Titled Property vs Concession in Costa Rica: The Real Rules

My Guanacaste Real Estate · CELAFI-Certified Buyer Advisory · Updated August 23, 2026

Last reviewed August 2026. Every legal provision below is quoted from the law itself, cross-checked against two separate published copies, and linked at the point it is used.

Two listings, both a short walk from the same beach. Similar square footage, similar photos, taken from roughly the same angle at roughly the same hour. One is $780,000. The other is $340,000.

The instinct is to assume the cheaper one has a problem — deferred maintenance, a bad neighbour, a road that floods. Sometimes it does. But on the Guanacaste coast the far more likely explanation is that these are not the same kind of asset at all. One is titled. The other is a concession.

That distinction changes what you own, whether you are legally permitted to own it at all, whether a lender will touch it, who you can sell it to, and what happens to the house when the clock runs out. It is the single most consequential thing a foreign buyer can misunderstand on this coast.

This is the follow-up to our anchor guide, How to Buy Property in Costa Rica as a Foreigner — the section we flagged there and promised to come back to.

Method
Every statutory claim in this article is quoted from Ley 6043 and its reglamento, not from a summary. We read the law in two separately published copies — the PDF hosted by Costa Rica’s national territorial information system and the copy in the United Nations food and agriculture organisation’s legal database — and the article text matched word for word in both. Where a claim is a market observation rather than a legal rule, we say so in the sentence. Where a question turns on a specific structure rather than on the statute, we say so and send it to counsel rather than answering it anyway.

What titled property actually is

Titled property is fee simple ownership, recorded under a folio real number in the National Registry, with no expiry and no renewal. A foreigner holds it on exactly the same constitutional footing as a Costa Rican citizen. You can mortgage it, subdivide it subject to zoning, leave it to your children, and sell it to anyone on earth. This is what most buyers picture, and inland of the coastal strip it is what is on offer.

Propiedad titulada is the same instrument a Costa Rican citizen holds. The ownership history, the liens, the mortgages, the boundary survey and any judicial claims are all public record at the Registro Nacional, searchable by folio real.

Holding costs are the ones a foreign buyer expects: a transfer tax at purchase under Ley 6999, and an annual property tax under Ley 7509. It does not expire. Nobody has to renew anything.

Beachfront titled property does exist, and it is legitimate. Article 6 of Ley 6043 carves out las áreas de las ciudades situadas en los litorales and las propiedades inscritas, con sujeción a la ley, a nombre de particulares. So a parcel titled lawfully before the 1977 law, or inside a littoral city, sits outside the regime entirely. Those exist, they are rare, and they are priced accordingly. What you should distrust is the assumption that any given oceanfront listing is one of them.

What a concession actually is

A concession is a time-limited right to use and develop land the State owns and will keep owning. Under Ley 6043 it runs a minimum of five and a maximum of twenty years, is granted by the municipality with approval from the tourism institute in tourist areas, and carries an annual canon to the municipality in place of property tax. When it ends without renewal, the land and the buildings on it go back to the State.

The starting point is article 1 of Ley 6043: the maritime terrestrial zone constituye parte del patrimonio nacional, pertenece al Estado y es inalienable e imprescriptible. You are not buying land. You are being licensed to use land that stays the State’s throughout.

Article 40 gives municipalities the power to grant concessions in the restricted zone within their jurisdiction. Article 42 requires approval from the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo in areas declared touristic, and from the land and colonisation institute elsewhere. Article 41 confines the concession to el uso y disfrute de áreas determinadas for the term the law sets.

Article 48 fixes that term: un plazo no menor de cinco ni mayor de veinte años. Article 50 allows successive extensions at expiry, for no longer than the same maximum. Article 51 lets the municipality or the institute refuse an extension por motivos de utilidad pública o conveniencia general — public utility or general convenience, which is a broad standard by design.

What the canon actually costs

Instead of property tax you pay an annual canon to the municipality. The reglamento to Ley 6043 sets the ceilings by use category:

Maximum annual canon by use category, reglamento 7841-P art. 49

Use category	Ceiling
Agricultural (uso agropecuario)	Up to 2%
Residential (uso habitacional)	Up to 3%
Hotel, tourism or recreational	Up to 4%
Commercial, industrial, mining or extractive	Up to 5%

The same article sets a floor: no canon may be lower than 0.25%. Article 50 of the reglamento tells the municipality to appraise at market value with a relation coefficient of 0.60, and expressly excludes the fifty-metre public strip and reserve areas from the appraisal.

