San Mateo

About San Mateo:

San Mateo became a canton on 7 August 1868 and covers 125 km² in four districts. The district of San Mateo, home to the town, takes up half of that; Desmonte climbs east toward the Montes del Aguacate; Jesús María lies to the west; and Labrador was split off from Jesús María in 2012. The canton borders Atenas to the east, San Ramón to the north, Esparza to the west and Orotina to the south-west. Ruta 3, the old San José–Puntarenas highway, still comes over the Montes del Aguacate from Atenas and down through Desmonte, but most traffic to the coast now takes Ruta 27, which runs just outside the canton through Orotina. Caldera is 31 km away, Alajuela city 44 km, and Juan Santamaría airport about an hour by car.

The town grew up as a resting stage on the cart road to Puntarenas, a day’s haul from Atenas and another from Esparza. In the dry season up to 300 yokes of oxen passed through in a single day, carrying coffee down to the port and goods back up. The Puente de las Damas, a stone arch built in the 1840s and paid for partly with jewellery donated by Costa Rican women, still spans the río Jesús María on the boundary with Esparza. Gold was first mined in Costa Rica in the Montes del Aguacate, and the old La Unión mine tunnel in Desmonte is still open to visitors. Today the canton lives on beef cattle raised on its flat central plain, on coffee and on fruit: mango, avocado, melon, mamón, caimito and, above all, cashew.

Through the middle the land is flat, then it breaks into steep hills toward the Montes del Aguacate, so Desmonte sits at 567 metres while the town is at 264 and Labrador at 180. It is warm to hot by day and cooler at night, with a dry season of about six months that bites harder here than in most of the country. That dry season shapes every purchase. Fruit trees bear through the dry months, but pasture browns and springs and wells get tested, so pin down water before anything else on a lot or a finca. The rivers work the other way: the Machuca, with its wide gravel banks, and the Jesús María both rise fast in the rains. From hamlets in the north such as Maderal and Dulce Nombre, the view runs out to the Pacific at sunset.

The population has grown from 5,343 in 2000 to about 7,000 today, and most residents are Costa Rican families; in 2011 nearly a third of working people were still in farming or ranching. The newer arrivals came with the eco-communities, La Ecovilla, its far larger sister project Ecovilla San Mateo, Alegría Village and Colectivo Tacotal, which brought residents from dozens of countries and private schools with them. Ranchers keep buying pasture on the plain, and local families buy and build on lots around town. Each of these groups is after something different, which is why property here runs from teak plantations to thousand-square-metre lots inside a community.

Houses in San Mateo:

In town, houses stand on generous plots within a short walk of the park and the church, most of them single-storey family homes with fruit trees in the yard. Along the country roads the typical property is the quinta: a house with a pool or a rancho on half a hectare or more, surrounded by trees. In the hills, newer houses are built for the view, some looking down the Machuca valley and some out toward the sea. Inside the eco-communities, resale homes come up as owners move on, and they sell to people who want the community as much as the house. When you compare houses for sale in San Mateo, pin down the district and the road first, because the town, Desmonte and Labrador are very different places to live.

Rentals in San Mateo:

Long-term rentals here are houses, not apartments. Families rent town houses and quintas, sometimes with several thousand square metres of garden, and new two-bedroom homes inside La Ecovilla are let on long leases. Alegría Village keeps a handful of casitas for visitors who want to spend time in the community before deciding. Because Orotina, San Mateo and Esparza are only minutes apart, most renters search all three at once.

Land and Lots in San Mateo:

Land is the core of the market. Inside the eco-communities, lots of around 1,000 m² come with shared amenities and common land, and Ecovilla San Mateo is still releasing new phases. Outside them, gated condominiums such as El Maderal sell flat lots of roughly 2,000 m² behind an electric gate, and around Jesús María and the town there are smaller lots ready to build. Bigger parcels range from productive fincas of two or three hectares with their own water to farms for sale in San Mateo under teak or pasture that run past ten hectares. View lots in Desmonte and the north sell on the outlook, but steep ground means more earthworks before you can build.

Eco-Communities in San Mateo:

The Machuca valley is one of Costa Rica’s best-established hubs for intentional communities. La Ecovilla came first; Ecovilla San Mateo, about ten minutes away and roughly ten times its size, has the Machuca River running through it and is the largest project of its kind still being built. Alegría Village, founded in 2018, covers about 70 hectares organised around a community farm, a food forest, a shared kitchen and a pool, and Colectivo Tacotal sits right beside it. In the largest of these communities only a small part of the land is set aside for houses, and the rest is kept as green space or left to regrow. Buying here means signing up to shared land and community agreements, not just a plot.

FAQ:

• What should I check before buying a finca or lot in San Mateo’s long dry season?

  Start with water. Ask the local water operator for a letter of availability, and if the land depends on a well or a spring, find out whether it held up through the last dry season. If the parcel runs down to the Machuca or the Jesús María, mark the river protection strip before choosing a house site. Then get the land-use certificate from the Municipalidad de San Mateo, walk the boundaries with the plano catastrado, and look up the finca at the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) for the owner, the registered area and any mortgages or easements.

• Does Labrador get cut off when the río Jesús María floods?

  The direct link from Labrador to Ruta 27 is Ruta 755, which crosses the río Jesús María into Esparza, and that crossing has a history of closing when the river comes up. The longer way round, through San Mateo and Orotina, stays open. If you will commute from Labrador, drive both routes in the rainy season before you buy.

• How is buying into an eco-community different from buying an ordinary lot?

  You buy a lot, but you also accept the community’s bylaws, building guidelines and fees, and you share ownership or use of the common land. Read those documents before you sign, ask what the monthly fees cover, and confirm at the Registro Nacional that your lot is registered as its own property.

• Where do people in San Mateo shop and bank?

  The town has its park, church, sports field, a few restaurants and an organic food shop. For banks, supermarkets and most services, people drive five to ten minutes to Orotina.

• Can foreigners buy property in San Mateo?

  Yes. Foreigners can hold titled property in Costa Rica on the same terms as citizens, and since San Mateo is inland, none of it falls under the coastal maritime zone rules. The eco-communities in particular have owners from all over the world.