Palmitos

About Palmitos:

Palmitos sits at 1,055 metres, a few kilometres west of the centre of Naranjo on the way to Palmares. Its spine is Route 148, the eleven-kilometre secondary road that links the two towns. Two short tertiary roads branch off it: Route 706 runs from 148 to the church at San Roque, and Route 726 connects the district with San Juan de Naranjo. The Bernardo Soto section of Route 1 crosses the district at Concepción, so the fast road to Alajuela and San José is close at hand. Without a car, the Naranjo–Concepción–Palmitos bus leaves Naranjo, runs through Candelaria and Cinco Esquinas, stops at the school and ends at the turn onto the old road to Palmares.

The villages here were part of Naranjo’s central district until 2008, when they were split off to form Palmitos. Palmitos itself is the head village, and the district also takes in Alto Murillo, Alto Palmas, Cantarrana, Concepción, Roquillo, San Roque, part of Cinco Esquinas and El Tajo, which was added in 2024. Palmitos centre has the primary school with a CEN-CINAI childcare centre next door, a gymnasium used for community events, a couple of small supermarkets and a karate school. San Roque has its own church, and Concepción has a church, a cemetery and the Escuela Presbítero José del Olmo. For banks, the market and bigger shopping, Naranjo and Palmares are each a short drive away.

This is coffee country. Naranjo is one of the West Valley coffee cantons, and Coopronaranjo, the cooperative a group of around ninety small growers set up in 1968, still runs its mill in town. In Palmitos, coffee shares the hillsides with houses and gardens, and some of the fincas that come up for sale are still planted with it. Collared aracaris visit the trees along the roads, and the Río Palmitos runs past the point where Route 706 leaves Route 148. The one thing that shapes building more than anything else is water: the community water board, the ASADA Palmitos, has been dealing with a supply deficit and has had to limit new connections, while Concepción has an ASADA of its own.

About 4,300 people lived in Palmitos in 2011, and the district has kept growing since. Most residents are Costa Rican families, and the property market is built around them. Houses, lots and rentals are mostly priced in colones, and the usual sale is a family home on a roadside lot or a small parcel for someone building a first house. The other buyer comes for land: a coffee finca or a property with water and trees on it, a short drive from Naranjo, Palmares and San Ramón.

Houses in Palmitos:

The homes that come up here are mostly family houses on the main roads and the side streets off them. A typical one has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, with around 250 square metres of construction on a lot of about 600. Some lots carry two houses: one property on Calle Villalobos fits two homes on 451 square metres with just over 15 metres of street frontage. When you compare houses for sale in Palmitos, Naranjo, ask whether every building appears on the cadastral plan and whether each house has its own water connection, because a second one is not easy to get here.

Rentals in Palmitos:

Rentals in the district are local and modest. You will find three-bedroom houses with a laundry room, one-bedroom casitas of around 45 square metres and two-bedroom apartments of about 60. They are let by the month in colones, and landlords usually ask for a deposit. Before you weigh houses for rent in Palmitos against rents in Naranjo centre, ask exactly what the monthly figure includes.

Land and Lots in Palmitos:

House lots in Palmitos run small. Flat lots of around 137 square metres, sold ready to build on, are aimed at families putting up their first home. With the ASADA limiting new connections, the water availability letter is the first thing to ask for on any of the lots for sale in Palmitos, before you even talk price. Then get the land-use certificate from the Municipalidad de Naranjo and match it to what you plan to build. If the lot fronts Route 148, 706 or 726, the MOPT alignment tells you how far back from the road the house has to sit.

Fincas in Palmitos:

Above the size of a house lot, land here is sold as fincas of one to two hectares. One is a coffee finca of about 1.4 hectares, still in production. Another covers just over two hectares with a pond, a river, a cabin at the gate and a second cabin on an island in the pond, reached by a concrete bridge, and it fronts roads at both its upper and lower ends. Fincas like these cost two to four times what a family house does. Walk the boundaries with the plan in hand, and where there is a river or a spring, find out how much of the land falls inside the protected strip along it.

FAQ:

• Can I get a water connection for a new house in Palmitos?

  Don’t assume you can. The ASADA Palmitos has been short of water and has limited new connections, so get the availability letter for that exact lot before you pay a deposit. Concepción is served by a different ASADA, so ask which board supplies the street. The municipality will ask for that letter when you apply to build.

• The plan says Naranjo district. Is the lot really in Palmitos?

  It may well be. Palmitos was carved out of Naranjo’s central district in 2008, and its list of villages was revised in 2024, when El Tajo was added. Older plans, deeds and listings can still show the old district, and Cinco Esquinas is split between the two. Look the property up at the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario), check that the cadastral plan matches the boundaries on the ground, and ask the Municipalidad de Naranjo for land use under the current district.

• Is Palmitos part of Palmares?

  No. It is a district of Naranjo canton, postal code 20608, although it borders Palmares and Route 148 carries straight on into that canton. Some maps and transit apps file its bus stops under Palmares, so check the canton on any listing before you book a viewing.

• How do I get to Palmitos without a car?

  Take the Naranjo–Concepción–Palmitos bus from Naranjo. It runs through Candelaria and Cinco Esquinas, stops at the Palmitos school and the turn for San Roque, and ends at the junction with the old road to Palmares. From Naranjo, buses run on to San José.

• What is the problem with Route 726?

  Since mid-2025 a sinkhole has damaged two stretches of it, traffic gets by on half the road, and the area it serves has no alternative route. If the property you like is reached by Route 726, drive it yourself and ask the municipality where the repair stands before you commit.