Folio / Guides / Real estate laws

Quoted from the statutes, in Spanish, with plain English beside

Costa Rica real estate law, article by article.

Twelve laws decide what a foreigner can buy, where a house can stand, what a title is worth and what it costs to hold. Each one below is quoted from the law itself, not from a brochure.

Check a property · $29 See the twelve laws

12laws quoted on this page

200mmaritime zone from high tide

0.25%property tax a year, municipal

3moto present a deed and keep its rank

Every article read in the law itself

Spanish quoted word for word

Plain English beside each one

Built in Costa Rica

Short answer

Foreigners can buy titled property in Costa Rica with the same rights as citizens (Constitution, article 19), and property is inviolable (article 45). The exceptions are written in specific laws: the 200 metre maritime zone, where the first 50 metres are public and the next 150 are held by municipal concession that foreigners with under five years' residence cannot hold (Ley 6043); forest setbacks along springs, rivers and lakes (Ley Forestal); a registry where a deed binds third parties only from the date it is presented (Código Civil, article 455); a survey plan without which the Registro suspends the transfer (Ley 6545); municipal land use plans, SETENA approval, the condominium regime; and a municipal property tax of 0.25% a year. What a law says and what a listing says are not always the same thing.

The map

The twelve laws that decide a purchase

Tap any law to jump to its article, quoted in Spanish, with what it means for a buyer.

arts. 19, 45

Constitución Política

Foreigners hold the same property rights as Costa Ricans, and property is inviolable.

Ley 6043, arts. 9, 10, 20, 47, 48

Ley sobre la Zona Marítimo Terrestre

The 200 metre coastal strip: a public zone, a concession zone, and who may not hold a concession.

Ley 7575, arts. 33, 34

Ley Forestal

Protected setbacks from springs, rivers and lakes where no tree may be cut.

arts. 409, 455

Código Civil

A deed binds third parties only from its presentation to the Registro; mortgages take a public deed.

Ley 6545, art. 30

Ley del Catastro Nacional

No registered plano catastrado, no registration of the transfer.

Ley 4240, art. 1

Ley de Planificación Urbana

The Plan Regulador, the municipal instrument that fixes land use.

Ley 7554, art. 17

Ley Orgánica del Ambiente

SETENA's environmental approval before works that alter the environment.

Ley 7933, art. 1

Ley de Propiedad en Condominio

What can be placed under the condominium regime, lots included.

Ley 7509, arts. 1, 2, 3, 9, 23

Ley de Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles

A municipal tax of 0.25% a year on the registered value.

Ley 276, arts. 2, 3

Ley de Aguas

Water, beaches, riverbeds and islands are national property.

art. 15

Ley 7786

Why escrow companies and the people handling your money register with SUGEF.

Ley 6043, art. 6

Ley sobre la Zona Marítimo Terrestre

Cities on the coast, coastal urban zones and lawfully registered titles sit outside the ZMT rules.

Constitución Política, 1949

The starting point: same rights, inviolable property

Article 19

Los extranjeros tienen los mismos deberes y derechos individuales y sociales que los costarricenses, con las excepciones y limitaciones que esta Constitución y las leyes establecen.

Foreigners have the same individual and social rights and duties as Costa Ricans, with the exceptions and limitations the Constitution and the laws set. Everything below this section is one of those exceptions or limitations.

Article 45

La propiedad es inviolable; a nadie puede privarse de la suya si no es por interés público legalmente comprobado, previa indemnización conforme a la ley.

Property is inviolable. Nobody can be deprived of theirs except for a legally proven public interest, with prior compensation under the law. The same article lets the Legislative Assembly, by a two thirds vote, impose limitations of social interest on property.

The Asamblea Legislativa of Costa Rica at Cuesta de Moras, San José — **Where the exceptions get written**Article 19 hands the exceptions to the laws. The Legislative Assembly has written them into the maritime zone law, the forestry law, the planning law and the tax law quoted below.Photo: Antonio Solera, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

For titled land away from the coast, none of the laws we read sets a nationality condition. See buying as a foreigner for the practical side: corporations, residency, financing.

