Real Estate Asset Lending With GAP Investments

Asset lending means the loan is secured by something real rather than by a promise or a credit score. In our case the asset is Costa Rican property, and the security is a mortgage registered against it in the National Registry. That is the whole idea; the rest is how it is done properly.

What GAP actually is

We are not a fund and we do not pool money. Individual lenders fund individual loans, and each lender decides which files they want. There is no product to buy into, no shared pot, and nobody deciding on your behalf.

What we do is the work between a property owner who needs capital and a lender who has it: finding the file, examining it, structuring it, and taking it through to closing.

How a file gets built

Title is pulled and read. Registered ownership, matching the person or company borrowing.

Liens and encumbrances are searched. What is already registered against the property, in what order, and what it would take to clear anything ranking ahead.

The property is valued honestly — against what it would realistically sell for, not against an asking price or a municipal declaration, both of which mislead in opposite directions.

The loan to value is set against that valuation. This is the number that matters most in any file: the gap between what is lent and what the property would fetch is what absorbs time, costs and a soft market if anything goes wrong.

Documents are drawn and the mortgage registered in the lender’s favour, in first position where that is what the file calls for.

Where our job ends

Plainly, because it shapes what you should expect. Everything up to and through the closing is ours. After that, the borrower pays the lender directly.

Watching insurance, municipal standing and the maturity date sits with the lender — light work, but nobody else is doing it. And if a borrower stops paying, it is the lender who can move to foreclose, not us. In practice lenders call and we help from knowing the property and the people, but we would rather you knew the formal boundary than assumed something warmer.

The terms

9% to 16%, six months to three years, from $50,000 with no ceiling. Those are the norms of this market rather than fixed rules — as the lender you set your own terms, and a lender who wants something outside the usual range can say so.

Most lenders prefer several smaller loans to one large one: different properties, different borrowers, staggered maturity dates, so capital returns at intervals.

Structures flex too. Some lenders hold the loan through a guarantee trust, some use escrow at closing, some fund from crypto. Tell us how you prefer to work.

Who the borrowers are

Not people the banks turned down for cause. A foreigner living in Costa Rica generally cannot borrow from a bank here until they hold permanent residency — four years away at minimum for a recent arrival, because without it there is no account of the kind the system runs on and no local credit record.

So a large share of borrowers own property outright, have assets back home, and are locked out by a rule. Costa Rican owners come for a related reason: bank approval takes months and a sale or a build will not wait.

Who the lenders are

Anyone with capital to place. Ours are in Canada, the United States, Europe and Costa Rica, and a good number have never visited the property their mortgage is registered against. No residency requirement, no need to live here, no need to visit.

Many arrived at it after selling a property back home and deciding they wanted an income rather than another thing to run. What a new lender should know in the first year covers how that usually goes.

Where the rate comes from

Rate describes the file. An owner with a strong position negotiates, so the cleanest files sit toward the lower end of the range — which means lenders open at 9% and 10% get shown more of them. Saying you would look there is a signal, not a commitment; after the property is studied a file may reach you at 12%. See what interest rate a private lender should expect.

Questions

Is my money pooled with other lenders?

No. Individual lenders fund individual loans and choose their own files.

What secures the loan?

A mortgage registered against a specific property, usually in first position, written well below what that property would sell for.

What does it cost?

Closing costs run to roughly 8% for legal and GAP fees, set out before anyone commits.

Do I need residency?

No, and you need not be in Costa Rica. Lending from abroad is entirely ordinary here.

Look at a file

The clearest explanation is a real property with real numbers attached. See the current lending opportunities or contact GAP Investments. Every file is yours to accept or decline, and no outcome is promised.

Files reach us two ways: an owner finds us directly, or somebody who already advises them makes the introduction. How referral partners work with us covers the second route, including what makes an owner worth referring and what happens after you send a name.

This article is for general information only and is not investment, legal, or tax advice. All lending and investment decisions should be made based on independent due diligence and with qualified professional guidance.

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