Costa Rica

Registering Property in

Costa Rica

Listed below is a detailed summary of the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute.

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standard Property Transfer

  • Property Value: CRC 187,001,512.77
  • City: San José

About This Topic

To see indicator data for all economies, see the Registering Property page. To see how economies rank, see the Rankings page.

No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
* 1 Obtain a literal certification from the National Registry and a cadastral plan from the Cadastre online

Since November 1, 2010, it is possible to obtain property certificates and certified cadastral plan images on the same website (www.rnp.digital.com). According to Decree Nº 35488-J, all certificates obtained electronically have the same value as paper-based certificates.

The seller obtains a literal certification (printed sheet with the information of the property recorded at the Registry's database) from the National Registry, where it is issued in the same day.

Information of property can be obtained online. A notary public can access with a designated password and get this information by simply login into the National Registry's website (www.registronacional.go.cr), putting the property's information and getting a print screen with the above indicated information (nature of property, location, area, cadastre number, owner, liens, mortgages, easements, limitations, boundaries, etc).
It is also possible to do searches in computers available in the National Registry.



Agency: http://www.registronacional.go.cr/Consultas/informeRegistralParams.jsp 		1 day (simultaneous with procedure 2) CRC 1320 (stamps)
2 Obtain a tax clearance certificate from the Municipality

The seller shall provide the buyer a certificate attesting that the property is current with payment of all the Municipal taxes and charges (including property tax, and charges for municipal services).

Agency: Municipality 		1 day (simultaneous with procedure 1) CRC 1320
3 A lawyer/notary drafts the sale agreement as a public deed

Notary fees are established by Executive Decree 32493 of March 9th 2005. A lawyer/notary prepares the sale agreement in the form of a public deed based on the information obtained in step 1 and provided by the parties. In accordance with the Notary Code, the lawyer/notary is legally obliged to study the property and in case the parties are corporations, study the Articles of Incorporation and verify that the person signing the transfer deed has the legal authority to represent the company.
In Costa Rica notary publics are lawyers.
Parties must provide photocopies of their ID (“cédula” for Costa Rican citizens or passport for foreigners)
Corporations must provide a certificate of incorporation.

 1-2 days Fees according to the following scale: Property value Fees 0 – 10 million CRC 2% 10 – 15 million CR
4 Pay transfer tax and the stamp duties at the Banco de Costa Rica

Transfer tax and stamp duties must be paid at the Banco de Costa Rica, a state-owned bank that will transfer the money to the tax authorities—either online or in person. In order to pay online, one must have a bank account and internet access to the Bank’s secure web page. The notary certifies on the affidavit that the payment was made and the registrant must check that on the bank’s database. It has become a common practice for up-to-date law firms and notaries to pay the transfer tax and stamp duties online.
The transfer tax and stamp duties are calculated on the basis of the highest of the stated purchase price and the property value appearing on the National Property Registry. Price is updated when the property is sold or mortgaged.
For a land transfer there are various types of stamps that must be paid. Payment is calculated as follows:
• National Property Register Stamp: 0.5% of the property value
• Municipal Stamp: 0.2% of property value
• Fiscal Stamp Tax: CRC 625
• Agrarian Stamp: 0.1% of property value
• Costa Rican Bar Association: 10,000 CRC for deeds over 10 million CRC (Executive Act No. 34442)
• National Archive: CRC 20

Agency: Banco de Costa Rica 		1 day 1.5% of property price (transfer tax) + 0.5% of property price (National Property Register Stamp) + 0.2% of property price (Municipal Stamp) + 0.1% of property price (Agrarian Stamp) + 10,000 CRC (Costa Rican Bar Association fee) + CRC 625 (Fiscal Stamp T
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
Explore Economy Data