Article
Real Estate Investment Title Registration Costa Rica
It is true that purchasing international real estate is not an easy task. It is also true that it becomes less stressful when you pay a little extra and take the help of the right professionals. In a country like Costa Rica, you can avoid risk factors associated with language barrier and different real estate laws by accepting the guidance of professionals through various stages of purchase.
In Costa Rica, you can make successfully invest in real estate properties ranging from farm houses, condominiums, water front villas, mansions, apartments or time shares. However, you have to begin your search for your dream property at the Public Registry.
In Costa Rica, properties are centrally registered. You simply have to hit any of the Public registry offices in San Jose and perform the title search in the computers. This computerized registration system is known as “Folio Real”.
Perform a title search on “Folio Real” prior to the purchase of any property in Costa Rica. The title search will give you all the necessary information about the property you intend to buy, the current and last ownership of the property, the actual area of the property and its boundaries, exact location, its mortgage status and the any financial tax dues, if any.
If you don’t find information about a certain property in “Folio Real”, try looking for it in the special books preserved in the offices of Public Register. The information you find here are will be authentic as well.
When you buying real estate in Costa Rica, make sure you know whether the seller is offering ‘ownership right’ or just ‘occupancy right’ over the land. There is a fundamental difference between these two types of ownerships. You are offered an ownership right over a piece of land means that the land has been registered and it can be title searched in either “Folio Real” or in the special books in Public registry office.
Occupation right, on the other hand means, neither the land is registered, nor it can be title searched and the process of registration takes a rather long time.
Next important consideration relates to the beach properties or lands on the beach. Beach property transactions involve a special procedure called concession. In Costa Rica, concession means leasing of the property; the concession is nothing but a specific time period granted by the government to a private investor for using the land. To register the concession, you have to follow a special procedure, different from the registration of the regular lands. The process has unique set of requirements regarding the terms and conditions of occupancy.
To sum it up, you can successfully own your Costa Rica real estate by being a little cautious and staying well informed. Do the title search and make all sorts of enquiry about the property. These little efforts will save you from the risks that are usually associated with property issues in the foreign countries.
