Manuel Antonio Real Estate Market 2026: What Scott Cutter Is Seeing Right Now
Scott Cutter, founder of 2 Costa Rica Real Estate, has spent decades watching the Manuel Antonio real estate market move through booms, crashes, and quiet recoveries. In this episode, he sits down with host Richard Bexon to unpack why the Manuel Antonio real estate market has stayed unusually stable compared to the rest of the country — and where the smartest buyers are putting their money in 2026.
Unlike Guanacaste or Santa Teresa, the Manuel Antonio real estate market never saw a massive development boom, which means it also avoided the sharp corrections other regions experienced. Scott calls it a “tortoise in the hare” market: slower, steadier, and — according to him — still one of the best long-term plays in the country.
Why the Manuel Antonio Real Estate Market Rewards Patience, Not Quick Flips
Scott’s core argument throughout the episode is simple: buyers chasing a fast flip in the Manuel Antonio real estate market will struggle in 2026’s volatile conditions. But buyers thinking in five, ten, or twenty-year cycles are, in his words, entering “the dream time to be purchasing.” Below is the full conversation, unedited.
In This Episode:
- Why 2026 Is Still One of the Best Buyer’s Markets Costa Rica Has Seen
- How 40 Pre-Sale Villas Sold Out for $45 Million
- Where $1–2.5M Still Buys Luxury Ocean Views
- Why You’ll Never “Get a Deal” in Manuel Antonio
- Private Jets, New Airports, and $2,000-a-Night Hotels
- The Mortgage Shift Reshaping Costa Rica Real Estate
- Scott’s $500K Move: Where He’d Invest Right Now
Costa Rica Real Estate in 2026: Buyer’s Market or Danger Zone?
Voiceover
The number one Costa Rica real estate and investment podcast, bringing you experts from all over Costa Rica.
Richard Bexon
Good afternoon, guys, and welcome to episode 301 of Costa Rica Real Estate and Investments with me, your host, Richard Bexon. As tradition with every new season of the podcast — if you can call every hundred that we do a season — we always have Scott Cutter join us. He was on episode 1, 101, 201, and now 301.
For any of you that don’t know Scott, or haven’t been that far back, or are joining us new here — basically, on the podcast, he’s the founder of 2 Costa Rica Real Estate, which I think is probably one of the most recognized independent real estate firms here in the country. He’s spent decades helping buyers, investors, and families navigate the Costa Rican property market, and has witnessed firsthand how this country has transformed from kind of a niche destination into becoming one of the world’s most sought-after places to live, retire, and invest.
So today we’re going to be getting kind of a state of the market, where Scott thinks there’s opportunity, the challenges, and how international demand is really shaping property values here, guys, and also where he would invest his money in Costa Rica as well.
So it should be a very interesting podcast. Remember, guys, if you’re looking to do anything here in Costa Rica, we project manage — I’d probably say around about 15 homes a year — as owner’s representatives, guys, helping you find the right architects, bid your project out, saving you money, and then basically being on top of the builders during the whole process, being your eyes and ears while you’re not in the country, just to make sure that everything is done right. And, you know, don’t get screwed.
I mean, you know the saying: the quickest way to make a million in Costa Rica is to come with two, because you’ll lose one. Very applicable in building, I’d say. So we usually do about 15 of them a year. We also do buyer’s representations for people looking to invest in Costa Rica and purchase real estate here in the office.
And also — again — we do our own developments, which gives you guys the opportunity to invest in our own developments, into fractional ownership, or we’ve actually had people buy whole villas. So our new project, Arenal Ridge — because the Manuel Antonio Treehouse Villa project is now finished and doing exceedingly well, exceedingly well — is our 11-hectare new development, guys, of multiple villas across that property with hiking trails, waterfalls, and natural springs. We have a common area in there where we’re putting a cafe and restaurant — so a little bit more of us creating our own destination there. So it’s very, very interesting.
