The 4 Best Real Estate Plays for 2010

Costa Rica’s Suddenly Accessible Southern Zone. Anything that improves the accessibility of a piece of property increases its value—roads, bridges, airports, etc. In 1983, IL first recommended Northern, Costa Rica. Those who followed IL’s recommendation saw their investments increase 8-, 10- or even 12-fold. Today there is another Costa Rica play. History might just repeat itself.

Prices have stayed low in Costa Rica’s Southern zone because it’s difficult to get to. That’s set to change. If you move fast, you have the opportunity to position yourself ahead of the path of progress.

Some of the most amazing scenery in Costa Rica is in an area that runs south of Quepos to the border with Panama. Landscapes here in Costa Rica’s Southern zone are dramatic— panoramic ocean views; lush tropical rainforest; and sheer jungle-clad slopes, rising sharply away from pristine stretches of sandy beach.

There is more land preserved in national parks and reserves in this region than in any other in Costa Rica. Ballena National Marine Park is a hotspot for humpback whales. Corcovado is reputedly the largest area of primary rainforest left in the Americas, home to numerous endangered plant and animal species. The beaches are mostly deserted.

In a country with an established real estate market like Costa Rica, this sounds like just the type of place that would attract a lot of fervent investors. Difficulty getting there has kept it under the radar in terms of development, and kept prices far lower than areas in Northern Costa Rica. The Costanera Highway was unpaved between Quepos and Dominical and the airports in this area are small, local affairs. These are exactly the kind conditions I look for when scouting for a good real estate opportunity. Especially when these conditions are set to change. Costa Rica’s President Oscar Arias Sanchez recently kick-started the final stage of the Costanera highway. The work is almost complete (only one bridge still remains unfinished). And so a project that’s been promised by successive governments for 30 years is finally on the brink of completion. It will open up a truly undiscovered area of Costa Rica by cutting the two-hour trip from Quepos to Dominical to 25 minutes.

An international airport is planned for Palmar Norte. Due to be completed in 2013 (the government has already allocated funds) the airport is planned to open in stages; the first will allow international flights with a maximum capacity of 50 passengers. Eventually, the plan is to have a runway capable of accommodating even the world’s largest passenger plane, the Airbus A-380.

An airport of this scale needs to be close to a hospital...so they built one. The modern 85,000-square-foot Hospital De Osa located in the town of Cortez opened in April 2008. The hospital features multiple treatment facilities including a state-of-the-art emergency room, a pediatrics wing, a neurology center, and an obstetrics and gynecology center.

In 2002, in Northern Costa Rica, Liberia airport started taking direct flights from the U.S....and property prices soared. The beaches in this Southern zone are even nicer...and they’re about to be more accessible.

International Living, December 2009 Vol.29 No.8

Download PDF to read complete article.

PREVIOUS ARTICLES