is nice to hear about the plans for projects like this and even nicer to see the benefits play out after much hard work to get it done. Maybe the airport in the south of the country is just around the corner. If you are interested in getting ahead of the game and buying some property in the south of Costa Rica before the airport is built then let us know.
It is funny to me when you hear people that think of Costa Rica as just rice and beans along with a few fried plantains as the cuisine. This might be true for the traditionalCostaRican meal but you have to take into consideration that Costa Rica is a small country that has had visitors from all over the world. These visitors have been attracted by the nice people, natural beauties, and lifestyle of “Pura Vida”.
When you combine visitors from all over the world, business from all over the world, a developing capital city of San Jose, and more and more people moving to the beaches for their vacation homes it does not take long before you see the many different types of international restaurant not only in the San Jose area but also along the Pacific Coast.
Restaurants in Costa Rica
There are many books one can read when looking for different places to dine around Costa Rica. If I had to give a quick personal opinion I would say that the Grano de Oro Hotel ha
s one of the best restaurants in the Central Valley. When traveling to the Pacific you might want to check out Kapi Kapi (Indeginous name which means “welcome”). The Kapi Kapi restaurant is located in Manuel Antonio. These are just two of many places to eat in Costa Rica. For more information on places to eat you can find books in any souvenir shop on dining in Costa Rica.
We are interested in places that you might know of that are good places to eat. Working in the real estate business it is always of interest to us to show our clients a great meal. Let us know some of your favorite places in Costa Rica to eat we would love to hear?
Medical Tourism continues to go rapidly here in Costa Rica. It is a reason why so many poeple come to visit Costa Rica and sometimes even end up buying real estate here in Costa Rica. There are three hospitals that have really helped in attracting people looking for lower price medical care. These three hospitals are approved by the international agency of “Joint Commision International” (JCI) which is an organization that develops care standards around the world.
They are the Clinica Biblica, La Catolica, & CIMA Hospitals, all in the San Jose area.
I was thinking about a recent article in the TicoTimes and you begin to see the importance of medical tourism to the economy of Costa Rica. The fact that medical tourism is growing at a very fast rate just means good things to come.
In 2009 there were an estimated 30,000 medical tourist and that is not including a good number that went to smaller private clinics and were not registered in one of the large three JCI approved hospitals. With each tourist that comes lets take into account that at sometime during their care they have one companion. The total now is 60,000 related medical tourist per year as of 2009. You might be thinking that the 60,000 medical tourist only make up 1/20th more or less of the total tourist who visit Costa Rica each year that come through during the Costa Rica dry season. Although the medical treatment is much cheaper here in Costa Rica each medical tourist is spending a good chunk of change more than per person on a Costa Rica Family Vacation.
Medical Care Numbers in Costa Rica
The medical tourist traveling for dental purposes which might be dental implants or crowns might spend $700 – $1000’s (About the same as an eco-tourist) here in Costa Rica for treatment and dental patients make up only 36% of the medical tourist. What tops the list is the Orthopedic surgeries to get back into that active lifestyle which might be a $12,000 knee replacement (In the US a knee replacement cost $50,000). This is a very large investment into the economy if more and more medical tourist are coming each year and spending this kind of money it really begins to add up quick just as it has from your average eco-tourist, Costa Rica adventures, surfers, and now your big spender medical tourist.
So you can see the importance of the medical tourism to the economy of Costa Rica. Although you do not see the numbers up in the millions for how many medical tourist visit each year it is the ratio of the amount of money they are spending. All you ever here is how cheap medical care is which is true here in Costa Rica but you have to take into account when you look at these patients as tourist they are “Big Spenders”. Just an interesting way to look at medical tourism industry and get excited about the economy of Costa Rica. If you have visited Costa Rica for some medical treatment maybe now it is time to visit Costa Rica a second time for some Real Estate shopping.
Interested in Buying Costa Rican Real Estate?
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Stats & Numbers taken from recent TicoTimes Article Jan. 28th 2011
