Costa Rican residential real estate development financing

[jzupan]

We are an investment group in the United States and are looking at a residential condo project in Costa Rica.  Where would we go for financing construction of such a project?  Are there Costa Rican banks that lend for real estate development projects, or would we need to use foreign banks? 

Any guidance/advice would be appreciated.

Joe

[Russ]

Hi Joe, thank you for visiting.  Banks will finance purchases for people purchasing from the developer, but the terms for loaning to developers in the initial phases are very poor.  If some one is looking to buy property in a project, it is a good sign that a bank will finance their purchase. So it will be good for you to form relationships in that way. 

But for financing the development of your condos private sources will be best.  If you can get a foreign bank to back you that would be good, I am not sure how possible that is. 

[Jogi]

Costa Rica and the Banks are on the move now and it looks like they are waking up to provide a more hassle free and easier financing method as currently. The interest is still high compared to the US or Europe.
It is hard to give you a good advise as it could be different within one or two weeks, we have met with about 4 different banks within the last 2 months and they are all preparing themselves and coming up with all kinds of new programs like  financiamiento sin estres, vivienda touristica etc. One bank presented a setup for developers and investers, with a mortgage broker and trusty involved as well as an escrow service, it looks good so far. I recommend you contact them yourself. Some of the Banks are Sociabank, Banex, Cuscatlan, Interfin, BAC, Banco de Costa Rica, Banco Nacional, Banco de San Jose, the underlined are more active for financing solutions.

Good luck

[Stan]

I live on Banderas Beach. One of the people that is involved said I could go to Banex for an Individual loan because he applied there to help with his subdivision and they will also finance his buyers.