Costa Rica Real Estate Industry in a Crisis?

By Allison Kim

March 21, 2009 – The Costa Rica Real Estate Industry and Costa Rica tourism is almost to the point of being in a crisis. This Central American country known by many in North America and Europe as a tropical paradise is seeing trouble due to the global economy.

Investors are no longer able to afford their original real estate development plans in Costa Rica and tourism is down. These two items combined are placing the Costa Rica Real Estate and tourism industry in a state of crisis.

The once popular beaches like Jaco beach, Manuel Antonio, Tamarindo and Guanacaste to name a few are seeing less tourist visit this year. The beach are half empty making hotels, restaurants and stores in these areas wondering what to do and whether letting employees go will solve their financial situation long enough until things pick up again.

All of the signs where there; however, no one was prepared to deal with them. Several developers have had to file for bankruptcy on condominium, house and hotel projects due to several factors like their bank cutting short their line of credit and investors backing out of projects in Costa Rica.

Several individuals that had placed a deposit down to reserve one of the condo units are no seeking legal actions since the projects were cancelled and getting their deposit back is not an option.

In term of real estate purchase from Costa Rican and foreigners alike, everyone is waiting until the prices drop to their lowest. In the meanwhile, the number of people looking for long term rental properties has increased by 300%.

Industry analysts are expecting real estate prices to reach their lowest in the next year or so. In the meanwhile, Costa Rica is carefully watching world leaders to see what their next move will be to fix the global economy while at the same time, making deals with new countries like China and Cuba in search of finding a new market for their good to lessen the damage done by the global economy.

Allison Kim has been a freelance writer for over 3 years discussing several topics such as real estate, the economy and traveling. You can contact Allison Kim by sending her an email at: alliekim1987@yahoo.com.