Getting Your Money Into Costa Rica to Fund a Loan
Most people who decide to lend in Costa Rica get stuck at the same place, and it is almost never the deal. They have read the file, they like the property, they are comfortable with the borrower. Then they think: hold on. How does the money actually get there?
It is a fair question and nobody puts it on a website, so here it is.
You probably do not need a Costa Rica bank account
This is the assumption that stops people before they start. They imagine they have to open an account here first, and they have heard that opening one as a non-resident is slow and awkward. Both halves of that are roughly true, and neither one matters, because most of our lenders never open an account here at all.
The funds go to an escrow agent instead. You wire from your own bank, wherever it is, to a regulated escrow company here. The money sits with them, not with GAP and not with the borrower, until the file is genuinely ready. On closing day the mortgage is signed and presented for registration and the escrow agent releases the funds against the agreed conditions.
You never opened a local account and you never got on a plane. If you want the detail on how that arrangement works, we wrote it up separately: escrow and trust in Costa Rica property lending.
The wire is the easy part. Compliance is the slow part.
Sending an international wire is a twenty-minute job. What takes the time is everything that happens around it.
Escrow agents in Costa Rica are supervised by SUGEF, the financial regulator, and they are required to know who you are and where your money came from. They will ask for identification and for evidence of the source of your funds. Some people find that intrusive. It should be the opposite. A provider who takes your money without asking those questions is the one you should be worried about.
One thing worth being precise about, because it gets misunderstood: SUGEF supervises the providers. It does not run your escrow account, it does not manage the loan, and it is not standing behind your money.
What “source of funds” actually means
It means showing, on paper, how you came to have the money. Not a statement showing the balance sits in your account today. Where it came from before that.
For most lenders it is one of a handful of ordinary stories. You sold a house. You sold a business. You took a lump sum out of a pension or a retirement account. You have saved steadily for thirty years. All of those are fine. What matters is that you can evidence it.
The people who have trouble are not the people with complicated money. They are the people who cannot find the paperwork. If your funds came from a property sale in 2019, the closing statement from that sale is what answers the question, and it is much easier to find now than it will be during closing week.
Start it early, not on closing day
This is the single most useful thing in this article. Compliance onboarding takes as long as it takes, and it does not speed up because a closing date has been set.
If you are serious about lending here, get yourself onboarded with the escrow agent before you commit to a specific file. Then when a deal comes up that suits you, the only thing left to do is send the wire. Lenders who leave it until the week of closing are the ones who miss deals, and they usually blame the deal.
Currency: it is all in US dollars
GAP loans are denominated in US dollars, so there is no colón conversion to think about on the way in or on the way out. Interest comes back in dollars too.
That does not mean there is no currency question. If you live and spend in Canadian dollars, euros or pounds, the exchange rate between your currency and the dollar still affects what the return is worth to you by the time it comes home. That risk is yours and it is worth thinking about before you commit, not after.
Getting it back out again
The way back is the way in. Interest is paid to you under the arrangements set out in the loan documents, and the principal is repaid at maturity. Confirm in writing, before you fund anything, exactly how and where you will be paid and who is responsible for sending it.
Do not leave that to be worked out later. It is a two-minute conversation at the start and an unpleasant one at the end.
One thing not to do
Do not send financial documents to anyone before they have explained what is needed and how to send it securely. That applies to us as much as to anybody else. A first enquiry needs your name, how to reach you and what you want to understand. Nothing more.
Where to start
Tell us roughly how much you are thinking about, when you might need access to it again, and where you are based. We will tell you what the onboarding looks like from where you are and point you to the people who handle it.
Once the money is in place, your loan is protected the way every GAP loan is: by a first-degree mortgage registered in the National Registry, on a property worth far more than the loan. GAP’s loan rules explain exactly what happens if a borrower ever stops paying.
WhatsApp: +506 4001 6413
Email: info@gap.cr
How private lending works, step by step →
Glenn Tellier, founder of Grupo GAP
Article by Glenn Tellier (Founder of CRIE and Grupo Gap)
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