Costa Rica Real Estate News

Half the population of Costa Rica call themselves 'Realtors' because any 'Tom', 'Dick' or 'Jose' can freely call themselves a real estate 'Broker' or a 'Realtor.' To be involved with Costa Rica real estate, you do not need any qualifications, training or experience whatsoever to call yourself a 'Realtor' and there is nobody watching over the people that do...

Stewart's primary operating unit division for international business, Stewart International, directs Stewart's global real estate information operations. Stewart has established capacity to carry out business in over 40 foreign countries and has offices in Latin America, Europe, Canada and Australia, as well as emerging markets where legally valid land entitlement systems are just beginning economic development and personal freedom. Stewart International's three main business units - Land Market Development, Land and Real Estate Information Systems, and Title, Escrow and Closing Services - each complement the other in helping Stewart reach the long-term goal of providing clear and readily transferable title to real property throughout the world...

There are some interesting developments regarding the declaration of real estate values in Costa Rica. Property owners have long benefitted from an antiquated system of land valuation. The benefit came from the fact that there is no process for re-evaluating the property, save for if the property owner hired a qualified appraiser to evaluate the property. There has been little incentive to do this since by leaving the current appraised value at say, the 1973 evaluation that was done, the yearly tax on the property was nearly non-existent...