But anyone that wants to know more about that or get involved, info@investingcostarica.com. That’s info@investingcostarica.com. All the details are in the description down below. So just drop us an email and we’ll be happy to have a conversation with you.
But let’s get straight into the podcast. Good afternoon, Scott. How are you doing?
Scott Cutter
Doing awesome, Richard. Pleasure to be back with you.
Richard Bexon
Not at all, man. I said — I think we have a bit of a tradition going here. You were number 1, 101, 201, and now 301.
Scott Cutter
So, yeah, I hope that we’re both alive and well for 401 and 501, and that people don’t get tired of listening to us both.
Richard Bexon
I don’t think anyone would ever get tired of listening to you, sir. Me, maybe — but you, definitely not. But anyway.
Scott Cutter
Said by the guy with the charming British accent, but nice intent and flattery.
The Trick to Buying Right in a Volatile Market
Richard Bexon
Well, thank you, sir. Thank you. Well, Scott, the first question I always have to ask is: look, in 2025 I think the word was volatility. In 2026, definitely still volatile — and that’s probably the new norm, if that makes sense. How has that impacted the Costa Rican real estate market?
Scott Cutter
You know, you are a hundred percent right. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world. There’s certainly a lot of uncertainty that swirls around real estate in general, and we’ve seen that in markets. I attend a lot of international real estate conventions, and that sense and feeling is everywhere — not just here.
I think in a cash market — although, as you’ve certainly talked about here, we are seeing that influx of financing — in general, there’s just a lot of apprehension: am I buying at the right time, at the right place? Am I making a good investment?
But I will say that we’ve been fortunate, with our company being all around the country and not hyper-focused on one area. Our total sales volume has gone up year after year after year. 2025 was still a record-setting year, ahead of 2024. 2026 will beat 2025. And it’s not because we’re adding that many more agents.
I think that with the apprehension in the marketplace, it’s still very much a buyer’s market — so it’s a great time to be a buyer. Coming out of COVID, when we had that swarm of lifestyle buyers, it was frenetic and drove values up to kind of crazy levels. We’re still seeing people now that, even though it’s a challenging time, and even though there is apprehension — and even though I think people who don’t have a lot of saved-up wealth, and are looking to invest their only life savings, that’s a really important issue — those people are certainly way more trepidatious.
But we’re also seeing a lot more people who learned the lessons coming out of COVID, went back to normal life, and the general sense is that the apprehension is not going anywhere. So we’re seeing a lot of people saying, “I’ve got to commit to doing something, even in a challenging, scary market, because life ain’t getting any longer.” And I think Costa Rica has done a really good job, Richard, aligning itself as a destination that fits into personal health, longevity, and quality of living. It’s not a perfect place, but I think they’ve done a really good job of maintaining that identity, which is attractive even in an anxiety-filled world.
2000, 2008, COVID: The Cycle That Keeps Repeating
Richard Bexon
It’s funny that you mention that. I was with a client yesterday, and she was like — she spends probably 90% of her time in the U.S., in San Diego, and then 10% down here with her kid. And she’s like, when my kid is here, he never wants to be inside — he always wants to be outside doing classes, swim classes, et cetera. But when he’s back home, it’s really difficult for me to get him out of the house. I just don’t get it. And I’m like, well, that’s this country — it’s just an outdoor country, we don’t spend our time trapped inside.
What do you think? Again, you’ve seen multiple market cycles, Scott — you’ve been here long enough. How do you compare today’s market to what you’ve seen in the past?
Scott Cutter
Well, we are very much in what I would consider to be, in almost all marketplaces, a robust buyer’s market. In the development world in Costa Rica — we talk about this a lot — but the lack of huge institutional development money in most parts of Costa Rica means that the rise of development, new houses, new builds, new infrastructure, tends to be reactionary from bull markets.
