Maritime Zone Concessions in Costa Rica

Nobody owns the beach

The first two hundred metres inland from the ordinary high tide line is the zona maritimo terrestre, governed by Ley 6043. It is state property. It cannot be titled, it cannot be bought, and no amount of time spent living on it turns into ownership.

That strip is split in two. The first fifty metres from the high tide line is the zona publica: public, inalienable, open to everyone, and closed to private building except for works the state authorises. The remaining hundred and fifty metres is the zona restringida, and that is where concessions live. Mangroves count as public zone regardless of how far inland they reach, which catches out more buyers on this coast than any other rule in the law.

A concession is a right to use, not a right to own

A concession is granted by the municipality with the approval of the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo, for a term of no less than five and no more than twenty years. It is registered in the section of the Registro Nacional kept for concessions rather than in the ordinary property registry. You hold it, you build on it within what the zoning allows, you pay an annual canon to the municipality in place of property tax, and at the end of the term you apply to extend.

Extensions are normally granted for up to the same period again, provided the holder is current on the canon and has met the obligations of the concession. The word normally is doing real work in that sentence. A concession that is behind on payment, or that has been built on beyond what was approved, arrives at renewal in a far weaker position than its holder expects.

Who is allowed to hold one

Article 47 of Ley 6043 rules out a list of holders, and the list catches a large share of foreign buyers:

• Foreigners who have not been legally resident in Costa Rica for at least five years
• Companies with bearer shares
• Companies domiciled outside Costa Rica
• Entities made up entirely of foreigners
• Entities in which foreigners hold more than fifty per cent of the capital

This is the rule that shapes every concession deal on this coast, and it is the rule most often worked around badly. Arrangements that put a Costa Rican name on the paperwork while a foreign buyer holds the real economic interest are common, are visible to the municipality, and have become considerably more visible since beneficial ownership began being recorded centrally. A structure built to look compliant rather than to be compliant is a liability that surfaces at renewal or at resale, which is precisely when you have the least room to fix it.

No plan regulador, no concession

Under article 38 a municipality cannot grant concessions in an area until the zoning plan for that stretch of coast has been approved. The plan regulador decides what the land may be used for, whether tourism, residential or commercial, and what may be built on it. Coverage along the Guanacaste coast is uneven: some districts have current plans, some have plans that lapsed, some never had one at all. Land that cannot lawfully be granted a concession is still bought and sold, usually on the strength of an application that has been pending for years.

The question to ask about a concession parcel is not what the seller intends to build on it. It is whether the plan regulador for that stretch is approved and in force, and which use category the parcel falls into under it.

You cannot simply sell it

Article 45 prohibits assigning or transferring a concession without the express authorisation of both the municipality and the ICT, and acts done without that authorisation have no validity. In practice a concession sale is not a closing in the ordinary sense. It is an application, and both the price and the timetable have to survive the wait. Deals structured as a share transfer in the company that holds the concession are common, and they are not automatically a way around article 45: the municipality is entitled to look at who ends up controlling the concession.

What due diligence on concession land actually covers

A registry study of the kind done on a titled property will not tell you what you need to know here. On concession land we check:

• That the concession exists, is registered, and names the party actually selling
• The remaining term and the renewal history
• Whether the canon is current, and what it is assessed on
• The approved plan regulador for that stretch and the use category of the parcel
• Where the fifty-metre public zone falls against the buildings already there
• Whether mangrove or protected area overlaps the parcel
• What was built, when, and whether it matches what the municipality approved
• Whether the current holder would still qualify under article 47 today, and whether the buyer will
• Any municipal proceedings, sanctions or demolition orders on file
• Whether the parcel is inside the maritime zone at all, which is not always obvious from a plano

That last one matters more than it sounds. A property can sit partly inside and partly outside the two-hundred-metre strip, with a titled portion behind and a concession portion in front, offered for sale as a single thing. The two halves run on completely different rules, and only one of them is ever yours.

Buildings that were already standing

Costa Rica has legislated more than once to deal with structures put up in the restricted zone before or outside the concession regime, including Ley 9242 on regularising existing construction and Ley 9221 on declaring urban coastal zones, both later amended by Ley 9408. Whether a particular building falls inside one of those regimes is a question about that building, that district and the dates involved. It is worth answering before you buy rather than after.

Where this comes up in Guanacaste

Most of the coastline we work on has concession land on it, and the grantor changes with the canton. Around Playas del Coco, Ocotal, Hermosa and Panama it is the Municipalidad de Carrillo. Tamarindo, Flamingo, Potrero, Brasilito and Conchal fall under Santa Cruz. Nosara and Samara are Nicoya. Each municipality runs its own plan regulador and its own practice, so the answer to whether you can build a particular thing genuinely differs between two beaches forty minutes apart.

What we handle on maritime zone matters

• Concession due diligence before a purchase
• New concession applications and the paperwork behind them
• Renewals and extensions, including late ones
• Assignments and transfers through the municipality and the ICT
• Ownership structures that satisfy article 47 rather than appear to
• Disputes with a municipality over canon, use or sanctions
• Demolition orders and municipal proceedings in the restricted zone
• Boundary questions where titled land meets concession land
• Plan regulador questions and use-category challenges
• Developments and condominium projects that sit partly in the maritime zone
• Administrative litigation when the municipality gets it wrong
• Succession where a concession holder dies and the heirs may not qualify

Common questions about concession land

Can a foreigner own beachfront property in Costa Rica?

Not inside the maritime zone, because nobody owns it. Within the restricted zone you can hold a concession, but article 47 of Ley 6043 rules out foreigners with fewer than five years of legal residency, and entities where foreigners hold more than half the capital. Titled beachfront does exist in Costa Rica, but it is the exception and it predates the law.

How long does a concession last?

Between five and twenty years, fixed when it is granted. Extensions can be requested for up to the same period again, provided the canon is current and the obligations of the concession have been met.

What happens if I stop paying the canon?

It puts the concession at risk. The canon replaces property tax and is the basis of the relationship with the municipality. Arrears are among the first things checked at renewal and among the easiest grounds for the municipality to act on.

The seller says the concession is in process. Should I buy?

Treat a pending application as a pending application. It is not a concession, it may depend on a plan regulador that has not been approved, and the applicant may not qualify. Either price and structure the deal for the possibility that it never completes, or wait until it does.

Can I put the concession in my Costa Rican company?

Only if the company itself qualifies: no bearer shares, domiciled in Costa Rica, and not more than fifty per cent foreign capital. Beneficial ownership is recorded and visible now, so a company that satisfies the rule only on its face is a risk rather than a solution.

Is Santa Teresa concession land too?

Much of that coast is, yes. But Santa Teresa and Mal Pais sit in the district of Cobano, canton of Puntarenas, so the municipality that grants and supervises the concession is a different one, and matters there are heard in the Puntarenas circuit rather than the Guanacaste courts.

Related pages

• Real estate and due diligence
• Agrarian law and land possession
• Where we work

Informacion general, no constituye asesoria legal. / General information, not legal advice. Case accounts on this site are anonymized and published with consent. Past results do not guarantee a future outcome.