Ley 6043, Ley sobre la Zona Marítimo Terrestre

The 200 metres that change everything

The single biggest exception to article 19. Measured horizontally from the ordinary high tide line, on both coasts.

Article 9

Zona marítimo terrestre es la franja de doscientos metros de ancho a todo lo largo de los litorales Atlántico y Pacífico de la República, cualquiera que sea su naturaleza, medidos horizontalmente a partir de la línea de la pleamar ordinaria y los terrenos y rocas que deja el mar en descubierto en la marea baja.

A 200 metre strip along both coasts, whatever the nature of the land, measured horizontally from the ordinary high tide line, plus the ground and rocks the sea uncovers at low tide. Islands count too.

Article 10

La zona marítimo terrestre se compone de dos secciones: la ZONA PUBLICA, que es la faja de cincuenta metros de ancho a contar de la pleamar ordinaria, y las áreas que quedan al descubierto durante la marea baja; y la ZONA RESTRINGIDA, constituida por la franja de los ciento cincuenta metros restantes.

Two sections. The public zone is the first 50 metres from high tide plus whatever low tide uncovers. The restricted zone is the remaining 150 metres, held by concession.

0 to 50 m: public zoneArticle 20: save the exceptions the law sets, it cannot be occupied under any title; it is dedicated to public use and free transit. Article 25 deals with titles lawfully registered before that reach into it: private use only with express agreement of the municipality, ICT and INVU.

50 to 200 m: restricted zoneHeld by concession from the municipality, for five to twenty years, paying a canon that replaces the property tax (article 48). A concession is a right to use, not a title. See concession vs titled property.

Outside the strip, and the article 6 carve outsArticle 6: the law does not apply to coastal cities, declared coastal urban zones, properties lawfully registered in private names, or those whose legitimacy other laws recognise. Beyond 200 metres, ordinary titled land.

Who may not hold a concession

Article 47, verbatim: “No se otorgarán concesiones” to any of these. Transfers of shares or quotas to foreigners that breach it “carecerán de toda validez”: they are void.

Foreigners with under five years' residenceart. 47(a)

Companies with bearer sharesart. 47(b)

Companies domiciled abroadart. 47(c)

Entities formed in Costa Rica by foreignersart. 47(ch)

Entities more than 50% owned by foreignersart. 47(d)

The rule is five years' residence and a ceiling of half the capital in foreign hands. The lower figure often quoted in listings is a way companies are structured to stay under that ceiling, not a number in the law. Full walk through in the maritime zone, explained and buying a beachfront lot.

A bay on the Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica with the beach, headland and forest behind it

Measured from high tide, horizontally

Every beachfront listing sits somewhere on the cross section above. The question is never whether the 200 metres apply; it is where the high tide line was fixed and which side of it the building stands.

Ley 7575, Ley Forestal

Setbacks from water and springs

Article 33 declares protection areas. Article 34 prohibits cutting or removing trees inside them, except in projects the executive declares of national convenience.

Permanent springs, radius100 m

Ley Forestal, art. 33(a)

Rivers and streams, steep land50 m

Ley Forestal, art. 33(b)

Lakes and reservoirs50 m

Ley Forestal, art. 33(c)

Rivers and streams, flat rural land15 m

Ley Forestal, art. 33(b)

Rivers and streams, flat urban land10 m

Ley Forestal, art. 33(b)

025 m50 m100 m

Article 33(b)

Una franja de quince metros en zona rural y de diez metros en zona urbana, medidas horizontalmente a ambos lados, en las riberas de los ríos, quebradas o arroyos, si el terreno es plano, y de cincuenta metros horizontales, si el terreno es quebrado.

Rivers, creeks and streams: 15 metres each side in rural zones and 10 in urban zones when the land is flat, 50 metres when it is steep, measured horizontally. Springs get a 100 metre radius (a); lakes and reservoirs 50 metres (c); recharge areas and aquifers as the regulation defines (d). INVU issues the alignments.

A lot with a stream across it can lose a large part of its buildable area to article 33 before any municipal rule applies. The survey plan shows the stream; the law sets the strip. See water availability.

