Why Are So Many People From Venezuela Choosing To Live in Costa Rica?

People from Venezuela are moving to Costa Rica because of political and financial instability in their own country. For example, we have have helped seven buyers from Venezuela so far this year to find their perfect home in Costa Rica.

We also recently helped a young couple from Caracas get started in business here by providing them with all the professional contacts they needed.

Costa Rica Is A Politically Stable Country: Unlike many countries in Central and Latin America, Costa Rica has been a stable and democratic country since it’s independence in 1948. It has no army, and its citizens enjoy one of the highest life expectancy levels in the Western hemisphere and higher living standards than their war-torn neighbors.

Costa Rica’s perfect climate, laid back lifestyle, financial and political stability makes Costa Rica look like paradise on earth to many people.

Business Opportunities: It’s not just Venezuelans hoping to retire that are visiting Costa Rica. We are also seeing younger entrepreneurs from Venezuela coming to Costa Rica with dreams of establishing their business here and raising their children in a more stable and secure environment.

Comparisons Between Venezuela and Costa Rica:

1. Venezuela (with 882,050 sq km of land) is more than seventeen times larger than Costa Rica (with 50,660 sq km of land) and the population of Venezuela (25,730,435 July 2006) is six times larger than Costa Rica (4,075,261 July 2006). However, Costa Rica’s GDP per capita is $12,000 (2006) which is 74% more than the GDP per capita of Venezuela which is $6,900 (2006)
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2. According to the CIA country reports, people in Costa Rica live longer than the people in Venezuela.
3. The CIA also reports that the percentage of the population living below the poverty line in Venezuela is 37.9%, in Costa Rica it is only 18% and the infant mortality rate in Venezuela is 122% higher than in Costa Rica.

What Does This All Mean? Compared to Venezuela, the new born babies of Costa Rica have a much better chance of surviving and, adult Costa Ricans live longer, healthier, richer and happier lives.

Your New Home in Costa Rica: The majority of the Venezuelans couples that have bought Costa Rica real estate with our professional help have bought properties in secure, gated communities at prices from US$150K up to US$750K.

When buying a home in Costa Rica, property taxes must be considered but thankfully property taxes are only 0.25%. This means that on a $250K home you are only paying US$625 per year in property taxes.

Affordable Cost of Living: In a recent AMCostaRica.com (English) newspaper column, they showed a comparison between the prices of fruits and vegetables purchased here in Costa Rica to the same one purchased in a California farmer’s market. The same food that cost US$8.75 in Costa Rica, cost US$29.47 in California, USA.

If you eat a healthy diet full of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, a little fish, chicken or beef, you and your family will be healthier and you’ll enjoy significant savings on food living in Costa Rica. But, if you prefer to eat highly-processed, imported food, you are going to pay a high price for that and you are not going to be healthy.

Costa Rica is a place of stunning scenery, sunshine and smiles with spring-like weather all year round, no income taxes on foreign earned income, no capital gains taxes, excellent world-class medical facilities, affordable medical plans and populated by the ‘Ticos’ who are an amiable and very attractive people.

Living in Costa Rica is not for everyone, but after living in ten countries and traveling to many others, I honestly believe they are amongst the nicest people I’ve come across and many of our friends from Venezuela seem to settle in very quickly.

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Written by Scott Oliver, author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore and founder of www.WeLoveCostaRica.com

If you are serious about buying a home, apartment or land in Santa Ana or Escazu, then please contact us using the simple form below:

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.