It’s illegal for banks that aren’t domiciled in Costa Rica to advertise their services – illegal to advertise, but not illegal to provide those services. As the rest of the world has caught wind of the real estate boom in Costa Rica, some foreign banks have begun sniffing around, looking to offer mortgages in Costa

Choosing a bank If you are buying a new condo or home from an experienced developer, chances are he or she already has a relationship with a bank that has agreed to finance buyers. The advantage here is two-fold. First, a development that has been pre-approved for financing by a bank is a development that

At its most basic, the Costa Rican banking system can be separated into public and private banks. Public banks, owned by the government, have dominated Costa Rican consumer banking until relatively recently. There are three. Banco Nacional and Banco de Costa Rica are the two you would deal with in the unlikely event that you end up seeking financing

If you’re planning to build a single home, the permitting process is a lot simpler. For one thing, you don’t have to get your master plan approved INVU, although most of the INVU requirements still apply for individual construction (specifically, alineamientos, water availability, slope of the terrain, Health Ministry approval – consult with your civil engineer

The final step you’ll take in the permitting process is to gather all your approvals and visados and alineamientos and planos and cadastre maps and head to the municipality to get your construction permits. Once again, all municipalities have different requirements, but even if they don’t request one of the above certifications for the granting of permits, you still need them.

Other than SETENA, this is probably the most complicated part of permitting a project – the real heart of the matter. INVU (pronounced EEN-VOO) is the branch of the government in charge of regulating all urbanizacions, meaning subdivisions, condominium projects, etc. The following is a run-down of the different OKs you need from the many different

How fast your development moves depends on what category it falls into as far as the environmental impact it will have. Projects over 500m2 (which is most of them) need what’s known as a D-2 review. The D-2 form contains a comprehensive initial evaluation questionnaire that asks for data on everything from water and earth