Belén

About Belén:

Belén covers about 181 square kilometres of low, mostly flat farm country south-west of Filadelfia, only a few dozen metres above sea level. Route 21, the main road between Liberia and Santa Cruz, runs through the middle of town and crosses the Río Belén on the way. The fork for the coast is here too: Route 155 heads west toward Huacas and Tamarindo, so anyone driving from Liberia’s airport to Flamingo or Tamarindo comes through Belén. The district was created in June 1877, when it was split off from Santa Cruz along with the rest of the new canton.

Until 1885 the town was called Villita. That year the priest Fray Juan Paz, struck by how the village celebrated the Christ Child every 25 December, proposed the name Belén, Spanish for Bethlehem. The present church dates from 1969, and the park in front of it was laid out between 1974 and 1978. Around them is a small, complete centre with supermarkets, a hardware store, a petrol station, sodas, bars and the EBAIS Belén clinics, while out on Route 21 the 5,800 m² Área de Salud Carrillo replaced a 1965 building of just 700 m².

Beyond the centre the district is farmland and villages: Santa Ana, Santo Domingo, Los Planes, Castilla de Oro, Ojochal, Juanilama, Palestina, Río Cañas Nuevo and a dozen more. Carrillo’s farms grow sugar cane, rice and melon, and at Juanilama a five-hectare solar park of some 15,000 panels feeds the national grid. The beaches are close enough that hotel, restaurant and construction work on the coast is part of the local economy. On ground this flat, the rivers are what to watch: in heavy rain Los Planes has been cut off by a rising river, and low streets in town, Barrio San Francisco among them, have flooded.

Most buyers are Guanacastecan working families, many of them born in Belén, along with people who work in Liberia or at the beaches and want a house with a yard at an inland price. Small residential developments have gone up on the edges of town. Investors look at land around the Route 155 fork because it costs far less than land at the coast while sitting on the road to it. Larger parcels on Route 21 sell as commercial frontage, and farms of tens of hectares come up further out.

Houses in Belén:

Houses here are mostly single-storey homes on their own lot, in the centre and in the barrios along Route 21 and the road to Santa Ana. Lots are generous by city standards: a family house with a small second cottage on a quarter-hectare plot, half a kilometre out on the Santa Ana road, is the kind of property that comes up for sale. Prices are quoted in colones as often as in dollars and are set for local buyers, with a few newer homes in small developments on the edge of town. When you compare houses for sale in Belén, ask whether the street has ever flooded; after a wet October that matters more than the finishes.

Land and Lots in Belén:

Land is the larger market. Lots in and around town run from about 1,500 square metres to a hectare or more, flat, with water and electricity at the road, and are sold for a family home or a small residential or tourism project. A hill or two just outside town gives a distant view of the ocean. Frontage on Route 21 sells as commercial land, since traffic for the Santa Cruz beaches passes it all day, and working farms of 30 hectares and more come up toward the outlying villages. Walk any lots for sale in Belén after a heavy rain if you can: a site that stays dry is worth paying more for.

Rentals in Belén:

Rentals in Belén are long-term and local. Most are family houses with a yard and room to park, sometimes offered with an option to buy, and small apartments in the centre sized for one person or a couple. Rents are quoted in colones and sit far below what similar space costs at the beach. Being a short drive from the new health area on Route 21 has become a selling point for apartments for rent in Belén.

FAQ:

• Is this the same Belén as the one in Heredia?

  No. Belén in Heredia is a canton in the Central Valley, just outside San José. This Belén is the fourth district of Carrillo, in Guanacaste, with postal code 50504, on Route 21 between Liberia and Santa Cruz. Many ads just say “Belén”, so confirm the province before you arrange a viewing.

• How far is Belén from the beaches and Liberia airport?

  Route 155 leaves town heading west to Huacas, where the roads split for Flamingo and Tamarindo; Tamarindo is roughly 40 minutes away. Daniel Oduber International Airport is a short drive north on Route 21, past Filadelfia. Playas del Coco and the Papagayo coast are reached through Sardinal, in the north of the canton.

• What should I check before buying land in Belén?

  Start with water, both the kind that floods and the kind that comes from the tap. Ask neighbours how high the river rose in the last big storm, since Los Planes has been cut off and low streets in town have flooded, and get a written water availability letter, because a building permit depends on it. Then order a registry study from the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario), check that the cadastral plan matches the markers on the ground, and request the land-use certificate from the Municipalidad de Carrillo. On a larger parcel, confirm that the access road is public and not a neighbour’s right of way.

• Can foreigners buy property in Belén?

  Yes, on the same terms as Costa Ricans. The district does not touch the sea, so the maritime-zone concession rules that govern beachfront land in Sardinal and along the Santa Cruz coast do not apply. A Costa Rican notary signs the transfer deed and files it with the registry.

• Where do people in Belén go for health care?

  The Área de Salud Carrillo, on Route 21 in barrio Las Palmas, offers emergency care, family medicine, laboratory, pharmacy, dentistry and palliative care, and the EBAIS clinics in the centre see routine visits. For hospital admission, residents go to Liberia.