Buenos Aires

About Buenos Aires:

Buenos Aires covers 6.84 square kilometres at a little over 1,000 metres, on the edge of Palmares town in the western Central Valley. Ruta 1 runs through it, and its Bernardo Soto section is the quick road toward Alajuela and San José. The secondary routes 135, 148 and 169 cross the district too. Ruta 148, eleven kilometres long, comes in from Naranjo and is the road that ties the district to central Palmares, where buses leave for San Ramón, Naranjo and San José and from where Juan Santamaría airport is 36 kilometres away.

The area started out as Barrio Buenos Aires, and for a long time Palmares and San Ramón disputed which canton it belonged to. Its school was already open in 1895, when Pilar Paniagua took in 75 pupils, 35 boys and 40 girls, in a rented house. In 1906 the municipality ordered the expropriation of 1,000 square metres of land belonging to Jesús Rodríguez for a proper schoolhouse, and the present building opened on 15 August 1953 under the name of Joaquín L. Sancho Quesada, a neighbour who supported it for years. The families of La Granja broke away into their own school district in 1909, and in December 1964 La Granja left Buenos Aires altogether to become a district of its own, so Buenos Aires had fewer residents in 1973 than it did in 1963.

Buenos Aires has its own church, dedicated to San José and run as a diaconía of the Palmares parish of Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, with patron saint festivities every March. Beyond the centre, the district takes in Calle Ramírez, Las Tres Marías, Bajo de la Cabra, Bajo La Angostura, Barreal, Bajo Cipreses, Barrio Río Grande, Calle Castillo, Castro, La Virgen, Quesada and Hacienda Badilla, along with the INVU, Los Laureles and Marinos urbanizaciones and Barrio Victoria. Victoria is where the Campo Ferial sits, and the fairground stays in use well past January, with building, home and garden fairs, furniture shows and concerts. During the Fiestas, in the second half of January, the roads around it fill with traffic.

The population more than doubled between 1984 and 2000, from 3,096 to 6,879, and reached 7,493 in 2011. Much of that growth went into urbanizaciones of modest family houses, and building has not stopped: some of the homes now for sale were finished in 2020 and 2021. Buyers are mostly Costa Rican families, and most houses are priced in colones. The bigger houses on large plots, and the top end of the rental market, are where prices in dollars turn up most often.

Houses in Buenos Aires:

Most of the family homes that make up the houses for sale in Buenos Aires, Palmares have three bedrooms, 100 to 160 square metres of living space on a lot of 165 to 250, and parking for two cars. Larger single-storey houses on lots of around 500 square metres, with walk-in closets and big garages, cost roughly twice as much. Corner properties of around 440 square metres come up as well, and one house even has its own pickleball court. If you are weighing a newer house against an older one in the INVU streets, check that the built area on the cadastral plan matches what is actually standing.

Rentals in Buenos Aires:

The rental market here is mostly whole houses. At the upper end are recent single-storey houses with four bedrooms on fenced plots of more than a thousand square metres, with room for four cars and garden upkeep included, let by the month in dollars. Ask whether water and electricity are part of the rent before you compare figures. Anyone after commercial space can look at the mixed-use land on Ruta 148, some of which is offered for rent as well as for sale.

Land and Lots in Buenos Aires:

Land here comes in three broad sizes. In Urbanización Los Laureles there are lots for sale in Buenos Aires de Palmares of about 200 square metres that already have residential land use and water availability, the most direct route to building a family house. Lots of 700 to 760 square metres leave room for a larger house and a garden. Along the main roads, parcels of more than 1,000 square metres are sold with mixed land use for homes or business, among them one of about 1,670 square metres on Ruta 148. On those road-front parcels the MOPT setback decides how much of the frontage you can actually build on.

FAQ:

• Is this the same Buenos Aires as the canton in Puntarenas?

  No. This Buenos Aires is the third district of Palmares canton in Alajuela, in the western Central Valley, with postal code 20703. The canton of Buenos Aires is in Puntarenas province in the south of the country, so check the canton and province on any listing or plan before you book a viewing.

• Is it a problem to buy close to the Campo Ferial?

  That depends on how you will use the house. The Fiestas de Palmares fill Barrio Victoria and the streets around it with cars and crowds in the second half of January, and fairs and concerts follow through the year. Visit on an event day as well as a quiet one before you decide.

• What should I check before buying a lot in Buenos Aires de Palmares?

  Start with land use, because this district mixes urbanizaciones, roadside business and the fairground, and two lots on the same road can carry different uses. Ask the Municipalidad de Palmares for the land-use certificate and set it against what you plan to build. If the lot faces Ruta 1, 135, 148 or 169, request the MOPT alignment so you know the setback. Then confirm at the Registro Nacional that the registered owner and the cadastral plan match the land, and get a water availability letter from whoever supplies that street.

• How easy is it to commute from Buenos Aires?

  The Bernardo Soto section of Ruta 1 passes through the district and is the direct way to Alajuela and San José, and Juan Santamaría airport is 36 kilometres from Palmares centre. Without a car, buses from Palmares run to San José, San Ramón and Naranjo.

• Can I rent a house here?

  Yes, and most rentals are whole houses. The larger ones on big fenced plots are let in dollars and may include garden upkeep but not utilities, so ask exactly what the monthly figure covers.