How to buy a house in Costa Rica as a US citizen

The short answer

A US citizen buys a house in Costa Rica the same way a Costa Rican does. You sign an option-to-purchase agreement, put a deposit into a regulated escrow account, have your own attorney run a title study at the Registro Nacional, close before a notary public, and the notary registers the new deed. Budget roughly 3.5–4% of the price for closing costs and allow 30–90 days from offer to registered title.

What is different from the United States is where the risk sits. The purchase process is sound. The weak points are everything around it: who you trust, what you verify, and what the house is actually made of.

Can a US citizen buy property in Costa Rica?

Yes. Article 19 of the Costa Rican constitution gives foreigners the same individual rights as citizens, and Article 45 protects private property. You can hold titled land and buildings in your own name. You do not need residency, a local bank account to own, or a Costa Rican partner. A tourist can close.

There are three real limits:

• The maritime zone. The first 200 metres from the mean high tide line is not titled land. It is covered below, and it is the one area where US buyers most often buy something other than what they think.
• Indigenous territories. Non-indigenous people cannot own land inside them. This has caught buyers in the Southern Zone.
• Border zones. Land within 2 km of the land borders with Nicaragua and Panama is subject to special state-land rules. It rarely comes up in residential purchases, but it is not a place to buy without specific advice.

Buying does not give you residency. If you plan to live here, the residency categories under Law 9996 (pensionado, rentista, inversionista) are a separate process. We cover what moving here costs in our guide to building as an American.

The purchase, step by step

1. Set the budget first. Price, plus 3.5–4% closing costs, plus whatever the house needs to meet your standard. On the coast, older houses often need a new roof, new electrical, or moisture and termite repairs. A realistic renovation reserve is part of the price.
2. Hire your own attorney before you make an offer. Pick someone independent of the seller and the agent. Real estate agents in Costa Rica are not licensed, there is no comprehensive national MLS, and the same house can be listed at different prices by different agents. Your attorney is the one person in the transaction who works only for you.
3. Sign an option-to-purchase agreement and fund escrow. The opción de compra-venta sets the price, the deposit (commonly around 10%), the due diligence period, the closing date, who pays which closing costs, and what happens to the deposit if the title or inspection fails. The deposit goes to an escrow company registered with SUGEF, the financial supervisor, never directly to the seller or the agent.
4. Run the title study and municipal checks. Your attorney pulls the registry record and survey plan and checks for liens, mortgages, easements, annotations and lawsuits. You or your builder check zoning, water and permits at the municipality. Details in the next section.
5. Inspect the house and the lot. There is no standard inspection profession in Costa Rica. Hire an engineer or a builder to look at structure, roof, electrical, drainage, septic and moisture. What we check is listed below.
6. Close before a notary public. The notary drafts the transfer deed (escritura), confirms identities and the seller's authority to sell, and both parties sign. Escrow releases the funds. You can sign by power of attorney if you cannot be in the country; the POA must be notarised and apostilled in the US.
7. Register the deed and set up ownership. The notary files the deed at the Registro Nacional. You become owner of record when it registers, usually within a few weeks. Then: sign up for the registry's alert service, register with the municipality for property tax, transfer water and power accounts, and set someone to look after the property when you are away.

Title and legal due diligence

Costa Rica has a public, digital property registry. That is a real advantage: you can check the legal record of any titled property. The risks are what the record does not show, and fraud aimed at owners who are not in the country.

• Folio real. The registry record. It shows the owner, the area, liens, mortgages, easements and pending annotations. Confirm the seller is the registered owner, or has documented authority to sign for the owning company.
• Plano catastrado. The registered survey. It must match the folio real and the fences on the ground. Mismatches are common on older rural lots and need a surveyor.
• Uso de suelo. The municipal land-use certificate. It tells you what can be built or added. If you plan to extend or remodel, get it before you sign. Our architecture and permitting team pulls these for clients as a matter of routine.
• Permits for what is built. Check that the house and any additions were permitted. Unpermitted construction is common and can block future permits.
• Water. Confirm an active connection or a written availability letter from AyA or the local ASADA. In parts of Guanacaste and the Nicoya Peninsula, water is the single most common deal-breaker.
• Municipal taxes and utilities. Confirm property tax, the luxury home tax where it applies, and utility bills are paid up. Arrears can follow the property.
• Corporate seller. If a company owns the house, your attorney must check the company's standing, its officers' authority and its debts. Buying the shares of a company is a different transaction with different risks from buying the property.
• Occupants. Visit. Long-term occupants of land can acquire rights. A registry search does not show who is living on it.

