Nicoya

About Nicoya:

Nicoya became the second canton of Guanacaste on 7 December 1848, starting out with just two districts, Nicoya and Mansión. Since then it has lost ground to two newer cantons, Nandayure in 1961 and Hojancha in 1971, and added districts of its own: Quebrada Honda in 1967, Sámara in 1971, Nosara in 1988 and Belén de Nosarita in 1994, with San Antonio making up the seven. The canton now covers 1,337 square kilometres, with Santa Cruz and Abangares to the north, Hojancha and Nandayure to the south, the Gulf of Nicoya to the east and the open Pacific to the southwest. From San José most people drive in on Route 18 over the Puente La Amistad, the bridge across the Tempisque, which meets Route 21 at Mansión; Route 21 carries on north through the city to Santa Cruz and Liberia, and Route 150 runs southwest to Sámara, where the coast road heads north through Garza to Nosara.

At the 2011 census the canton had 50,825 residents, and nearly half of them lived in Nicoya district, in and around the city. The city does the work of a regional capital for the whole peninsula, with Hospital La Anexión, the courts, the banks and a campus of the Universidad Nacional. In that census seven in ten working people earned their living in trade and services, yet fewer than half of all residents lived in areas counted as urban, and the countryside still runs on cattle, rice, maize and melons. On the coast the economy is tourism and construction: surf schools, yoga studios, small hotels, restaurants and the builders and property managers who serve them in Sámara and Nosara. Only 3.3% of the canton’s residents had been born abroad.

The east of the canton is low, flat country draining toward the Tempisque. Around Puerto Humo, Pozo de Agua, Corralillo and Cañal, wetlands and river channels reach out toward Palo Verde National Park, and boats leave Puerto Humo for trips through the mangroves; in 2023 Pozo de Agua began restoring its own wetland with funding from Inder, the rural development institute. Further west the ground lifts into the limestone hills of Barra Honda National Park, 22 kilometres northeast of the city, the only national park in the country that protects a cave system, where the Nacaome lookout faces the Gulf, Isla Chira and the Tempisque valley. Beyond the city the hills turn steeper on the way to the Pacific, and the shore from Sámara to Nosara alternates between beach, rocky point and river mouth. Two things here shape what gets built and bought: water, which runs short in the dry months and is the first question for any lot, and the magnitude 7.6 earthquake of 5 September 2012, which damaged houses across the canton.

Most of the canton’s people are Nicoyan families with long roots here, and Costa Rican buyers dominate the city and the interior, where houses, lots and farms are bought to live on or to work. The beaches run on a different market. Sámara and Nosara draw foreign buyers, many of whom now live there all year, run businesses or have children in local schools, along with investors who buy to let to visitors. The peninsula’s place among the world’s blue zones, the regions known for unusually long-lived people, has also seen Nicoya named in retirement guides among the healthiest places in the world to live.

Houses in Nicoya:

Away from the beaches, most homes on offer are ordinary Costa Rican houses: single-storey family homes in the barrios of the city, newer houses in gated residenciales on its edges, and village houses on their own plots in Mansión, San Antonio, Quebrada Honda and Belén de Nosarita. Near the coast the stock changes completely, from holiday houses a short walk from the beach in Sámara to custom-built villas set back in the forest behind Playa Guiones and Pelada. The gap between the two markets is wide, so houses for sale in Nicoya canton run from a first family home in town to a second home with a pool and a sea view. For anything built before September 2012, have an engineer look at the structure, and in the Tempisque lowlands ask how close the water came in the last big floods.

Land and Lots in Nicoya:

Building land is one of the canton’s most common offers. Around the city it means serviced lots on the roads out of town; in Nosara, lots are known by section letter and number, and in Sámara buyers look for titled land behind the concession strip along the beach. On the coast a lot that already has a water meter or a valid availability letter is worth a good deal more than one without, and inside the buffer zone of the Ostional refuge, which takes in the Nosara beach sections, the municipal rules cap how much of the plot a house may cover. When you compare lots for sale in Nicoya, settle the water question before you fall for the view.

Farms and Fincas in Nicoya:

Between the city and the sea, and out toward the Tempisque, the canton is cattle country. Fincas with pasture, creeks, stands of dry forest and an old farmhouse come up in San Antonio, Quebrada Honda, Mansión and Belén de Nosarita, along Route 150 and on the gravel roads that branch off it. Some buyers want a working farm; others want a few hectares for a single house or a small retreat, and splitting a parcel off a larger finca needs municipal approval and a new cadastral plan. Before you agree a price per hectare, find out when and how the farm was last surveyed.

Rentals in Nicoya:

The canton has two rental markets that hardly overlap. In Nicoya city, apartments and small houses are let by the month to people who work or study in town, from hospital staff to university students. On the coast, a large share of the houses in Sámara and Nosara are let to visitors by the night or the week, with the busiest stretches in the dry season, at Christmas and at Easter. Year-round tenants near the beaches tend to settle in the villages behind them, such as Bocas de Nosara. If you are buying to let, decide which of the two markets you are in before you choose the district.

Hotels and Commercial Property in Nicoya:

Commerce in the canton gathers in two places. In the city, shops, offices and commercial lots cluster in the centre and on the main roads in and out of town, serving the whole peninsula. On the coast, boutique hotels, cabinas, yoga centres and restaurants change hands as going businesses in Sámara and Nosara. For either, confirm that the municipal land-use certificate allows the use you have in mind and that the water connection is rated for a business, not a single home.

FAQ:

• Is this page about Nicoya city or the whole canton?

  The whole canton: seven districts, from the city and the Tempisque lowlands to the beaches of Sámara and Nosara. The name also belongs to the city’s own district and to the peninsula, which takes in parts of other cantons in Guanacaste and Puntarenas. When you buy, the district written on the cadastral plan tells you exactly where the land is.

• Can I own a house right on the beach in Sámara or Nosara?

  Not outright. Under the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone Law, the first 50 metres from the high-tide line are public and the next 150 metres can only be held under a municipal concession. In Nosara the 200 metres behind Playa Nosara, Pelada and Guiones belong to the Ostional wildlife refuge, where no concessions are granted at all. Fully titled land starts behind those strips, and in both towns it can still be a short walk from the sand.

• Can I buy a finca inside the Matambú indigenous territory?

  No. Matambú, the Chorotega territory created in 1980, takes in part of Nicoya and Mansión districts as well as land in neighbouring Hojancha. Under Indigenous Law 6172 of 1977, art. 3, its land cannot be sold, rented or leased to anyone who is not indigenous, and any such deal is void. The rest of the canton is ordinary property, so if a farm near Matambú catches your eye, check on the cadastral plan that it sits outside the boundary.

• What should I check before buying land in Nicoya canton?

  It depends on where the land is. On the coast the risk is water, so ask for the meter or a current availability letter from the AyA or the local ASADA, and in Nosara read the buffer-zone rules. Inland, make sure the finca is registered rather than held by possession alone, and in the Tempisque lowlands walk it in the rainy season if you can. In every district, order a registry study from the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario), compare the cadastral plan with the markers on the ground and get the land-use certificate from the Municipalidad de Nicoya before you sign.

• How far is Nicoya from San José and from Liberia?

  Nicoya city is a little over 200 kilometres from San José by road, most of it on the Interamericana and then Route 18 across the Tempisque bridge. Liberia, with the nearest international airport, is 76 kilometres north on Route 21. Sámara and Nosara add the drive out to the coast, and the last stretch into Nosara has only been paved since 2020.