Low density developments in Costa Rica are horizontal developments subdivided into lots of a certain minimum size. The minimum size is determined by the municipality’s zoning plan. If none exists, the minimum size is determined by the national urbanization law, which puts it at 5,000 square meters. The principle advantage of a low-density development is that it doesn’t need a Master Plan, nor the series of highly complex and time-consuming technical studies, approvals, and permits that go with one.

There are several different ways to do a low-density development. For all of them, you need to do the paperwork to subdivide your land into different plots and register them as separate properties in the national registry. This is a fairly straight-forward process, just a bit time-consuming. Depending on the municipality and assuming there are no special circumstances surrounding your property, the actual legal part of it should take more than a few months if you have a dependable attorney.

Your next step – or perhaps a concurrent step depending on how you do it – is putting in infrastructure. This means, principally, power hook-ups, water, and access roads. For power, you need to go to the local power company (the country’s electricity infrastructure is owned by ICE, but often through local subsidiaries) for information. If your property is very remote, you might have to pay to install power lines and transformers, which can cost between $22,000 and $35,000 a kilometer, depending on the area and the quality of the equipment.

For water, you likewise have to go to the local water administrator. If you’re in a rural area, the only option will likely be to get a concession from the Ministry of Environment, Energy, and Telecommunications (MINAET) to drill a well, and it’s up to you whether you want to do this for the whole development or leave it to each individual property owner. As for the access roads, get permission to connect them to the main road, either from Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) if the road is a national or inter-cantonal route, or from the municipality of it’s a local road. Also, if you’re going to cut down trees to make your access road, you have to get permits from MINAET. Check with an environmental consultant if your access road is going to interact with any other important environmental features, including creek beds, rivers, or steep slopes.

One final thing you might want to do to make the development more attractive is put up an entryway and maybe a wall around the property. At this point, you can open your sales office. Many developers sell the lots after they’ve added value with the infrastructure and leave the home building up to the buyer. Like everything, this has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is there’s less work for you to do, and you don’t take as much risk. The downside is that you don’t make as much profit. Also, since this kind of a development requires large parcels of land, you’re guaranteed to be buying and developing in more secluded locations, making it harder for the development’s future residents to access services. Also, since this kind of development is so relatively simple and low risk, many, many developers do this kind of project. That means if you’re in hot areas like Jaco or Santa Ana, you’ll have lots of competition.

If you want to make your low-density project stand out and make a little more profit, you can go beyond selling just the lots. There are several ways to do this. For one, you could start a small contracting company and offer to build for your customers after you’ve sold them a lot. For another, if you have a decent amount of capital, you could begin construction on one home at a time – treating each one as a separate project with its own permitting and paperwork – and sell them, either while they’re still under construction, unfurnished, or completely furnished down to the silverware and bed clothes.