Costa Rica Closing Costs, Itemised: What the 3.5% Figure Leaves Out

My Guanacaste Real Estate · CELAFI-Certified Buyer Advisory · Updated August 25, 2026

Last reviewed August 2026. Every rate here is quoted from the statute or the decree that sets it. Where a fee is quoted rather than legislated, we say so and tell you what to ask for instead of publishing an average.

Ask what closing costs run in Costa Rica and you will be told “three and a half to five per cent.” That is broadly right and almost useless, because it is the part of the bill that gets quoted and not the part that surprises people.

The transfer tax and the registry fees are known quantities, set by statute, and you can check them yourself. What lands unexpectedly is the value-added tax on professional services, the notary fee that turns out to be a legal minimum rather than a quote, and an exemption most buyers never hear about.

This is the bill itemised, with every rate traced to the instrument that sets it, a worked example, and an honest account of which lines are actually negotiable.

Method
Every percentage in this article is traced to the law or decree that sets it, and linked at the point of use, so you can check it rather than take our word. Colon amounts are converted at ¢450.46 per US dollar, the Central Bank weighted average for 21 August 2026, which is the same rate used in our main buying guide so the two agree. Where a cost is quoted by a professional rather than set by statute — escrow, legal work beyond the deed, due diligence — we do not publish a range, because those are negotiated per transaction and an average would mislead you.

The transfer tax, and the exemption almost nobody claims

The transfer tax is 1.5%, set by article 8 of Ley 6999, and the base is the real transaction value, never lower than the highest registered value. What most buyers never hear is that a 2021 law grants qualifying investors, rentistas and pensionados a twenty per cent exemption on that tax, held for ten years. If you are buying and intend to reside here, raise it before closing rather than after.

Ley 6999 sets the rate at 1.5% in article 8, and article 7 defines the taxable base. The base is the point buyers get wrong: it is the real transaction value and it is never lower than the highest value already registered against the property.

On the suggestion to declare a lower price on the deed. It is occasionally floated as a way to reduce this line. It is tax fraud, it exposes both parties, and it creates a second problem you pay for later: when you sell, your gain is measured from that artificially low recorded basis. You would be buying a small saving now with a larger bill at exit.

The exemption, which is the reason to read this section twice

When Ley 9996 was signed, the tourism institute set out what it grants: a package of benefits for qualifying investors, rentistas and pensionados, held por un plazo de 10 años a partir de la fecha en que les fueron otorgados. Among them is a twenty per cent exemption on the property transfer tax for real estate acquisitions.

The investor route requires demonstrating to the immigration authority una inversión mínima de $150 000 en bienes inmuebles, bienes inscribibles, acciones, valores y proyectos productivos o proyectos de interés nacional — and the investment may be in the real property itself.

Twenty per cent of 1.5% is 0.3% of the price. On a US$450,000 purchase that is US$1,350, which is not life-changing and is also not nothing, and it recurs on any further property you buy inside the ten-year window. Whether you qualify, and how the benefit sequences with your residency application, is a question for an immigration attorney and a tax adviser together. The residency categories are set out here. The point is that you cannot ask for something you have never heard of.

Registry fees and the municipal stamp

Registry fees are 0.5% under Ley 4564 and the municipal stamp is 0.2% under Ley 7794. Together with the transfer tax that is 2.2% of the price, fixed by law, identical for every buyer and negotiable by nobody. Beyond those there are four smaller stamps on separate schedules, which is why you should insist on an itemised statement rather than a rounded figure.

The fixed statutory percentages

Charge	Rate	Set by
Property transfer tax	1.5%	Ley 6999, article 8
Registry fees (derechos de registro)	0.5%	Ley 4564, per the Registro Nacional guide
Municipal stamp	0.2%	Ley 7794
Fixed subtotal	2.2%	Not negotiable by anyone

Those three are the part you can verify before you speak to anybody. The Registro Nacional’s published service guide is where the registry figure comes from.

Ask for the itemised breakdown, and expect four more lines. Beyond the percentages above, the registry guide lists further stamps — fiscal, agrarian, National Archive and Bar Association — each on its own schedule. We publish 2.2% because that is the part that can be confirmed line by line. You will see a higher combined figure quoted elsewhere. Ask your attorney for an itemised desglose rather than budgeting from any published percentage, ours included.