Read the ceilings against the alternative. A titled owner pays 0.25% of registered value a year. A residential concession can be charged up to 3% of an appraised base, and a tourism one up to 4%. These are maximums the municipality may set, not rates it must set, and the base is not the same base — so the two numbers are not directly comparable. But the direction is clear, and asking the municipality for the current canon in writing costs nothing.

What happens at the end

Two provisions decide this, and neither is ambiguous. Article 49 provides that where a concessionaire dies or is declared absent and there are no heirs, the concession se tendrá como cancelada y volverá a la municipalidad respectiva incluyendo las construcciones y mejoras existentes — including the existing buildings and improvements.

Article 53 lists the grounds for outright cancellation: failure to pay the canon, breach of the concessionaire’s obligations, violation of the law, and obstructing public use of the public zone. Cancellation is recorded against the concession in the registry.

The house is not yours in the way you think it is. You built it, you paid for it, and at the end of the term without renewal it reverts with the land. Every financial model for a concession has to amortise the structure over the remaining term, not treat it as an appreciating asset with a residual. That is the single most common modelling error we see.

Why this catches almost all beachfront

Article 9 of Ley 6043 defines the maritime terrestrial zone as a strip two hundred metres wide running the whole length of both coasts, measured from ordinary high tide. Article 10 splits it: the first fifty metres are the public zone, the remaining one hundred and fifty are the restricted zone where concessions are granted. Any beachfront parcel is inside this unless it falls under an article 6 exception.

Article 9 is the whole geography in one sentence: la franja de doscientos metros de ancho a todo lo largo de los litorales Atlántico y Pacífico de la República. Article 10 divides it into la Zona Pública, que es la faja de cincuenta metros de ancho a contar de la pleamar ordinaria and la Zona Restringida, constituida por la franja de los ciento cincuenta metros restantes.

Article 11 extends the public zone, whatever its width, to all the mangroves of the continental and island coasts. If the parcel touches mangrove, that ground is public regardless of the two-hundred-metre arithmetic.

• The public fifty metres. Article 20: except where the law says otherwise, it no puede ser objeto de ocupación bajo ningún título ni en ningún caso, and nadie podrá alegar derecho alguno sobre ella. Article 22 permits only infrastructure and works approved jointly by the public works ministry, the tourism institute, the housing and urbanism institute and the municipality. Article 21 allows a narrow exception where the geography or topography makes a section unusable for public use.
• The restricted one hundred and fifty metres. This is where concessions live, and where essentially every “beachfront” listing you will be shown on this coast sits.
• Article 38 is the gate. Municipalities no podrán otorgar concesiones en las zonas turísticas without approval from the tourism institute and the housing and urbanism institute. In practice this is the approved coastal zoning plan — the plan regulador — and without one the municipality cannot lawfully grant a concession at all.

A figure we deliberately do not repeat. You will see it written everywhere that ninety-five per cent of Costa Rica’s oceanfront is inside the maritime zone. It circulates without a source. The legal position does not need it: the zone runs the whole length of both coasts by statute, and the article 6 exceptions are the thing to check parcel by parcel. We would rather tell you the rule than quote you a statistic we cannot stand behind.

Who is legally allowed to hold one

Article 47 bars concessions to five categories, and the one everybody quotes is quoted wrong. The statute prohibits entities whose shares, quotas or capital belong to foreigners in MORE than fifty per cent. It also bars foreigners who have not resided in the country for at least five years, bearer-share companies, foreign-domiciled entities, and entities constituted in Costa Rica by foreigners. Transfers in breach are void.

Here is the article, in full, as it appears in both published copies we checked:

No se otorgarán concesiones: a) A extranjeros que no hayan residido en el país por lo menos durante cinco años; b) A sociedades anónimas con acciones al portador; c) A sociedades o entidades domiciliadas en el exterior; ch) A entidades constituidas en el país por extranjeros; y d) A entidades cuyas acciones o cuotas o capital, correspondan en más de cincuenta por ciento a extranjeros. — Ley 6043, artículo 47

Three things follow from the actual text that the usual summary gets wrong.

