Hmmm. Doesn't seem to me that buying land in the middle of the rain forest, building a house on it, and then creating road access through the wilderness to get to it really qualifies as doing your "ecological part." But perhaps I'm too much of a cynic.
Save the Rain Forest and Make Money Doing It
Photo: Ardyiii
Looking for something a bit more exotic when you retire? Do tropical rain forests, cheap living and great organic coffee fit into your long range plan? If you are looking to live well and select sustainable investments as part of your portfolio, Costa Rica might be just the place for you.
For those of you who have yet to travel there, let me assure you of the following: As a country, Costa Rica rocks. If extreme nature environments are your thing, you will seriously enjoy it there. Volcanoes, cloud forests, beaches, remote waterfalls, sea turtles, hot springs . . . I could keep going, but I think you get the picture. Bonus? The cost of living is relatively cheap. Extra bonus? The government has tons of beneficial programs for investors and retirees. One of them is the Ministry of Environment and Energy's Program of Environmental Service Payments, otherwise known as PSA.
What does this mean for you? You can help sustain the rainforest, have a great place to live and GET PAID to do it. Wanna know more? Here are the highlights:
- The PSA contracts run for five years.
- The pay rate is sixty-four dollars per hectare, per year.
- Changes in land usage, such as to agriculture or timber are not allowed. However, you are allowed to build a home and certain low impact eco-tourism projects are permitted as well. (Tree bar, anyone?)
- Extra perks? Participation in this program exempts the owner from local property taxes and national taxes on corporate assets, since most people make these purchases through a corporation.
- Point of information? Payments through this program are annual, so you'll want to make sure you have other monthly sources of passive income.
The key to making this profitable? Getting a great price up front. The cheaper tracts of rain forest are often the ones without road access. When we flew down to check this out a few years ago, putting in road access was a simple way to double or more the value of your land. And of course, there's the standard land appreciation of a conservative five percent. I asked my contact at Tucan Realty, who specializes in this sort of thing, for a simple breakdown. Here it is: Three hundred hectares purchased at a thousand dollars per hectare and put into the PSA program will produce an annual income of $19,200.00, or an ROI of 6.4%. Add in the other tax and land appreciation elements and you're cooking with gas.
In a nutshell, investors looking for a personal nature retreat, wanting to do their ecological part, and hoping for a bit of passive income at the same time should find this program worthy of review. A special thanks to Tucan Realty for supplying data and resource documents for this article.
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You mean compared to buying it and leveling it for a cattle farm to raise beef for fast food joints here in the states? It's all relative, but that's just my opinion.
A road and a house on an enormous track of forest versus wiping out the forest altogether seems to be a better bet from where I'm standing. But then again, that's only my opinion.
how much would that plot of land in the example be? I LOVE COSTA RICA and would LOVE ot own and then live there!
Amanda, it would be three hundred thousand. Plus the cost of house and land. However, if that is more than you want to spend, there are other very frugal options to move there, and Dale at Tucan Realty is AWESOME. He took such great care of us down there and showed us many many options and included business plans for properties with potential since he has a background in third world economic development. So if large tracts of forest aren't your thing, there are other perks for helping out with tourist B & B's for example, or tilapia farming, or any number of other things. Geeze, it looks like I need to do a mini series of articles, don't I?
As someone who lived and owned a business in Costa Rica (2003-2007), not a tourist on vacation, you should be very careful before investing in Costa Rica.
In fact, I sadly recommend, that you don't invest in Costa Rica. When I arrived in Costa Rica, the country was as the author described, when I left it was a crime infested hell-hole.
The biggest thieves, were the real estate agents, and the lawyers. Ripping off un-suspecting Americans, destroying the rainforest, and damaging the society.
I created a blog to warn my fellow Americans of the dangers they face in Costa Rica:
http://www.bananatreehotel.com/costarica
Real estate values have dropped 40% in the past year, armed robberies, home invasion robberies, crime and corruption has exploded. There has been an exodus of Americans, many of them my friends, leaving Costa Rica.
Sorry to be a downer, but I have witnessed too many Americans, being lied to and robbed by fellow Americans and Costa Ricans.
Sorry to hear that.
We were very pleased with what we saw when we were there, and in fact our vet in the town we just moved from has two different family members living in Costa Rica, both with businesses doing well. And we met a few other folks while we were there who were very excited with their situation in-country, so to speak. Now, we were there 2-3 years ago, but if the property values have dropped, this would be a good time to go there and get in on the values that were available years ago.
The crime . . . well, I have to say San Jose was not my favorite city, but the outerlying nature areas we went to were quite pleasant. Were your friends in San Jose?
Very interesting article. I've heard Costa Rica isn't all it's cracked up to be, but I'll have to keep this general concept in mind. Perhaps other countries have or will have such opportunities.
(Side note: I've bitten my tongue for months, but personally, I find your use of question marks in place of colons to be incredibly distracting.)
We don't know anyone in Costa Rica who hasn't been robbed - at least once. Us twice, one woman three times, and another five times. She finally went to the crack dealers down the street, and begged them to stop, she got robbed again.
Another woman, had her dog kidnapped, she paid off the dognappers. The following week her dog got dognapped again.
Americans are ripping off fellow Americans left and right. It's how they support themselves in Costa Rica. Our neighbor lost $25,000 in a bogus jet-ski business to another American.
There's a joke in Costa Rica "People live behind bars while the criminals roam free." And there is a reason why you see Rottweilers chained to people's front doors.
A look at today's Tico Times, Costa Rica's daily english newspaper, says everything. Two headlines, one about crime, and the other about an American mega-development that is destroying the environment and causing poor locals to lose drinking water.
I don't regret my experience in Costa Rica, my efforts at saving the society and environment, led to the development of Green Retirement. However, I feel a sense of duty, to be honest.
When I owned a small hotel in Costa Rica, at least a hundred American guests asked me the same thing, "Where should I buy property in Costa Rica?" I told them all the same thing, "Sell your house in America, before you even think about buying a house in Costa Rica, the U.S. housing market is going to collapse." They all thought I was a fool, grinned an embarassed gring, and walked away.
It's over for Costa Rica. Lo ciento pero - No Mas.
Why would she use colons when she's asking a question? I've never been very good with punctuation, but I thought a question ended with a question mark.
Doesn't it:
I enjoyed learning about the concept of minimal development vs. major development -- that has implications not just in the rainforest but worldwide and in my neighborhood. Now that I think of it, I remember hearing someone on the town planning board near me talk about limiting density in order to preserve land; here it may favor the wealthier but it doesn't have to.
I love your use of ? btw. It makes me feel that you are anticipating reasonable questions and responding to them, just as if we are having a conversation. And, though I didn't realize it until after I wrote my post on cheap/free things to do in Winston-salem, I copied part of your style by mentioning "bonus" items.