Código Civil and Ley del Catastro Nacional

What a title is actually worth

Two rules decide whether the deed you sign protects you: the registry rule and the survey plan rule.

The registry rule

Código Civil, article 455

“Los títulos sujetos a inscripción que no estén inscritos no perjudican a tercero, sino desde la fecha de su presentación al Registro.”

A deed binds third parties only from the date it is presented to the Registro, not from the date it is signed.
A public deed presented more than three months after signing can lose to an attachment (embargo) recorded in the meantime, unless the buyer wins an ordinary suit proving the right is real.
Presented within three months, the deed is registered over any attachment recorded after it was signed, automatically.
Article 409: a mortgage is created by public deed by the owner, and lots cannot be released from it without the creditor fixing the liability of the rest.

The survey plan rule

Ley 6545, article 30

“El Registro suspenderá la inscripción de los documentos que carezcan del plano catastrado.”

Every registry movement must cite a survey plan drawn to the regulation and registered at the Catastro Nacional; an unregistered plan has no legal effect.
Exceptions: mortgage cancellations, family patrimony and attachments.
Where plans in a surveyed zone contradict a neighbour's boundary, the owners fix the true line with the Catastro as arbiter; the owner of the wrong plan pays.
In force since 22 May 1999. Folio matches the plan to the folio real in every report.

The practical rule that falls out of article 455: sign and present on the same visit to the notary, or as close to it as possible. The three month window is the gap a creditor of the seller can walk through.

Three more laws on what you can build

Land use, environment and condominiums

Ley 4240, article 1

Plan Regulador, es el instrumento de planificación local que define en un conjunto de planos, mapas, reglamentos y cualquier otro documento, gráfico o suplemento, la política de desarrollo y los planes para distribución de la población, usos de la tierra, vías de circulación, servicios públicos, facilidades comunales, y construcción, conservación y rehabilitación de áreas urbanas.

The Plan Regulador is the municipal instrument that fixes land use. Whether a lot may hold a house, a hotel or nothing at all is answered by the municipality's plan, through the uso de suelo certificate. The municipality issues it; Folio reads it against the parcel.

Ley 7554, article 17

Las actividades humanas que alteren o destruyan elementos del ambiente o generen residuos, materiales tóxicos o peligrosos, requerirán una evaluación de impacto ambiental por parte de la Secretaría Técnica Nacional Ambiental creada en esta ley. Su aprobación previa, de parte de este organismo, será requisito indispensable para iniciar las actividades, obras o proyectos.

SETENA's prior approval is an indispensable requirement before starting works that alter or destroy elements of the environment. The laws and regulations list which projects need the assessment.

Ley 7933, article 1

El régimen de propiedad en condominio puede aplicarse: a) A los diversos pisos, los locales, las oficinas, los estacionamientos o los departamentos en que se dividan uno o varios edificios... c) A los bienes inmuebles aptos para la construcción, tanto para los lotes o las fincas rurales en que se divida el terreno, como para las construcciones que se levanten en ellos.

Condominium is a legal regime, not a building type. It applies to apartments and offices, but also to bare lots in a gated subdivision, and even to a tourism concession with the concession authority's prior consent (e). The condominium bylaws are part of the record.

What it costs to hold, and who handles the money

Tax, water and the money trail

Ley 7509, article 23

En todo el país, el porcentaje del impuesto será de un cuarto por ciento (0,25%) y se aplicará sobre el valor del inmueble registrado por la Administración Tributaria.

0.25% a year on the value registered on 1 January (article 9). The tax is created in favour of the municipalities (article 1), on land and the fixed buildings on it (article 2), and the municipality is the tax administration (article 3). See property taxes.

Ley 276, articles 2 and 3

Las aguas enumeradas en el artículo anterior son de propiedad nacional... Son igualmente de propiedad nacional: I. Las playas y zonas marítimas; II. Los vasos de los lagos, lagunas y esteros de propiedad nacional; III. Los cauces de las corrientes de dominio público.

Water is national property, and so are beaches, the beds of public lakes and estuaries, public riverbeds, land won from the sea and islands formed in national waters. A well or a river on the lot is a right to use, granted by the State, not something the deed conveys.