• The threshold is “more than fifty per cent”, not forty-nine. The number you will see in almost every English-language article is 49%. That is a practitioner’s safe harbour — a margin chosen to sit clear of the line — and using it is entirely sensible. But it is not what the statute says, and a buyer who thinks 49% is the legal rule does not understand which part is law and which part is caution.
• Subsection ch is the one nobody mentions, and it is broader than the percentage rule. It bars concessions to entidades constituidas en el país por extranjeros — entities constituted in the country by foreigners. Read plainly, that reaches a Costa Rican company that foreigners formed, independently of the share split. How that provision is applied in practice is a question for a Costa Rican attorney on the specific structure, and it is a question most foreign buyers never learn to ask.
• Bearer shares and foreign-domiciled companies are excluded outright. Subsections b and c. There is no percentage test to argue about.

Then comes the closing paragraph, which is the part that decides what happens to the clever structures:

Las entidades que tuvieren concesiones no podrán ceder o traspasar cuotas o acciones, ni tampoco sus socios, a extranjeros. En todo caso, los traspasos que se hicieren en contravención a lo dispuesto aquí, carecerán de toda validez. — Ley 6043, artículo 47

Carecerán de toda validez — they lack all validity. Not voidable at someone’s option, not curable by a later filing. Void.

This is why the workarounds are not a grey area. A nominee Costa Rican shareholder holding fifty-one per cent “on your behalf”. A side letter promising the shares back. A trust that reassigns the economics without moving the register. These get pitched as standard practice, sometimes by people who have watched others do it for years and believe it. The problem is structural: the arrangement you would have to enforce, to get what you paid for, is the illegal part. There is no forum in which you win that argument. If you want the coastal exposure and you are not eligible, the honest answers are titled property inland of the zone, a different area entirely, or Papagayo — not a structure.

One thing the statute does not settle, and we are not going to pretend otherwise: subsection a says hayan residido en el país por lo menos durante cinco años without specifying which immigration category counts, or how residence is proved. That is a question for an immigration and property attorney on your specific status, and anyone who gives you a confident one-line answer is guessing.

Article 45 adds the transactional lock: Es prohibido ceder o comprometer las concesiones o los derechos derivados de ellas, sin la autorización expresa de la municipalidad respectiva. A private sale contract between you and a concession holder, without that authorisation in hand, transfers nothing. This is also the reason lenders are reluctant — and that last point is our observation of the Guanacaste market, not a statutory rule or a published statistic. Verify it for your own case rather than taking it from us.

Papagayo, and why it is unsettled right now

The Polo Turistico Golfo de Papagayo runs under Ley 6758 and is administered by the tourism institute rather than the municipality. Terms reach fifty years, renewable, concessions may be assigned and mortgaged with approval, and foreigners may hold them. As of this review it is also the subject of two pending constitutional actions, a court order suspending certain permits, and a total moratorium on tree-felling permits.

This is the carve-out that matters if you are shopping in Guanacaste, because a large share of the significant coastal development sits inside it. The tourism institute’s own page puts the project at roughly 1,658 hectares, governed by Ley 6370 of 1979 and Ley 6758 of 1982.

A study of the special regime published in a Costa Rican peer-reviewed journal sets out how it differs: the maximum term is 50 años, prorrogables por períodos iguales; concessions se podrán otorgar a personas físicas, nacionales o extranjeras; and assignment, encumbrance, transfer into trust, condominium submission and investment-company structures are all contemplated subject to approval. Article 74 of Ley 6043 is what puts the project area under tourism-institute administration instead of municipal administration.

A 2023 legal opinion from the tourism institute’s own legal advisory adds the framing that matters for anyone reading the two laws together: Ley 6043 applies to Papagayo only supletoriamente — supplementarily, where the special regime does not provide otherwise.

What is actually happening in Papagayo as of this review

This is the part no evergreen article about titled-versus-concession will tell you, and it is the part that would change how we advise a client this month.

