If you have traveled through Paseo Colon and its surrounding neighborhoods in San Jose over the last few years,it can be safely assumed that you’ve seen the proliferation of condominium towers. Along with gated communities and planned developments, high-rise residential solutions are essentially the future of housing in Costa Rica. Like them or not, demand and acceptance have been high for these residences.

 

Andres Zamora is the President of the Costa Rican Chamber of Real Estate Brokers. He spoke to online news daily CRHoy.com back in February about the growth of high-rise condominiums in Costa Rica:

 

If we look at a photograph of Costa Rica 20 years ago and compare it to a photograph taken today, we are going to be surprised because everything has changed so much. Now we have a lot of new buildings that we did not have before, and no one is going to stop this; it will keep growing because [condominiums] are actually reasonable options now that buying a single-family home on a big lot has gotten so expensive. The lifestyle has changed and now people are working longer hours and going home just to sleep; we used to enjoy our homes a lot more in the past.

 

Expanding on his comment above, Mr. Zamora explains that the high cost of land in Costa Rica and the desire of families to live closer to their jobs as well as to amenities and suburban comforts have promoted a positive image for condos in Costa Rica:

 

When you build vertically, you are making better use of land. In terms of environmental impact, it is not the same to build 20 or 50 detached single-family homes than to build a 50-story condominium.

 

In the opinion of Olman Vargas, executive director of the Board of Civil Engineers and Architects, vertical housing solutions will keep their current pace of expansion in the short-term:

 

We think that the next few years will be busy for condo development, and there will be higher demand. [Ten years ago these] condos were meant for wealthy home buyers or perhaps foreign investors. However, a little over a year ago we started seeing demand from the middle class and now we have units priced around 40 and 60 million colones (between $73K and $110K at today’s exchange rate).

 

So now we are seeing high-rise condos going up in Curridabat, Desamparados and even Hatillo. Demand is indeed high: The Chamber of Real Estate Brokers reported that 3,133 units were purchased in San Jose, Escazu and Santa Ana during 2013. This is just in the Central Valley; towers are also going up in Jaco Beach, Guanacaste, and Limon.