Ley 7786, article 15

Las personas físicas o jurídicas que desempeñen las actividades indicadas en los incisos anteriores y no se encuentren supervisadas por alguna de las superintendencias existentes en el país, deberán inscribirse ante la SUGEF... Las municipalidades del país no podrán extender nuevas patentes ni renovar las actuales para este tipo de actividades, si no se ha cumplido el requisito de inscripción indicado.

Anyone administering funds for others, escrow included, must register with SUGEF, and municipalities may not issue or renew their business licence without it. Ask the escrow company for its registration before wiring. See SUGEF registration and escrow in Costa Rica.

What this page does not quote

The transfer tax on property sales (Ley 6999), registry and notary stamps, and the solidarity tax on high value homes (Ley 8683). We did not read those texts for this page, so we do not state their rates here. The agent commissions guide covers the fee side.
Residency and immigration rules. Article 47 of Ley 6043 counts years of residence; the immigration law defines them.
The Constitution was read at the Political Database of the Americas (Georgetown University), not on SCIJ, whose pages do not render without JavaScript. The other laws come from consolidated texts dated in our library; Costa Rica amends often, so a lawyer confirms the current wording before you rely on an article.

Where the law meets one specific property

Check the property against the record

The laws above are general. The Registro Nacional record of the exact finca is what tells you whether they bite.

Folio property report

$29

Pulled from the official registry for one titled parcel:

The registered owner and the folio real number
Liens, mortgages and annotations on the record (article 455 in practice)
The survey plan matched to the folio real (article 30 in practice)
A maritime zone exposure flag for coastal parcels

Delivered by email

The official record, not a summaryStraight from the Registro Nacional, read by a person before it goes out.

Check a property · $29 See exactly what the report includes

Folio is not a law firm. The report gives you and your lawyer the record to read the laws against.

Questions

Frequently asked

Can a foreigner own real estate in Costa Rica?

Article 19 of the Constitution gives foreigners the same individual and social rights and duties as Costa Ricans, with the exceptions the Constitution and the laws set. For titled land the laws we read set no nationality bar. The main exception is the maritime zone: article 47 of Ley 6043 bars concessions to foreigners with under five years' residence and to companies more than 50% foreign owned.

What is the 200 metre rule on Costa Rica beaches?

Article 9 of Ley 6043 defines the maritime zone as a 200 metre strip measured horizontally from the ordinary high tide line. Article 10 splits it: the first 50 metres are the public zone and the next 150 metres the restricted zone, which is held by concession from the municipality rather than by title.

How close to a river can I build in Costa Rica?

Article 33 of the Ley Forestal declares protection areas of 15 metres on each bank in rural zones and 10 metres in urban zones where the land is flat, 50 metres where it is steep, 100 metres around permanent springs and 50 metres around lakes. Article 34 prohibits cutting trees inside them.

When does a Costa Rica property deed protect me against third parties?

Article 455 of the Código Civil says a title subject to registration that is not registered does not affect third parties until the date it is presented to the Registro. A public deed presented more than three months after signing can lose to an attachment recorded in the meantime.

What is the property tax rate in Costa Rica?

Article 23 of Ley 7509 sets it at 0.25% a year on the value registered by the municipal tax administration on 1 January, under articles 9 and 3. The tax is municipal, not national. A maritime zone concession pays a canon instead, under article 48 of Ley 6043.

Do I need a plano catastrado to buy?

Article 30 of the Ley del Catastro Nacional requires every registry movement to cite a survey plan registered at the Catastro, and tells the Registro to suspend registration of documents that lack one. Mortgage cancellations, family patrimony and attachments are the exceptions.

Sources. Every article on this page was read in full on 26 October 2026 and is quoted in the original Spanish. Costa Rica amends its laws often; confirm the current wording with a licensed Costa Rican lawyer before you rely on any of them.

Photos from Wikimedia Commons: aerial of Playa Tamarindo and Playa Grande, 2007, by Tamarindowiki (CC BY-SA 3.0); Guanacaste bay by Kailash U (CC0); Asamblea Legislativa by Antonio Solera (CC BY 3.0).
This page is general information, not legal advice. Folio is not a law firm.