We had that perfect storm coming out of COVID — it was the same thing coming out of the 2000-to-2008 steamroller of growth: we had huge inventory, then the financial crisis hit, and we had a glut, and then it sat pretty stagnant and slow for a while. Everybody thinks, “Oh my God, is it over?” No, it’s not over. Prices settle, and then people see the value opportunity to snag up and purchase all of that accumulated stuff. We go through another cycle.
We hit COVID — and COVID, we saw, especially in central South Pacific areas, but really all over Costa Rica, a ton of institutional development growth in some areas of Guanacaste, but also just a lot of boutique growth, a lot of single-family homes being built, a lot of people realizing there’s opportunity to create product here because there wasn’t a lot, and what was out there was being gobbled up at super high prices.
But because it was reactionary, that development boom came on the coattails of the demand of COVID, and it takes time to develop here. So we’ve had that perfect storm of a huge settling of demand with, now, two years of new product delivered to the market. That’s created, in most areas of Costa Rica, the opportunity for real value acquisitions again.
And I think that’s why, even though it’s a buyer’s market, and even though there is a lot of anxiety and it’s volatile out there, you are seeing people take advantage to move, because they realize — and well, I hope they realize, what my agents, what I try to talk about is — if you’re looking to buy to make money tomorrow, if you’re looking to quick-flip a property, it’s a tough time to play in the world game of real estate. It’s an anxiety-filled market.
But most people aren’t buying to flip in a year or in two. And if people are looking to make five-year and ten-year cyclical investments — whether they’re full-on portfolio lifestyle investments for the rest of their lives, or if you start to look at things on a ten-year cycle — we are really entering into the dream time to be purchasing. Whether today is the worst day in the market, or it’s three months from now, or it’s early 2027, I tell people: do you really care? Unless you’re selling in January 2027, after you purchase here, it doesn’t matter. We are somewhere near the buyer’s part of a trough, and the fundamentals of Costa Rica are too strong in the world.
So, yes, there’s a lot of volatility. It’s very much a buyer’s market, and I think it’s going to probably stay that way for the rest of 2026. But we’re just encouraging people to get beyond some of that fear and define whether they’re in the market for a quick play, or a cyclical ten- or twenty-year play. I don’t know if there’s a better time in any market than where we are now.
Costa Rica has consolidated itself as a destination. It’s no longer this emerging market — it’s very much there on the world stage. But when you look at our tourism numbers and total investment dollars compared to more established places, we’re established, but we’re still very much established as an infant, or as a toddler, in terms of a destination coming of age.
Richard Bexon
I mean, look, I agree. If we’re in a buyer’s market, tourism is still strong — I think it was like an 11% or 13% increase in Q1. Last month was roughly about 3% to 4%, which is pretty normal for that time of year. I’m almost sure June, July, and August are going to continue to be very strong as well. Buying a property, if you want to rent it — the demand is still there, it just continues to increase, which, of course, increases average daily rates, which increases returns, which increases the values of properties.
Scott Cutter
Yeah, yeah. And you’ve got to be careful — I think you know more than anybody, from your history in the tourism industry and in real estate — not every place will rent like crazy, and there isn’t a single “best place” to invest. I still believe that smart investors shop macro to micro. They figure out where’s their best place in Costa Rica.
And again, it’s one of the nice things about being in real estate in a buyer’s market: you tell people you don’t need to rush, but you also don’t need to miss great opportunities. So what I tell people is, take the time now to compare Tamarindo with Manuel Antonio, with Dominical, with Arenal, with Santa Teresa, with Nosara. They’re all different. Find the place that looks right — but the opportunities you’re seeing in these marketplaces aren’t going to get demonstrably better in six months or a year, in terms of a buyer’s market. We might see the swing, and then you could be chasing the market back to its place.
But it’s a great time to be looking at Costa Rica, going through that macro-level process, and then trying to become a shark in a time when it’s a great time to be a shark eating up good property.
Manuel Antonio’s Quiet $45 Million Sellout
Richard Bexon
Yeah, I agree, I agree. You mentioned that, again, 2024 was a record year, 2025 was a record year, and it looks like 2026 will be too — and it’s not always in the same locations. Where are you seeing the growth in Costa Rica at the moment?
