The phenomenon is concentrated on the Pacific coast in Guanacaste with buyers mainly being foreigners and locals from the upper middle class.
The area of Tamarindo in Guanacaste's Gold Coast leads sales in 2014 in the real estate market in Costa Rica, helped by the increasing preference of investors for enclosed coastal districts, first class tourist infrastructure with beaches near to Liberia International Airport, and legal certainty for investment in properties.
Panama, Belize and Nicaragua are competing with Costa Rica and Mexico in trying to attract retirees from the U.S. and Canada.
All of these countries are offering residency packages and tax exemptions at rates similar to those granted by Costa Rica. For example, in Nicaragua there is a law which provides advantages for retirees on items ranging from cars to building materials.
Although the country has all the potential for attracting foreign retired people to be residents, the government effort begun three years ago has not had any continuity.
"There has never been a public institution interested in following through on the effort," laments Massimo Manzi, director of Promed.
"The sectors interested in investing in projects to attract retirees argue that to do so, you need the support of organizations such as the Ministry of Finance, (to revive foreign incentives and tax benefits for importing materials) as well as the Ministry of Health, the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism and Ministry of Commerce, so as to promote the image of the country as a potential destination for that segment and attract more foreign investment to the aforementioned niche", reported Eleconomista.net review. However, there are currently no projects focused on attracting retirees.
Even though it has a Promotion Act for the arrival of 'rentistas' and pensioners, Nicaragua has failed to attract such investment on a large scale.
In Costa Rica, for example, it is a business that is booming, with the main attraction being that it has the fourth most prestigious healthcare system in Latin America.
According to Leonardo Torres, president of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Small and Medium Tourism Businesses (Cantur), this is key for retirees, as they are mostly elderly, with chronic illnesses. And not being able to be treated in the United States, for example, because the cost of medical care is high, they look abroad for more accessible systems.
PRONicaragua and Intur are promoting the country as an attractive destination for U.S. retirees.
A fair named "Nicaragua: A Paradise Within your Grasp", presented 14 touristic development projects to 24.000 visitors over the age of 50.
"The featured projects were: Montecristo, Gran Pacífica, Guacalito de la Isla, Rancho Santana, La Talanguera, El Encanto del Sur, Parque Marítimo El Coco, Barceló Montelimar, Hacienda Iguana, Colinas de San Juan, Laguna Sol, Remax de Nicaragua, Desarrollos Sooner y Hotel Seminole", reported Elnuevodiario.com.ni.