Mercedes

About Mercedes:

Mercedes covers 7.8 square kilometres west of central Atenas. Its average elevation is 720 metres, and the upper ground climbs past 900. Ruta 135, the 14-kilometre road between Atenas and Palmares, runs through the district, and from Atenas Ruta 27 takes you east to San José or west to the port of Caldera. The Atenas–Plancillo bus starts at 6:20 in the morning from Monday to Saturday. Banks, municipal offices and the bigger shops are all in Atenas, a few minutes away by car.

This is one of the canton’s original settlements. Growth was slow for a century: 900 people in 1927, 1,506 in 1984. Then the population nearly doubled by 2000 and reached 3,127 at the 2011 census, which is a lot of people for under eight square kilometres. The centre of the district is the church of Nuestra Señora de La Merced on Calle Mercedes, with the Escuela Monseñor Sanabria Martínez, the community hall and a police post close by. Fátima has its own primary school, and Barrio Cajón, Callao, Plazoleta and Plancillo make up the rest of the map.

The district mixes flat lots along paved side streets with hillier ground higher up. Coffee is still grown on some farms, older properties come with fruit trees, and the higher lots look across to the mountains around the valley. Roadside slopes can still give way: on the stretch of Ruta 135 by La Mandarina, the burger place locals use as a landmark, falling material has cut traffic to a single controlled lane. Water is a community affair: Plancillo runs its own rural water board, an ASADA, which also supplies housing projects nearby.

Most residents are Costa Rican families. Being so close to town also brings buyers from elsewhere in the Central Valley and foreign residents who want a garden, a pool or a view without moving far from Atenas. You will see the same street marketed in English and in Spanish. Smaller local homes are often priced in colones, while view houses and large parcels are quoted in dollars.

Houses in Mercedes:

The most common house for sale has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, between about 150 and 250 square metres of construction, on a lot from about 450 square metres up to well over 1,000. Several have a pool, and a few are new builds with mountain views that nobody has lived in yet. Older Costa Rican houses on 4,000 square metres or more come up too, some restored, and there are family homes with extra rooms or a second unit that already bring in rent. At the top end sit country estates of several hectares among coffee and fruit trees. Buyers comparing houses for sale in Atenas will find more land per house in Mercedes than in the centre, without moving far from it.

Rentals in Mercedes:

Long-term rentals here are whole houses, and some come furnished. Typical offers are a two-bedroom house with a home office inside a gated residential project, a small one-bedroom house with its own patio, or a three-bedroom family home with parking for three cars. In Fátima, some owners let two or more houses that share one pool. Simple local houses are let in colones; furnished homes aimed at newcomers are usually priced in dollars and cost noticeably more.

Land and Lots in Mercedes:

Land comes in three sizes. Flat lots of around 1,500 square metres on paved dead-end streets, with services already at the boundary, suit a single house. Building lots of half a hectare to three-quarters of a hectare are sold on privacy, many on their views, and some sit inside quinta projects. Then there are farms of several hectares, some still partly under coffee. If you want lots for sale in Mercedes de Atenas, settle water first: ask the seller for a written letter of availability from the local water board and find out whether the project runs on its own well.

FAQ:

• Is this the same Mercedes as the ones in Heredia or Montes de Oca?

  No. Costa Rica has several districts called Mercedes, and this one is the third district of Atenas, postal code 20503. Listings usually say Barrio Mercedes, Atenas, so check the canton on the survey plan before you go any further.

• Can I count on a water connection for a new lot?

  Not automatically. In 2014 the Plancillo water board’s own study found its system could not supply the new housing projects then being planned, and owners in one quinta development were refused a connection because the developer had never handed the private well and tank over to the board. Get the letter of availability in writing before you sign, and if a project has its own well, ask whether it has been transferred and approved.

• What else should I check before buying in a quinta project?

  Ask for the survey plan (plano catastrado) of the specific lot and check at the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) that it is registered on its own, not still part of the original farm. Request a land-use certificate from the Municipalidad de Atenas, and find out whether the internal road is public or a private easement that owners maintain together.

• How easy is it to live here without a car?

  It can be done. The lower part of the district is a short distance from the Atenas town centre, and the Atenas–Plancillo bus runs from Monday to Saturday from 6:20 in the morning. Higher up, toward the 900-metre lots, a car makes daily life much simpler.

• How reliable is Ruta 135 toward Palmares?

  It is paved all the way and used by cars of every kind. Slopes beside the road can shed material in heavy rain, and the La Mandarina stretch has had periods of single-lane traffic, so expect the odd delay during the rainy months.