Scott Cutter
That’s a great question. It’s funny, because I get nervous — I’ll go through periods where my Tamarindo office is on fire and setting records every week. Obviously coming out of COVID, my Santa Teresa office was like a kerosene bomb — there was so much demand. And they probably saw one of the bigger slowdowns; they’re now coming back.
But the markets that don’t get as big of highs, but also don’t get as big of lows — like Manuel Antonio, where I live, Richard — it’s one of those places where, because there isn’t a lot of big new development, there hasn’t been much swing. I mean, we built the marina condos and villas last year, and that was a big swoon — there were 40 pre-sale villas, all sold out, in the middle of the slow, apprehensive, volatile buyer’s market. There was $45 million of sales gobbled up before anything was ever nearly finished.
So in my areas, Manuel Antonio didn’t see the big swoon in values that a place like Santa Teresa saw, that a place like Uvita and Dominical also saw, because we didn’t have any big, massive new projects. So in areas like Manuel Antonio, we didn’t see the big highs in the great markets, but we didn’t see the big lows either. They’re kind of slow and steady — I call it the tortoise-in-the-hare kind of places, where the fundamentals are just so strong that I tell people, if you’re worried about how good a deal you’re getting at the time of purchase, you’re probably missing somewhat of the point.
Dominical to Ojochal: Where $1–2.5M Still Buys a Steal
There are other areas of Costa Rica where I think buyers, if they have a longer-term vision — and they’re not trying to run a Manuel Antonio business plan in a different area — can really probably get more momentum as a buyer. When you look at the Southern Zone of Costa Rica right now, between Dominical and Ojochal, the values that buyers are securing for three-, four-, five-bedroom luxury, premier ocean-view homes are off the charts. A million to two and a half million dollars there gets you a mind-blowing selection of inventory in an area that’s growing, where you’re seeing a lot more infrastructure — where, when you start to look at a ten-to-twenty-year horizon, there are going to be new airports arriving. Not this year, not next year, but there will be more flights, more local flights, more regional flights.
Those are areas where buyers with a longer-term vision, lifestyle-driven, can get tremendous value for their dollar. We’re seeing those areas really start to come back to life, mostly because sellers are chasing the pricing inventory down, and it hits that spot where buyers go, “Wait a minute, this is too good of a value proposition to pass up on.”
Tamarindo, Hacienda Pinilla, Avellanas — those are areas as well where, because of the amount of development that took place, sellers began competing for a smaller pool of buyers. These are proven areas, they’re great lifestyle destinations, and where I see a lot of buyer value. I think areas like — at least in my offices — areas like Quepos and Manuel Antonio, where we’re more lifestyle-driven, people are buying because the infrastructure’s there, the amenities are there, there are condominiums built, there’s tourism structure there. We’ve seen those areas just continue to mark their pace with every season.
Why You’ll Never “Get a Deal” in Manuel Antonio
Richard Bexon
And look, I mean, we’ll zoom in on Manuel Antonio now, since you’ve brought it up. It’s a very unique area — like you said, there’s no big development. It’s a headache to build and develop there, if that makes sense, having just done it. I mean, yeah, I always say I didn’t have gray hair before I started that project — but that’s also the beauty of it, if that makes sense. It’s one of the top tourist destinations in the country, good infrastructure. They just announced they’re improving the local airport. And also, you’ve got the marina there.
Scott Cutter
Well — between the park, you know — again, people love to try to outthink themselves, and everybody wants to find the next Key West, the next Manuel Antonio. And the reality, when you look at the world — box canyons like Telluride, or like Aspen, places like Manuel Antonio, the islands in the Caribbean — it’s supply and demand, it’s finite-driven. Ultimately, real estate is all about supply and demand, both on the rental side, both on the hotel and tourism side, and certainly on the real estate side.
