San Juan

About San Juan:

San Juan covers 7.45 square kilometres northwest of Naranjo’s town centre, at an average height of 1,180 metres. Four national roads cross it. Route 141 is the road north to Zarcero and Ciudad Quesada, Route 148 runs through Palmitos to Palmares, and the smaller 725 and 726 link the district with Concepción de San Ramón and with Palmitos. Its villages are Bajo Murciélago, Cueva, Guarumal, Rincón Elizondo, San Antonio and Yoses, plus the Río Grande ciudadela and street. For anything the district lacks, Naranjo’s centre is the nearest town, and from there it is 31 kilometres to Alajuela and 47 to San José.

The first settlers came from San José, San Ramón and Palmares, drawn by a shorter, easier path for the pack animals that carried goods north to the Guatuso plains. Most of them grew coffee and a few raised cattle, and surnames such as Matamoros, Corrales, Elizondo and Solís still run through the district. San Juan was separated from Naranjo’s central district in 1966. Two buildings tell its story better than any date: the Escuela República del Ecuador, opened in 1941 and named for the Ecuadorian government that helped build it, and the church of San Juan Bautista, put up between 1967 and 1969 and one of the tallest in the canton.

The district has its own EBAIS clinic, school, football ground and a multi-use hall, finished in 2004, with a futsal court. The community development association, active since 1969, has built sidewalks, a playground in the Río Grande ciudadela and the Urbanización San Antonio de la Cueva housing project. Residents have run the cemetery themselves since 1984 and are now adding niches to it. San Juan Bautista’s feast falls on 24 June, the same day the school was inaugurated in 1941.

Away from the centre the ground tilts quickly into steep farm slopes, and land there is valued at a fraction of what a serviced lot near the church fetches. That gap shapes the market. Small lots and houses close to services make up most of what is sold, while buyers who want space, views and cooler mountain air look at the higher ground around San Antonio de la Cueva. San Juan had 3,114 residents at the 2011 census and has kept growing since.

Houses in San Juan:

Three-bedroom, single-storey family homes make up most of the houses for sale in San Juan de Naranjo. They range from compact 60 m² houses to larger homes with two bathrooms and a garden. One example is a 110 m² house on a 405 m² lot, sold with enough green space left over for a second home, a few apartments or a rancho. If you are buying with that plan in mind, find out what the land use allows and whether water is available for another connection before you agree on a price. Some homes are offered with the seller’s financing to take over, so ask exactly which debts come with the sale.

Land and Lots in San Juan:

Lots are where San Juan offers the most choice. At the entrance to Río Grande and along Calle Elizondo there are building lots of 270 to 500 square metres, some already with electricity, water and land use in order. San Antonio de la Cueva, ten minutes from Naranjo’s centre, has lots of around 600 m² with views, and a few small gated condominiums sell lots of a similar size. Parcels of close to 2,000 m² turn up on paved roads, and now and then a large flat holding with urban-expansion land use comes up for a residential project.

When you compare lots for sale in San Juan de Naranjo, expect the price per square metre to drop sharply as you leave the centre and the ground gets steeper. That saving often goes straight back into retaining walls, earthworks and a longer driveway. Walk the boundaries, get the cadastral plan, and ask who supplies water to that exact spot.

FAQ:

• Is San Juan de Naranjo the same as San Juan in San Ramón or Poás?

  No. Costa Rica has several districts called San Juan, including one in neighbouring San Ramón and one in Poás. This one is the sixth district of Naranjo, postal code 20606. Make sure the cadastral plan and the registry entry both read canton Naranjo, district San Juan, before you go any further.

• The seller wants me to take over the mortgage. What should I check?

  It happens here: some San Juan properties are advertised with the debt passed to the buyer, or sold by transferring the company that owns them. Pull the property’s record at the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) and read every lien and annotation, then ask the bank in writing whether it will accept you as the new debtor. If you are buying a company, its debts and obligations come with it, so have a lawyer review the company as well as the land.

• Who supplies water to a lot in San Juan?

  It depends on the village. Guarumal, for example, has its own ASADA. Ask the provider for that specific lot for a written availability letter, since you will need it for a building permit, and make sure it covers every home you plan to build.

• Can I build a second house or apartments on a large lot?

  Only if the land use allows it. Ask the Municipalidad de Naranjo for a land-use certificate tied to the plan number before you pay for the extra land, because the answer differs between the centre, the urbanizaciones and the farmland on the slopes. On steep ground the gradient also limits how much of the lot you can really build on.