Large hotel resorts that include a gated community on their grounds are becoming increasingly popular in Costa Rica, especially in Guanacaste and in the area around Jacó. The homes in such resorts range from pricey to very expensive. As an example of the latter, we refer you to the Four Seasons Resort at Peninsula Papagayo,

Readers from North America are most likely already familiar with gated communities. For those of you new to the idea, a gated community is, by definition, a housing development enclosed by a fence or a wall, all of which is watched over by a guard service that functions 24 hours per day. Only residents of

Many people arrive to Costa Rica with the goal of purchasing a stand-alone home: They want to own their home—and the property it stands on—free of any of the entanglements that condominiums and other options bring with them. Perhaps they also subscribe to the not unreasonable notion that stand-alone homes connote greater opulence and prestige

Bali style is characterized by A-frame construction, an indoor-outdoor design, and the use of bamboo, thatch material, and tropical hardwoods for building materials. This style has made a fairly recent appearance in Costa Rica. To date, only private home construction projects and hotels have employed Bali style; developers of housing projects have shunned it, most

The market for art deco homes is somewhat akin to the market for old colonial buildings: These buildings are valued because they are rare; and the people who buy them aren’t afraid to take on the challenge of an extensive remodeling project. Art deco architecture (and traces of its cousin, art nouveau) appears in many

After modern colonial-style architecture, perhaps the most popular architectural style for foreign home buyers is tropical modern, and that is especially true among home buyers with hefty budgets. What distinguishes plain-vanilla modern architecture from tropical modern style is a matter for debate, but the difference between the two styles is perhaps mainly a question of

What about the original colonial homes that have served to inspire the present-day craze for modern colonial-style residences? They still exist in many cities and towns in the Central Valley (the Barrio Amón and Barrio Otoya sections of downtown San Jose have a number of beautiful old colonial homes), though many have fallen into disrepair,