So for people who want to know how much they’re getting per square foot of construction, and want the cheapest place on the property with the nicest finish, they’re going to have a very difficult time finding real estate in New York. They’re going to have a very difficult time finding a great deal in Manuel Antonio. They’re going to have a very difficult time finding a great deal in Aspen or Telluride. That doesn’t make those places bad investments — they’re some of the strongest real estate places in the world. But there are people that understand location, location, location — supply and demand dynamics are always going to drive the long-term integrity of my investment.
That’s one of the things I do with a lot of my clients. I just sold a very expensive home here to some guys — savvy real estate guys, they build hundreds of homes every year up and down the Eastern Seaboard. They said, “Scott, do you think we’re getting a good deal?” We’re sitting in my office, getting ready to write up an offer, and I said, “No, I think you’re paying an absolute premium in the 2026 market. If you’re looking to get a good deal, we should stop now.” I said, “Do you think this area is going to be demonstrably stronger as a destination, attracting more high-net-worth people like you in ten years versus today? If you say no to that question, let’s stop the process right now, because you’re not going to be good neighbors. But if you think more people like you are going to come, and the ADR and the hotels are going to come up, then you don’t need to worry about whether the sales price is 5.3 or 5.1 — because if that margin really makes a difference over the course of a decade, we’ve all failed.”
And in places like Manuel Antonio, we’re just lucky that we’ve got a seven-kilometer-long strip of road — it’s a nightmare to permit. You talk about your gray hairs — this marina, they hired me to sell the villas here 15 years ago, and luckily I’m stubborn and I have a lot of gray hairs. But when you bring it to market, people understand that what you bring to market here, both for rentals and for sales, is irreplaceable.
$2,000-a-Night Hotels and the Push for Private Jets
Richard Bexon
Yeah, I agree. I mean, we mentioned a couple of things, but what really excites you about the future of Manuel Antonio, Scott?
Scott Cutter
Well, the marina’s growth and consolidation — we were ten years as a project kind of proving itself, and now all the slips are built out. We’ve completed the first vertical villa tower. It’s becoming more of a lifestyle destination. The airport — they’re going to build a new terminal, so you don’t have to land at the thatched-roof hut. And we’re pushing very hard on the government now to try to get an airport extension, so that we can get the runway out to accept private jets, to be lit up, to have immigration and customs.
Those are elements that both the local government and the central government are starting to move toward. Everybody recognizes the Southern Zone International Airport is probably part of Costa Rica’s future at some point, but everybody recognizes that, even with the pedal to the metal, that’s 10 to 20 years away.
Voiceover
Yeah.
Scott Cutter
Not going to happen in two to three years. So there is some will and government interest now in opening up Quepos and Manuel Antonio as the gateway to the Southern Zone, with more robust infrastructure so they can do more Sansa flights, green airways, regional flights, small private jets — because they’ve seen the impact it’s had in Liberia, both with the big airlines bringing people in, but also, they don’t have enough room for all the private planes coming in, and they understand the promotion that brings.
So when I look at Costa Rica as a destination, there’s a couple of things I see as emerging: the profile of tourists coming, the ADRs that people are paying. And you work in the industry, and your listeners probably do too — it was unheard of to think about hotels with $1,500 or $2,000-a-night ADRs in Costa Rica ten years ago, or even five years ago. And some of our most successful, highest-occupancy hotels are now coming into this elite global marketplace. We’re seeing an increase in ultra-high-net-worth, high-net-worth travel, and just general luxury travel. It’s not the backpacker destination.
And I think you’ll read about, “Well, Costa Rica is too expensive.” And yes, for a budget traveler coming, looking to spend the night in a hostel and go out to eat, Costa Rica is a very expensive place to travel, and there are certainly bad things about that. There are certainly still places you can go in Costa Rica and find those niches of that old-world charm from the ’90s or 2000s. But you’ve got to travel a little bit harder to get to them.
