Title, cadastral plan and land use

Titled land is not the only kind of land sold here

The most expensive mistake in Costa Rican real estate is not overpaying. It is buying something that is not titled property and finding out later.

Titled land, finca inscrita, is registered at the Registro Nacional under a folio real number. Ownership is a matter of public record, it can be mortgaged, insured and sold, and a title search will show you everything attached to it.

Derecho de posesión, possession rights, is occupation without registered title. It is real in the sense that it exists in Costa Rican law and people trade it, and it is not ownership. It cannot be mortgaged easily, it is much harder to sell on, and it can be contested. It sells at a large discount for a reason, and buyers from abroad are routinely offered it without the distinction being spelled out.

A concession is a lease of public land in the maritime zone, discussed in the guide for foreign buyers. Shares in a corporation that owns a farm is a fourth thing again: legitimate, common, and only as good as the corporation's own books, which you should have examined before you buy the shares.

Everything on this site is finca inscrita. Ask the question anywhere else, and ask for the folio real number rather than a yes.

The plano catastrado

The cadastral plan is the registered survey of the parcel: shape, dimensions, area, boundaries, and a plan number issued by the Catastro Nacional. It is what the deed refers to and it is what a court would look at in a boundary dispute.

Check that the plan exists, that its number is registered and current, and that its area matches the area on the folio real. On older farms these disagree more often than you would expect, and the fix is a new survey rather than an argument.

Also check that the plan shows access to a public road. A parcel with no legal access is landlocked, and while an easement can be created, it needs the neighbour's registered agreement, not their goodwill.

The certificado de uso de suelo

This is the municipality telling you what may legally be done on that specific parcel: residential, agricultural, commercial, tourism, mixed, or nothing at all. It is issued by the municipality where the land sits, it is cheap, and it takes days.

It matters more than most buyers realise. A parcel zoned agricultural may not permit the house you are imagining. A parcel zoned residential may not permit the rental cabins. Setbacks from rivers and streams are enforced and can remove a surprising amount of usable area, and land above certain slopes cannot be built on at all.

Get the certificate for the specific parcel, in writing, before you sign. A developer telling you what the zoning is, even honestly, is not the same document.

What a title search shows you

Mortgages and liens. Judicial annotations, which are the marks left by an ongoing dispute. Easements, including the utility ones that may cross exactly where you wanted the house. Usufructs, which give somebody else the right to use the land while you own it. Inheritance annotations, which can freeze a sale for a long time.

It also shows the registered owner, which sounds too obvious to check until you meet somebody selling their brother in law's farm.