• Two constitutional actions are pending. El Financiero set out both: one filed in August 2025 against executive decree 44448 and its compensación de densidades mechanism, and a broader one filed in November 2025 against three laws, two decrees and two provisions of the master plan, arguing the tourism institute’s exclusive administration is constitutionally objectionable. There is no set date for a ruling.
• The State’s own legal advisor sided against the decree. The Procuraduría General de la República concluded in October 2025 that decree 44448 infringe el bloque de constitucionalidad ambiental. That opinion does not bind the court, but it is not a campaigning group either — it is the government’s own lawyer.
• There are two distinct court measures, and they are constantly conflated. The instructing magistrate clarified in May 2026 that the suspension of construction and density authorisations bites only where the density-compensation mechanism is invoked, and that la medida cautelar no implica un freno total a todos los proyectos turísticos o constructivos en Papagayo. Separately, the court confirmed a total moratorium on tree-felling permits that applies to all hotel projects in development in the Polo.
• The industry has asked for the measures to be lifted and been refused. The construction chamber publicly asked for legal certainty after the suspensions, and the instructing magistrate rejected the concessionaires’ request to annul the precautionary measures.

La Nación canvassed constitutional lawyers on the possible outcomes: full annulment of the contested norms, partial annulment, dismissal, or an interpretive ruling that sets limits without striking anything down. One point in that reporting is worth carrying with you — constitutional specialist Marvin Carvajal’s position that la responsabilidad por una eventual inconstitucionalidad no puede recaer en un inversionista who acted lawfully. That is one lawyer’s view of how the court should treat good-faith investors, not a holding, and we are flagging it as exactly that.

What this does and does not mean for a buyer. It does not mean Papagayo concessions are invalid, and nothing we found suggests existing concessions are being cancelled. It does mean that if your plan depends on building — on a permit, on a density allowance, on clearing trees — the timeline is not in the seller’s control or yours. Ask, in writing, whether the specific project has invoked density compensation, and whether any permit it relies on is currently suspended. A seller who cannot answer that in August 2026 has not been paying attention.

Side by side

The honest summary is that these are two different asset classes wearing one word, and the price gap between them is not a discount. Titled property is perpetual, freely transferable, financeable and open to any buyer. A ZMT concession is a five-to-twenty-year use right with eligibility restrictions, approval-gated transfer, a municipal canon in place of property tax, and reversion of the buildings at the end.

Titled property against a ZMT concession

	Titled	ZMT concession
What you hold	Fee simple ownership	Time-limited use right from the State
Duration	Perpetual	5 to 20 years, extendable (up to 50 in Papagayo)
Foreign eligibility	Full and equal	Art. 47 restrictions (Papagayo differs)
Recorded as	Folio real, Registro Nacional	Concession registry plus municipal file
Annual cost	Property tax under Ley 7509	Municipal canon, capped by use category
Transfer	Free, to anyone	Express municipal authorisation required, art. 45
At the end of the term	No term	Land and improvements revert, arts. 49 and 53
Resale pool	Broad	Narrow, and restricted by art. 47

What to verify before you touch a concession

Six checks, in this order. Does the municipality have an approved plan regulador at all. How many years remain. Is the canon current. Is the concession properly registered and does the recorded use category match what is built or planned. Is the current holder eligible under article 47. And has the express municipal authorisation for transfer been obtained, in writing, before any money moves.

• Does the municipality have an approved plan regulador? Article 38 means that without one, the municipality cannot lawfully grant concessions in a tourist zone. This is the first question, not the fifth, and the answer comes from the municipality rather than the listing.
• How many years remain, and what is the extension history? A concession with three years left and one with sixteen are different assets at the same address. Article 51 lets the authority refuse an extension on broad public-interest grounds, so a strong history is evidence, not a guarantee.
• Is the canon current? Article 53(a) makes non-payment a ground for cancellation. Ask for the municipal statement of account, not the seller’s word.
• Is it properly registered, and does the recorded use category match reality? The canon ceiling depends on the use category, and article 43 provides that a concessionaire cannot change the destination of the parcel or its buildings without the municipality’s consent, whether or not the documents say so.
• Is the current holder eligible under article 47? If the structure you are buying into is already non-compliant, you are buying the problem rather than solving it — and the void-transfer paragraph applies to what happens next.
• Has the express transfer authorisation been obtained? Article 45. In writing, from the municipality, before funds move. Documentary fraud on this coast is documented and prosecuted, so decide how much paperwork is enough before you are standing at a signing table.