It’s like when I came to Manuel Antonio in 1996, it took two hours to drive from Jacó. The harder it was to get to a place, the more magic, the cheaper, the more undiscovered it was. Costa Rica still has that frontier tourism quality, which I think is why it’s going to still be a darling in the world’s eye — to be able to go to Osa, to be able to go to some of the mountain communities up in Chirripó. There are still frontiers to discover that are very much — I don’t want to say untouched, but they feel untouched to 95% of the world.
But I think places like Manuel Antonio are really unique, because they give a visitor to Costa Rica almost everything they’d want out of a trip, in one destination, with the exception of golf and a volcano. But if you sit down and go, “I want to do a zip line, I want to see the rainforest, I want to go to beautiful beaches, I want to go to a national park, I want to have Chinese food and Indian food and services, I want medical care, I want flights, I want accessibility, I want a local population so that everything isn’t just me and 850 people from LA or Chicago — I want to feel local community and do local, rural tourism” — all of that, you can do here.
So, talking about what I see the future of Manuel Antonio being — I think it continues to evolve. The prime areas are going to continue to evolve to be more and more exclusive, just like happened in Aspen, just like happened in Telluride, just like happens in all of these kind of frontier markets. And I think the surrounding areas are now starting to grow up.
One of our busiest marketplaces here, Richard, is — we used to never sell land on the outskirts of Quepos. But towns like Naranjito and Villa Nueva, which are 15 to 20 minutes outside of town, are now where I’m seeing 30 to 40% of our market volume taking place. Because people say, “Look, this is the epicenter I want to live by — I can’t afford to live on the hill, but I want to live in this community.” So we see a lot of growth there.
Torn Down to the Studs: The Remodel That Tripled in Value
Richard Bexon
Yeah, I mean, look, it’s amazing how that area is growing — everyone just keeps talking about it, all those areas, man. And I think for a lot of people, if you’re living here, Manuel Antonio can be very busy at times, if that makes sense, and you kind of want to calm down, or choose when you go in and when you don’t. But based on the listings you currently have at the moment, what opportunities do you think are out there — and what’s being overlooked, do you think, Scott?
Scott Cutter
Well, again — and I’m going to be a broken record with this, Richard — I think the first thing smart investors need to do is identify their investment goals. The biggest mistake is everybody wants their cake and to eat it too: a beautiful house, a super cheap price, a fire-sale deal, super good ROI, nice finishes, in the best area of town. Well, so do I — and if I find one of those, I’m going to buy it. And I’ll sell it to you at a 30% markup on what I paid.
But that stuff — I don’t want to say it doesn’t exist, but it’s really difficult to come across. And I think the people who are super smart identify what their primary goal is: personal use, high ROI, a combination, eventual retirement. What’s super important to them — I think those people find the right options.
We have a listing in Manuel Antonio right now that’s expensive per meter, but is a powerhouse rental property, managed by an unbelievable tourism and travel industry team. If you look at it by the numbers, it’s a non-view house listed at a million and a half dollars, but if you look at it from an ease-of-ownership standpoint, it’s a hands-free, passive, nine-to-eleven-percent-return ROI property where everything’s taken care of for you. So it’s an easy place to have luxury living in the heart of Manuel Antonio — while you’re not getting a view, and you’re not stealing the property at a discount, you’re getting an easy-to-own asset that’s going to perform in a proven area.
Now, someone who’s harping to me, “Scott, I want to buy something, I’ve got to get a great deal” — that’s not the property for them, because they’re looking at it through a different lens. If you ask me about opportunities, I think one of the biggest missed spaces here — and it takes work to unlock — is, I don’t want to say “B-grade,” but overlooked properties in prime areas, where it’s not the sexiest property but it’s in the right location. One of the general rules of real estate: you want to have the cheapest home on the most expensive block.
