The beautiful beaches of Guanacaste have turned into the most powerful magnet for various developments that suit even the most demanding tastes. Exotic scenery combines with an unsurpassable climate that has enchanted a growing amount of Costa Rican and foreign fans.
Throughout this lengthy coastline, there are being built with great speed elaborate projects that include vertical condos, apartments, hotels commercial premises and private residences. The development wave has brought great opportunities for economic growth due to the parallel development of activities, also bringing with this great pressure over the public services.

Divine Nature
The North Pacific region is mainly made up by the province of Guanacaste, which has consolidated as one of the most tourist destinations of the country. This area is characterized by its dry tropical forests, since it is one of the areas with less rainfall in the country. Almost all its beaches are pleasant for swimming, surfing, spots fishing and diving in deep waters.
In addition, in the area you will find highly developed tourism infrastructure with renowned first-class hotels, golf courses, stores restaurants, bars, and more. The quality of the beaches is unbeatable and, the most popular are located in the so-called ¨Golden Triangle¨, witch includes the Papagayo Gulf and from Liberia to Junquillal.

Exponential Growth
The Chorotega area that includes the Guanacaste Pacific region is, without a doubt, the most dynamic construction area in the country. Tourist and real-estate investors consider it one of the most consolidated destinations for nature and adventures lovers. In addition, the country offers ideal political conditions that create a safe and stable environment.

Interview / Ing. Manuel Ardón, Operations Director, Peninsula Papagayo:
1. Which are the main advantages when investment in North Pacific region?
In regard to this area, the main advantages are:
*It’s the closeness to the Daniel Oduber International Airport, in Liberia; it is estimated that in 2007, 360 thousand tourists will enter the country thru this terminal.
* Guanacaste has direct access from Atlanta, New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Canada and Europe, and there are several requests to open new destinations.
* The following airlines have different flights to this terminal: Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, US Air, Air Canada, NorthWest, and character flights from both Europe and Canada. This Airport has 55 weekly flights during the high season and 23 flights during the low season.
* This area is has the most planned tourism development in Latin America.
* It has 5 national parks; wildlife refuges; 1 biological station, 3 private reserves and 2 conservation areas.
* The region produces 27% of the hydroelectric, wind and thermal energy of Costa Rica.

2. Which are the main problems that this area faces?
Costa Rica must face a series of challenges in order to improve the growth opportunities of both the tourism industry as well as the attraction of foreign investment and for development in general. These challenges can be summarized but not limited to public infrastructure, an efficient management of the public institutions (which means not only to assign the work but also to endow them with the resources and the personnel so that the can comply with their work in reasonable time limits), and improvement and education, social development and the legal security needed for a good performance of the economic activities of any of the sectors of the economy. Likewise, it is necessary to optimize the access to quality public services.

3. What type of client is currently investing in the North Pacific region?
There are two types of investors: the small ones; which are people with high purchasing power, with an average annual income of over US$100.000, that wish to make Costa Rica their second home; and there are also the big investors, who come here in order to develop their projects- usually hotels and/ or real estate developments.

4. Which are the areas with the most development? Why?
The biggest projects are mainly located in areas such as Liberia, Carrillo and Santa Cruz.

5. Which are the main types of real estate development currently being built: horizontal condos, towers, hotels, among others?
In Guanacaste, in general, there is great tourism and real estate development with a wide offer of hotels, condos, residences, villas, shopping centers, exclusive gated-communities, etc. And according to the characteristics of each project, there are of high, middle and low density. At the same time, there is also the development of several business and services such as shopping malls, legal offices, construction companies, etc.

6. Which factors have encouraged the development of the region?
The closeness to the airport, the direct flights that come from important cities of the United States, the natural beauty of the area; everything adds up a development process that has in turn created jobs, better conditions for the community, respect towards the environment and the new infrastructure for the country. The important thing is to have the commitment to create developments based on these principles, with the benefit of Costa Rica in mind. Peninsula Papagayo is a project that is being carried out by Ecodesarrollo Papagayo, S.A., one of the firms that is a dealer of the Polo Turístico of Papagayo, a project created by the Costa Rica government, under the surveillance of the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo. The dealer firms have the power to execute and develop the ¨Master Plan¨ that has established by the government for this tourism area and, from this point of view, it is strictly follows the instructions and guidelines given by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo.

7. What are the short-term predictions for the real estate market in the region?
It is definitely perceived like the great revitalization of the economy, generating an offer of goods and services that are developing in a parallel manner to the tourism industry and that is expected to create links and promote the development of the province and therefore, of the country.

Source: Luxury Real Estate& Life Style in Costa Rica,
Casa Galería Magazine, page 50, vol 16, 2007.