Is a concession ever the right buy

Yes, for an eligible holder with a long-dated term, in a zone with an approved plan, at a price that reflects the clock. A commercial operator with genuine Costa Rican partnership, long-term operating intent and no need for bank financing may find the economics work. What a concession is not is a cheaper version of titled property, and the price gap is the market pricing real differences rather than offering a bargain.

Concession land is cheaper for reasons that are legible and priceable: a shorter horizon, a narrower exit, a financing problem, an eligibility filter on your buyer pool, and renewal risk sitting with an authority that may refuse on general-convenience grounds. Price all five and the number often makes sense. Price none of them and the discount looks like free money.

The failure mode is not buying a concession. It is buying a concession while believing you bought title. That buyer paid titled-property money for a term asset, may not be legally eligible to hold what they got, and typically discovers both facts at the moment they try to sell, refinance or extend — which is the worst possible moment to find out.

The one question, and what the answer tells you

Before you fall for anything on the coast, ask the listing agent one question and insist on a documentary answer:

“Is this titled or is this a concession — and may I see the registry record?”

An agent who answers plainly and produces the document is doing the job. An agent who softens it, blends the two words, or tells you it “works the same way in practice” has told you something useful about everything else in the transaction. That is also the reason the price bands on this coast only make sense once you know which of the two you are looking at.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and verification

Every legal rule links to the instrument, and every Papagayo development links to the outlet that reported it. We have used no law firm or agency marketing material.

1. Ley 6043 — Ley sobre la Zona Marítimo Terrestre, as published by SNIT. Articles 1, 6, 9, 10, 11, 20, 21, 22, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51 and 53.
2. FAOLEX — second published copy of Ley 6043, used to cross-check article text. The article 47 text matched the SNIT copy word for word, including subsection ch.
3. Decreto 7841-P — Reglamento a la Ley sobre la Zona Marítimo Terrestre. Canon ceilings by use category, the 0.25 per cent floor, the 0.60 relation coefficient, and the extension procedure.
4. Ley 7509 — Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles. The annual property tax that applies to titled property and not to a concession.
5. Ley 6999 — Impuesto sobre Traspaso de Bienes Inmuebles. The transfer tax on titled property.
6. Instituto Costarricense de Turismo — Polo Turístico Golfo de Papagayo. The area of the project and the governing laws 6370 and 6758.
7. Instituto Costarricense de Turismo — legal advisory opinion AL-370-2023. That Ley 6043 applies to the Papagayo project only supletoriamente.
8. Revista de Ciencias Sociales — peer-reviewed study of the Papagayo special regime. The fifty-year term, eligibility of foreign natural persons, and the assignment and encumbrance mechanisms.
9. El Financiero — the two constitutional actions against the Papagayo framework. What each action challenges, when it was filed, and that no ruling date is set.
10. Semanario Universidad — Procuraduría General de la República on decree 44448. The State legal advisor’s conclusion that the decree breaches the environmental constitutional block.
11. La República — Sala Constitucional clarification on the scope of the precautionary measure. That the suspension bites only where density compensation is invoked.
12. Semanario Universidad — scope of the tree-felling moratorium. That the moratorium applies to all hotel projects in development in the Polo.
13. La Nación — the possible outcomes of the ruling. The four scenarios canvassed with constitutional lawyers, attributed as opinion.
14. Delfino — construction chamber response to the suspensions. Industry reaction and the request for legal certainty.

Two questions here turn on your specific structure and belong with a Costa Rican attorney before you commit: how article 47(ch), on entities constituted in the country by foreigners, is applied in practice to a company like yours, and which immigration category satisfies the five-year residence requirement in article 47(a). The canon actually charged also has to be requested municipality by municipality.

Read next: Costa Rica Property Due Diligence: The Complete Checklist — the four layers to verify once you know which kind of asset you are looking at.

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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 advice. Statutory and regulatory provisions are quoted from the instruments linked above and were verified in August 2026; the Papagayo litigation described was pending when last reviewed and its status may have changed. Maritime zone rules, municipal zoning plans and concession terms vary by municipality. Engage a licensed Costa Rican attorney before acting on any specific property. Next scheduled review: February 2027.