The notary, which is a legal minimum

Only a notario público can execute the transfer deed, and the fee is not a quote. Article 74 of the notarial tariff sets it by decree on a sliding scale, and it cannot lawfully be lower. That single fact reframes the negotiation: when a notary offers you a discount on the tariff, they are offering to break a decree, which tells you something about the rest of the engagement.

Per the notarial tariff, article 74 sets fees por cuantía on a sliding scale: 2% on the first ¢11 million of value, 1.5% on the excess to ¢16.5 million, 1.25% on the excess to ¢33 million and 1% above that. Article 5 of the same decree states that fees cannot be lower, though the parties may agree in writing to more.

Method
The table below applies that statutory scale to sample prices, converted at ¢450.46 per US dollar. These are calculations from the decree rather than quotes, and they are the legal floor rather than what any given notary will charge.

What the statutory notary minimum works out to

Purchase price	Notary minimum	Plus 13% VAT	As % of price
US$150,000	US$1,897	US$2,143	1.26%
US$250,000	US$2,897	US$3,273	1.16%
US$450,000	US$4,897	US$5,533	1.09%
US$750,000	US$7,897	US$8,923	1.05%
US$1,000,000	US$10,397	US$11,748	1.04%

Two things follow, and the second one is the useful one. First, the notary fee falls as a percentage as the price rises, which is why the “3.5% to 4.5%” range is wider at the bottom of the market. Second, since the tariff is a floor, the “we will share one notary and save” pitch saves far less than it sounds — and it costs you the independent reading of the file. The due diligence checklist sets out what that reading is supposed to cover.

Ask for the notary’s name before the closing date is fixed. Not at the signing table. The Dirección Nacional de Notariado runs a public lookup showing status and condition, and there is a documented reason to use it.

The 13% that is not in anyone’s summary

Costa Rica applies value-added tax at a general rate of 13% under Ley 9635. It does not apply to the property. It does apply to the professional services around it: legal work, the notarial fee, escrow. On five thousand dollars of legal work that is six hundred and fifty dollars, and it appears in no quoted percentage range we have seen.

Ley 9635, article 10 sets the general rate at 13% on taxable operations. The property transfer itself is taxed under Ley 6999 rather than as a VAT operation, but the services you buy around the transaction are ordinary taxable services.

One question to ask every professional you engage. Is that figure before or after VAT? Both are quoted in practice, in good faith, and the difference is real money. Ask it in writing, once, at the start, and you will not have the conversation again at closing.

Escrow, and what SUGEF registration does not mean

Escrow agents handling funds in property transactions register with SUGEF under Ley 7786, and you can check any firm’s status on SUGEF’s own public page. Read what that registration means before you rely on it: SUGEF states it is not an authorisation to operate, and it supervises anti-money-laundering compliance rather than these firms’ operations, client transactions or financial soundness.

Your deposit and closing funds move through an escrow agent registered under Ley 7786, which covers persons administering client funds in property transactions. You can check a firm’s registration status on SUGEF’s consultation page.

This is the correction that matters most in this article. SUGEF states on that page that registration no es una autorización para operar. It supervises anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing compliance. It does not supervise these firms’ operations, their handling of client transactions, or their financial soundness. Registration is a floor, not a seal of approval, and any agent who presents it as the latter has told you something.

On the fee itself we are not going to publish a range. Escrow is quoted per transaction, sometimes as a percentage and sometimes as a flat fee, and it carries VAT either way. Ask for the figure in writing, ask whether it is before or after VAT, and ask who is paying it — because that last one is convention rather than law.

Expect the agent to ask for source-of-funds documentation. That is the system working as designed, and a buyer looking for a way around it is looking for the wrong kind of counterparty.

Due diligence, which belongs in a different column

This is not a closing cost and putting it in the same bucket is how buyers end up skipping it. Closing costs are what you pay to complete a purchase you have already decided on. Due diligence is what you spend to find out whether to complete it at all. One is a fee. The other is the option to walk away with your deposit intact.

What it covers is the registry study, the municipal land use certificate, permits on anything already built, the water availability letter, access, protected-area verification and an independent survey. The full checklist is public, and it is the same one we work from.

We do not publish a price for it, deliberately. It is quoted per property and it depends on how much there is to check — a registered condominium unit and a rural lot with a disputed boundary are not the same job. Get the scope in writing, then the fee, then confirm whether it is before or after VAT. What we will say is that this is the cheapest insurance in the transaction, and the only line here that can save you the entire purchase price.

