Jacó was the first place in the country where the price of titled beachfront property passed the $1,000-per-square-meter mark, and it remains today extremely expensive by Costa Rican standards. It’s not that the beach is particularly beautiful. Jacó is a dark-sand beach with dangerous currents and more than its share of pollution. But titled beachfront property in Costa Rica is a valuable find because it’s rare and can be owned outright; the vast majority of other beachfront property is Maritime Zone – that is, owned by the state and only usable through concession (see the Chapter on the ZMT law).

Speculation has also added to the rise in prices. As foreigners flipped raw land between themselves, they raised the price each time, until the only way the last guy holding the bag could make a profit was by building condo towers. This works great for the best beachfront plots with perfect views and great access. But ocean view is not ocean front, and a short 2 kilometer from the beach can be a long walk if you have to do it every day in the Jacó heat. Raw land around Jacó, therefore, is sometimes a tad overpriced, especially compared to other parts of the country where you’ll have a better beach and more privacy. Condos in and around town are pricey as well, but probably more worth it considering the wealth of services and nightlife Jacó offers, as well as the San José access that will be afforded by the new highway.

As far as specific pricing conditions, Jacó, like anywhere else in the country, can be difficult to pin down. In the condo market you can get anything from poor-quality one-bedroom Tico-style places for $100,000 to luxury digs of upwards of $1 million. The most popular at the moment is the midrange stuff between $200,000 and $400,000, which has become hard to find in good locations. Raw land is another matter, and there are so many people selling lots in that part of the country you would be wise to shop around. Real estate brokers will tell you that prices are still rising, but honest ones will add the caveat that prices are near a peaked and the pace of the increases is not sustainable.

A large number of condo and condotel developments are underway, and brokers estimate about 2,000 are set to hit the market by 2009. Plans, of course, are never set in stone, especially considering the shaky condition of the world financial markets. But if even half of those units get built, it raises the important question of what impact this extra supply will have on condo prices in general.

Manuel Antonio is a different animal, and its market is more heavily concentrated in finished houses and land destined for house construction. The uneven landscape and intangibles like view make it difficult to generalize, but plenty of people have built mansions worth millions of dollars in Manuel Antonio.