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An Interesting Alternative
Soaring real estate prices in America’s Sun Belt region, particularly California and Florida, have begun, over the last few years, to open the doors for investors and retirees to consider off-shore locations – most notably in Costa Rica. In some areas, property is found to be 50 to 70% less expensive than comparable property in the United States. There have been plenty of cases, throughout the last decade, where Costa Rican property values have doubled or even tripled.
In addition to the increasing ranks of baby boomers that are discovering the attractiveness of life and investment in Costa Rica, many other age groups have joined the movement of northerners to this jewel in Central America. They, too, appreciate the scenic wonders, lower cost of living, yet high standards of living, along with attractive investment potential.
Who Is Investing in Costa Rica?
Large corporations like Microsoft, GE, Intel, Abbot Labs, Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Motorola and Gerber have discovered Costa Rica’s investment-friendly climate and pro-US policies in regard to financial security and tax laws. Their in-country investments have included both production and distribution facilities. Other high-tech companies are also considering the safe political environment and overall economic health of Costa Rica and are in the process of joining in.
Intel has invested over $700 million in Costa Rica, employing over 2,900 people and over 2,000 indirect workers. Intel has stated that among their reasons for selecting Costa Rica were its highly educated workforce and political stability. Electronics is now Costa Rica's largest export and the industry employs 12,000 and exports US$1.65 billion in products a year.
Well funded international corporations continue to expand, creating high paying jobs while improving the country’s infrastructure, resulting in an increasingly beautiful paradise. No doubt Intel carefully considered their decision to start operations in Costa Rica.
Many other multinational companies such as Lucent, Bristol Myers, Chiquita Brands, Esso, Texaco, 3M, UPS, DHL, Gillette, Warner Lambert, Xerox, Johnson & Johnson, SC Johnson, Sherwin Williams, Sony Music, Pfizer, Kimberly Clark, Manpower, Dole Fresh Fruit, Colgate Palmolive, LL Bean, Alcatel, BASF, KPMG, Price Waterhouse, Deloitte & Touche, Oracle, , Unisys and Cisco Systems have made large investments in Costa Rica.
In addition, celebrities including Mel Gibson (purchased $25 million in real estate in May 2007), Michael Jordan, Pamela Anderson, Woody Harrelson to name just a few have also purchased land in Costa Rica. Visitors to Costa Rica in 2007 include, Vince Vaughn, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Danny DeVito.
And the latest entrant to the Costa Rican real estate market is Wall Street's Henry Kaufman, famous since 1957 when he took over the largest bond specialist unit of the New York Stock Exchange.
Hewlett Packard (HP) began operations in Costa Rica in 2003 with a mere 123 employees. As of 2010, they are the second largest private employer in Costa Rica with 6,500 employees. Arturo Velasco, Director General confirmed that HP invested $40 million in Costa Rica in the last year and plans to hire another 2,000 employees in the next two years.
On July 20th, 2010 HP announced within the next three months they will have 89 national
engineers in their Research and Development Center (Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo) in Heredia who will begin to design highly complex chips for use in wireless networks.
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Nearly 80 million Baby Boomers began retiring in 2006.
