Can Foreigners Own Real Estate/What is the Likelihood of the Government Nationalizing Foreign Property Here?
These questions are usually grounded in horror stories from other Latin American countries. The government of Costa Rica is very interested in promoting foreign investment in this country, and this trend will only continue with the election of Oscar Arias, the former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Although the country has always encouraged foreign investment, Arias intends to liberalize many of the state-granted monopolies and considers tourism as a major factor in the country’s long term viability. The government of Costa Rica has been a stable democracy since the 1950s, when the military was abolished. The people here enjoy a much higher standard of living on average than in other Latin American countries and have no reason to want to slay the golden goose that foreign investment has been. Costa Rica has also ratified CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. This will open the country up further to foreign big business.
