Can Foreigners Own Land in Costa Rica? What It Means for Your Collateral

The short answer is yes, and it surprises people. A foreigner can own titled property in Costa Rica in their own name, with the same rights an ordinary citizen has. No local partner, no corporation required, no residency needed. Property ownership and immigration status are two separate matters here, and they do not touch.

That answer is usually given to buyers. It matters just as much to lenders, because what a borrower owns is what you are lending against.

The ordinary case: titled property

Most land in Costa Rica is held in fee simple and recorded at the National Registry, with a folio number, a registered owner and any liens or annotations attached to it. Anyone can pull that record. Ownership, boundaries and encumbrances are matters of public record rather than of trust, which is the single most useful thing about lending here.

Nationality does not appear anywhere in that structure. A Canadian owner and a Costa Rican owner hold the same kind of title, and a lien registered against either behaves identically.

The exception that matters near the beach

The coast is different, and this is where a lender needs to pay attention. The strip closest to the water is not ordinary private property. The first fifty metres from the high-tide line are public and cannot be owned by anyone, and the band beyond it is concession land administered by the local municipality rather than sold outright.

A concession is a right to use, granted for a term and subject to conditions, with restrictions on how much of it a foreign-held entity may control. It is not the same asset as titled land, it does not appear in the Registry the same way, and it does not serve as ordinary collateral.

This is not exotic. Plenty of attractive coastal property is concession property, and a borrower may describe it in perfectly good faith as their land. Establishing which of the two you are looking at is one of the first things done on any file near the coast.

Why so much property is held by a corporation

Many properties here are registered to a Costa Rican company rather than to a person. It is a long-standing local habit, and it is not a warning sign on its own. What it does is add a layer of verification: the company’s books must be current and the person signing must hold valid authority to do so.

In practice this is the most common cause of a delayed closing — not the property, but the paperwork of the company that owns it. It is part of what gets checked before a file reaches a lender.

Owning is easy; borrowing is not

Here is the asymmetry that creates this entire market. A foreigner can buy property on day one. Borrowing against it from a bank requires permanent residency, and reaching permanent residency takes four years at minimum.

So there are people all over the country holding paid-off property, with provable income, who cannot get a loan from a bank for reasons that have nothing to do with their creditworthiness. They are not weak borrowers. They are solvent owners with an immigration file in progress.

What this means when you lend

Three things follow. Confirm it is titled land and not a concession, particularly anywhere near the coast. Read the Registry record for existing liens and annotations, because your position depends on being first. Check the owning entity if a company holds the property.

Land held without title

There is a third category beyond titled property and concession land, and it catches people out. Some land in Costa Rica is held by possession rather than by registered title — occupied and used, sometimes for generations, but never recorded at the Registry in anyone’s name.

Possession can be genuine and it can eventually be converted into title through a legal process. What it cannot do is serve as ordinary security. If there is no folio number, there is nothing to register a lien against, and a lender who accepts the arrangement is relying on the borrower rather than on an asset.

How to establish which one you are looking at

The check is quick and it is done on every file. A property with a folio number at the National Registry produces a record showing the registered owner, the boundaries, and any liens or annotations against it. If that record exists and matches the person borrowing, you are looking at titled land.

If no such record exists, or the record names someone else, or the property sits inside the coastal band, the file needs a different conversation before any figure is discussed. Land near the national borders carries its own restrictions as well, which is worth knowing if a file turns up in those areas.

All three are done before a file is presented to you. The security itself is straightforward once those are clear — a registered first lien on a property worth substantially more than the loan.

Article by Glenn Tellier (Founder of CRIE and Grupo Gap)