The numbers · USD
What this actually costs.
Land, build, closing, and what it earns if you rent it when you're not here. Move the dials — nothing is hidden behind a form.
01 · Choose your land
02 · Build, or hold the land
03 · If you rent it when you're away
Guanacaste nightly rates run high in the December–April dry season and soften in the green season. Set your own assumptions.
Your position
—
All-in, before financing
If you let it
Indicative only. Rental income is an assumption you set, not a projection we make. Build prices are fixed-price quotes from our contractor and valid 90 days.
The instant-equity argument
You Build at Cost and Own at Market
Land and construction are priced separately here, and both are priced at cost. A finished house on this coast trades well above the sum of the two — which is why building is the value move, not buying finished. The step you stop at is the step you capture.
Step one
The land
$80k – $120k
A titled parcel with water already at the lot and the road at the boundary. Hold it, or build when you are ready.
Step two
Built on paper
≈ $280k – $450k
Land plus a fixed-price house from approved plans, paid in stages as it goes up. This is where the spread opens.
Step three
Finished home
≈ $350k – $700k
What a completed house on this coast trades at. The gap against step two is the equity you built rather than bought.
Or, instead of selling
Rental villa
≈ $300k – $500k
Laid out for the short-let market as well as for living — the yield route rather than the resale route.
2
Five-star flags, opened 2025
The first Waldorf Astoria in Costa Rica opened in April 2025; the first Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Central or South America opened that February. Both in Guanacaste. Sources are named on Start Here.
$6M
Committed to your airport
A general and business aviation terminal at Liberia with its own customs and immigration, built and run with Signature Aviation, plus expanded lounges. Under way now, not proposed.
0%
Capital we risk
Build packages are constructed after you commit, on staged payments. Neither side is funding the other’s speculation.
The ranges above are what land and construction cost here today, and what finished houses on this coast have traded at — indicative, not a guarantee. We publish no appreciation or yield forecast: we could not find a primary source for either, and a percentage without a source is marketing, not information. Model your own with the calculator above. Nothing here is investment advice; your lawyer and your valuer should confirm any figure you rely on.
The costs nobody puts on the website.
3–4%
Closing costs
Transfer tax, national stamps and legal fees on the land purchase. Your lawyer gives a written estimate before you sign anything.
0.25%
Annual property tax
Costa Rican municipal property tax is a quarter of one percent of registered value — among the lowest in the region.
On request
Monthly HOA
Road maintenance, common-area upkeep, security and the water system, shared between twenty-seven owners rather than two hundred. We give you the figure in writing before you commit.
Dry season
When building starts
Construction is planned around the December–April dry season. Your contractor quotes the schedule with the fixed-price build.