Title insurance is available from some providers but is not standard, and it does not replace the study. Court cases here often run five years or more. The real protection is getting the checks done before you sign.

What a builder checks before you buy

This is where we come in, and where most American buyers under-invest. Houses here fail in different ways from houses in the US, because the threats are earthquakes, heavy rain, humidity and termites, not frost.

Walk-throughs usually also produce a renovation estimate. Kitchens and bathrooms are the most common first projects for American buyers. We price those through our kitchen remodeling and bathroom remodeling services. If you want to see the finished result before committing, a 3D rendering of the proposed changes can be done during the due diligence period.

Closing costs and ongoing taxes

Once you own it

Property tax is 0.25% of registered value a year, paid to the municipality. If the construction value is above the luxury home tax threshold (about ₡143 million for 2026), the impuesto solidario is due as well, with the declaration and payment by 15 January. Renting the house out creates Costa Rican tax on the rental income, and selling it later can create capital gains tax. The cost guide sets these out in more detail.

As a US citizen you are taxed on worldwide income. A house held in your own name is not itself an FBAR item, but a Costa Rican bank account over $10,000 is, and a Costa Rican company brings its own US filings. Take US tax advice before you set up the purchase, not at your next return.

Own name or corporation?

For years the standard advice was to buy through a Costa Rican corporation (an S.A. or S.R.L.). Today it is a real choice with costs on both sides.

Paying for it

Most American buyers pay cash. Local bank mortgages exist but usually need residency, a local credit history, a large down payment and higher rates than in the US. The common alternatives are a US home-equity loan or line of credit, selling US assets, or seller financing secured by a mortgage registered on the property.

Moving money in means anti-money-laundering checks. Banks and escrow companies will ask where the funds came from, so keep statements that trace them. Wire into escrow, never to an individual. Decide early whether to hold dollars or colones: property is usually priced in dollars, but renovation and building work is mostly priced in colones. The colón trap explains why that matters.

Beachfront property and the maritime zone

The Maritime Terrestrial Zone Law (Law 6043) governs the 200 metres inland from the mean high tide line:

• The first 50 metres is public. Nobody can own it or build on it.
• The next 150 metres is state land, available only as a municipal concession for a set term and use. It is not title. Foreigners who have not been resident for five years cannot hold a concession, and neither can companies more than 50% foreign-owned.

So "beachfront house for sale" often means a concession, not a titled property. Your attorney must establish which one it is before you sign anything. Titled land directly behind the zone is the normal route for American buyers who want to be near the ocean. Coastal markets such as Carrillo, Santa Cruz and the Nicoya Peninsula each handle concessions, water and permits differently. Our area guide covers them one cantón at a time.

Buy, renovate or build?

Buying makes most sense in deep resale markets like Escazú, Santa Ana and Belén, when you want to move in soon, or when your budget is under about $350,000 all in. Renovating makes sense when the structure and title are sound and only the finishes are dated. Building makes sense when you want a specific site, current seismic and tropical standards, or when every house you view needs six figures of work anyway.

If you are buying a lot instead, the same title checks apply, plus slope, access and water. Our full breakdown of what it costs an American to build covers per-square-foot bands, permits and the build-or-buy decision in depth. To see how the work gets done, read how we build or look at finished projects.

Whatever you buy, empty property attracts problems. Owners who are away for months usually add perimeter security. See our gates and fences service, and arrange someone local to check on the house.

Keep reading

• What it costs an American to build a home in Costa RicaPer-square-foot bands, permits, taxes and the currency risk
• Cost to build a house in Costa RicaThe per-m² bands and the six site factors that move them
• Architecture & permittingUso de suelo, CFIA visado, municipal permits and SETENA
• General contracting & project managementRenovations and new builds with fixed scope and weekly cost reporting
• Kitchen remodelingThe most common first project after buying a resale house
• Bathroom remodelingWaterproofing and ventilation built for tropical humidity
• Where we buildNine cantones, with permitting and ground conditions for each
• Building in Costa Rica, answeredForeign ownership, permits, timelines and methods in one place