So whether you’re looking at a remodel, or land down a dirt road that’s two minutes away from everything special — I think that if people can get over the ego of “I’m not in that perfectly located community,” I still think in Manuel Antonio I’ve got opportunities that I look at, that I’m investing in, that I look for with clients, where you go, “Wow, there’s real upside here” — if somebody has either the vision, or the wherewithal, to build, or to go into older homes that are in great areas that need to be torn down, renovated, or stripped to the studs and redone. And I think those opportunities, Richard, exist at almost every price point.
I’ll give you an anecdote of a client of mine — another guy who asked, “Am I getting a good deal?” I said, “No,” but he bought a $2.2 million home a couple of years ago now. He had to strip it to the studs — it was horrible design, solid concrete construction, but a hard design, a hard layout, hard finishes. He probably spent a million and a half dollars on a remodel. It was a home that had been for sale for five years with no offers, overpriced. He bought that home, spent a million and a half dollars on it — it’s probably worth six and a half, seven million dollars today. He was a guy who just looked at it and said, “This is a valuable piece of real estate,” and looked at the ten-year cycle of Manuel Antonio and said, “I’m going to buy the right location, and I’m willing to put in the work to unlock its potential, and then let the market do its thing.”
Richard Bexon
Look, I mean, I think — I’m pretty sure Quiet Rome said it on this show — I think Manuel Antonio is one of the strongest destinations in the country. I know it because I know the hotels’ numbers, and I know, again, our development numbers, and I can just see it in the national park entries. But it’s amazing what you say about remodels, because we’re actually doing two of them for clients at the moment — there is a lot of value in it. We’re doing a beachfront one in Jacó at the moment. We’re doing one up here in the city where they were able to get the house at a good price, and we’ve just gone in and — actually, the broker the other day was like, “Richard, what have you done? You’ve torn the house down and taken the roof off.” We were like, well, the client wanted an extra meter in his ceiling, so we needed to raise the house, if that makes sense. And she was like, “That’s nuts.” And I was like, look, we tell the client what it is and what the cost is, and then they make their decision.
The Mortgage Shift That Could Reshape Costa Rica Real Estate
Scott Cutter
Well, and sometimes, again, in the short term — I think that’s where a lot of times investors, realtors, guides tend to be overly myopic, and they tend to say, “Well, that’s crazy to build.” And it doesn’t mean you can build anything and it always comes true — you need to be grounded, and you need to make sure you don’t build the right house in the wrong area. That’s the most common mistake. But if you always go back to the fundamentals — if you’re in the right area, and you’re committed to more than just a very short-term business model, and you have the financial wherewithal to do that, because it takes staying power — the reality is, in these prime areas, you’re hard-pressed to go wrong, because we are going to see, both, the growth of Costa Rica, but I also think and feel very strongly about this: we’re already seeing the impact of more readily available financing, and how that’s going to change the market.
It’s still not cheap enough to where we’re going to operate like the United States. But there are a couple of big factors taking place in the real estate world here that, when I look 10, 20 years out, get me incredibly bullish everywhere in Costa Rica. Those factors are: A, there’s an MLS system evolving in Costa Rica — more and more people are adopting it, we’re getting into more regulation in real estate, which means there’s going to be more and more data available. So instead of everybody’s own websites out there, the Omni MLS is taking a big, big stake in Guanacaste — they probably have a 70 to 75% absorption rate there. It’s growing in the Southern Zone, I hope, and we’ll continue to push for it to grow more, because it’s in everybody’s best interest — now we start to have real data that people can understand and look at market trends and understand sales volumes, which will help everybody.
And most importantly, that data set — transparency in the registro, all that information coming that we never had before — combined with international lending companies, Second Street coming into Costa Rica, Volo coming into Costa Rica, the private banks in Costa Rica looking actively — the lenders trying to get into the lending market are still very much in their infancy stages. We’re really five years into them trying to figure out how do we qualify foreign buyers, how do we value and appraise properties.
