Costa Rica Expertise LLC

Overbuilding, speculation begin to take toll

By Garland M. Baker
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

The five-year real estate sales boom is winding down fast in the United States. Costa Rica’s real estate market is slowing too. Skyrocketing property values may be a thing of the past there and here.

Many speculators in the United States are now walking away from their deposits or trying to wiggle out of their contracts and losing substantial money in the process. Others are stuck with their investments because they did not see the reversal coming.

As home equities soared up north, many owners borrowed heavily against their holding there to buy property in Costa Rica. Usually this is the case in fast moving markets. People get overconfident and borrow, margin, or otherwise overextend themselves to chase increasing values.

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Officials decline to act on suspect document

By Garland M. Baker
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

The supposedly secure property records at the Registro Nacional are under daily attack. Computers make up what amounts to a virtual vault, securely holding titles to trillions of dollars of Costa Rican properties. Paperwork and other computers are the attackers commanded by crooks stealing the assets of others.

The thieves are smart and know how to beat the honest out of assets in a fell swoop. They use the weaknesses of the registro to their advantage. The over-burdened organization’s computers collapse under pressure almost on a daily basis. There are those who work there willing to risk their career for a fast buck.

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