What it comes to, worked through

On a US$450,000 purchase, the fixed statutory percentages come to US$9,900 and the notary minimum with VAT to about US$5,533. That is 3.43% before the smaller stamps and before any legal work beyond the deed itself. That is how the familiar range is built, and it shows why the low end of it is optimistic rather than wrong.

A US$450,000 purchase, itemised

Line	Amount	Status
Transfer tax, 1.5%	US$6,750	Statutory
Registry fees, 0.5%	US$2,250	Statutory
Municipal stamp, 0.2%	US$900	Statutory
Notary minimum plus VAT	About US$5,533	Legal floor
Subtotal	About US$15,433, or 3.43%	Before the rest
Four smaller stamps	Separate schedules	Ask for the itemised list
Legal work beyond the deed	Quoted	Plus 13% VAT
Escrow	Quoted	Plus 13% VAT, split by convention
Due diligence	Quoted	Not a closing cost

If you qualify under Ley 9996, take 20% off the first line. That is US$1,350 on this example. The budget guide covers what the property then costs you every year, including the second annual property tax that starts at a construction value of about US$315,000.

Who pays what, and what is genuinely negotiable

Almost everything about the split is convention rather than law, including the fifty-fifty arrangement everyone calls standard. What is not negotiable is the statutory 2.2% and the notarial tariff, which is a floor set by decree. What is negotiable is who pays them, the fee for legal work beyond the deed, the escrow fee, and whether either side covers the other’s costs as part of the price.

Negotiable or not

Line	Negotiable?
Transfer tax, registry fees, municipal stamp	The amount, no. Who pays, yes
Notary fee	Not below the tariff. Who pays, yes
13% VAT on services	No
Legal work beyond the deed	Yes, and get the scope in writing
Escrow fee and who pays it	Yes
Due diligence	Yours, and worth commissioning yourself

The 50/50 split is a convention that both sides repeat until it sounds like a rule. It is not one. In a slow market a buyer can ask the seller to carry more of it, and in a fast one the reverse happens. Raise it when you make the offer, not when the statement arrives. The full process is here if you want to see where in the sequence this conversation belongs.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and verification

Every percentage above links to the law or decree that sets it. Where a cost is quoted per transaction rather than legislated, we say so and do not publish a range.

1. Ley 6999 — Impuesto sobre Traspaso de Bienes Inmuebles. Article 8 sets the 1.5% transfer tax; article 7 defines the taxable base.
2. Registro Nacional — Guía de Servicios Inmobiliario Registral. The 0.5% registry fee under Ley 4564, the 0.2% municipal stamp under Ley 7794, and the further stamps on their own schedules.
3. Colegio de Abogados — notarial tariff, Decreto 39078-JP as reformed. Article 74, the sliding scale that makes the notary fee a legal minimum rather than a quote.
4. Ley 9635 — Ley de Fortalecimiento de las Finanzas Públicas. Article 10, the general 13% rate applied to professional services.
5. Ley 7786 — Ley sobre estupefacientes y legitimación de capitales. The obligation on persons administering client funds in property transactions to register.
6. SUGEF — registry of persons inscribed under Ley 7786. Where escrow registration is checked, and where SUGEF states it is not an authorisation to operate.
7. Instituto Costarricense de Turismo — announcement of Ley 9996. The ten-year benefit period, the US$150,000 investment threshold and the twenty per cent transfer tax exemption.
8. Dirección Nacional de Notariado — public notary lookup. Where a notary’s status is checked before signing.
9. Banco Central de Costa Rica — reference exchange rate. The ¢450.46 rate of 21 August 2026 used for every conversion here and in our main buying guide.

Read next: Costa Rica Property Due Diligence: The Complete Checklist — the spending that decides whether you should close at all.

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My Guanacaste Real Estate is a CELAFI-certified real estate advisory. We represent buyers — your Buyer Protector in Costa Rica.

This article is general education, not legal or tax advice. Statutory rates are quoted from the instruments linked above and were verified in August 2026; rates, thresholds and exchange rates change. Fees quoted by professionals vary per transaction and are not published here for that reason. Engage a licensed Costa Rican attorney, independent of the seller, before acting on any specific property. Next scheduled review: February 2027.