But I don’t think a lot of investors understand that all of our growth and market status to date has really been revolving around a cash marketplace. When you start to think about the impact — and again, it’s not going to happen in 2027, it’s not going to magically be like, “Oh my God, the barn doors fell off, there’s $8 billion of capital for 30-year mortgages in Costa Rica” — but the fact that we’re signing deals… I’ve closed, in my first 25 years in real estate, one transaction that involved a bank. And in the past three months, we’ve closed eight transactions that involved loans for buyers. That’s only going to get bigger and bigger, as those lenders start to make money, as there becomes more competition between those lenders, as interest rates stateside eventually settle — they’re probably going to go up a couple more times this year, but they’ll eventually come back and settle down.
We’re going to see a combination of data sets around real estate evolving that give banks, buyers, realtors, and investors a lot more confidence. You’re going to have the brand of Costa Rica growing, and you’re going to have capital going, “Wait a minute, this is a place where it’s no longer risky to lend, because we understand it from the data.” When those things come together, the value appreciation that’s going to take place here is going to be off the charts again, I think.
Scott’s $500K Move: Where He’d Put It Right Now
Richard Bexon
I agree with you, Scott. I mean, I’m always excited about Costa Rica, but I’m even more excited at the moment about where we’re going, and that smarter money is coming to the country — smarter people as well. So the tide continues to rise. Well, Scott, my last question for you is — I’ve kept you long enough, sir — you inherited $500,000. You have to invest it into a business or real estate in Costa Rica. What would you invest it in, and why?
Scott Cutter
I would buy land in the Manuel Antonio proper area and build rental and resale properties. And why would I do that? Because it’s a formula that’s been done — everyone that’s done it is making money. And it doesn’t have to be the hugest house, it doesn’t have to have the best view. You need land in this marketplace, and then you need to build something sensible and stylish. I won’t say that anything you build will rent — even though we see some very low-performing rental properties — but anything built nice here, stylish here, with quality design, will rent and resell almost immediately.
Richard Bexon
Awesome. I think that’s — I think, look, I think that’s very, very — I mean, I did it, Scott, so, yeah, I completely understand. Well, it’s been an absolute pleasure having you here on the podcast. Again, thank you very much for your time. Anyone that wants to get in contact with Scott, I’ll put all of his contact details in the description — but appreciate you taking time out of what I know is a very busy day for you.
Scott Cutter
My pleasure. We’ll talk to you in a hundred casts.
Richard Bexon
Sounds good, bud. Hey, guys — one of my favorite guests there, Scott. Again, I just think he has a way of expressing stuff, but also just a visibility and knowledge set of Costa Rica that not many people have, just because, again, he has offices all over the country and sees all the data. And I’m always excited about Costa Rica — it’s why I’ve been here for 20-plus years and will continue to ride this wave. But I’m even more excited now than I was last year, than I was five years ago, than I was ten years ago, about everything that’s happening here. This country is really developing at such a great pace, and not tripping over itself, if that makes sense — not getting ahead of its skis. But yeah, I think it should be on most people’s radar, and they should definitely be looking at it.
But again, there is some bias from me, but I’m heavily invested in this country and will continue to be, especially as it continues to bring in the tourists that it has, and create those average daily rates and returns for investors.
But anyone that wants to get in contact with us, that needs any help with anything, or just advice, access to our Rolodex, anything you need, guys — we’re suckers for helping people, it doesn’t matter what it is. Info@InvestingCostaRica.com. Info@InvestingCostaRica.com.
I actually had someone ask me the other day about wood-plastic composite, and I have a lot of experience with that, so I gave them some contacts there and the best places to get it — we’ve used different providers, so we know which ones are good ones and bad ones. Again, we build about 15 to 20 homes a year, we do a lot of commercial real estate and actual building as well, we also do property management, we do investment advising, we represent people — so kind of everything from start to finish. There’s not much that we don’t do in this country, guys.
So again, info@InvestingCostaRica.com. But until the next podcast — appreciate your time, and have a good week. Bye.
Voiceover
The number one Costa Rica real estate and investment podcast, bringing you experts from all over Costa Rica.
