IL Postcard

Where to Find Undiscovered Costa Rica

Date: 07/01/2008

Wednesday, July 2, 2008
San José, Costa Rica

Read more about Costa Rica in International Living Postcards—your daily escape

Ever wonder why Costa Rica is so popular with Americans and Europeans? The answer is easy to find on the country’s southern Pacific coast, especially the Osa Peninsula.

Visiting the peninsula is like stepping back in time to an era when the country was just beginning to catch the eye of savvy travelers and real estate shoppers.

The Osa Peninsula is still wild, beautiful, underdeveloped, and inexpensive. Parrots swoop down when you least expect them, spider monkeys chatter in the rainforest, and iguanas lounge in the warm sun. And the coast is an ideal fishing and surfing spot.

Most of the charming and friendly port towns have unpaved roads, so they are quite difficult to reach. A night’s stay at a hotel in this area costs less than $50 a night for two. Real estate bargains are also easy to find. A parcel of 22 acres of sea-view land near the village of La Palma was recently on sale for $150,000. In the town of Chacarita, a three-bedroom house with a swimming pool cost $98,000.

So why aren’t people rushing to this peninsula? First of all, it has no major airport, and flights from the capital of San José to the small regional airports on the southern Pacific coast are often rescheduled at the last minute. Moreover, the “highway” that links the peninsula’s port towns is often no more than a dirt road that’s frequently impassable, particularly in the summer rainy season. Some eco-tourists, surfing enthusiasts, and wealthy sport fishermen gladly put up with the inconveniences, as do a few expatriate residents. But for the most part, the Osa Peninsula is pretty much the way it was back in the ’60s and ’70s.

All that is about to change, as the Costa Rican government has announced plans (and supplied the funding) to build an international airport on the peninsula. Meanwhile, work has already begun on an ambitious project to improve the highway that goes from Chacarita (on the mainland) to the town of Carate on the Osa Peninsula, linking many towns on the way. Work crews have been on the job for months, improving the roadbed, widening it where necessary, and putting down new macadam surfacing. By this time next year, the entire road should be paved.

The new airport will be built near the town of Palmar Sur. (Palmar Sur is located at the beginning of the peninsula and is currently the site of a regional airport.) According to the official timetable, the first phase of construction is scheduled to be completed in 2010, but knowledgeable locals say that 2011 or even 2012 is more likely.

After the first phase of construction, the new airport will be able to handle international flights, but only planes with a capacity of less than 50 passengers. Later, the airport will be expanded so it can service the world’s larger passenger planes.

Thanks to these road improvements and the plans for a new airport, property prices are going up at about 15% a year. Some sellers may be overestimating the effect this will have and are hiking up prices on a grand scale. Last year, for example, one seller was asking $425,000 for about 50 acres of beachfront land, but now he wants $1.2 million.

As soon as construction on the airport actually begins, property buyers can expect another big jump in prices, as well as the convenience of flying directly to North America and Europe.

But that’s taking a step forward in time. For now, the Osa Peninsula is still how Costa Rica used to be: charming and affordable.

Don Ediger
For International Living

Editor’s Note: Our Real Estate Trend Alert guru, Ronan McMahon, has already spotted this trend and believes it to be an excellent investment opportunity. He wrote an article about it recently for our monthly International Living magazine. Subscribers can view the article here. If you are not already a subscriber, you are missing out on some of the best real estate deals on the planet right now. Follow this link to sign up today.

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