San Roque

About San Roque:

San Roque starts where Barva town ends on the west. The district school sits about a kilometre west of the Banco de Costa Rica branch in Barva’s centre, Santa Bárbara town is 3.5 kilometres to the north-west, and Heredia’s city centre is less than three kilometres away to the south-east, as the crow flies. Two national roads cross the district. Ruta 128 links Barva with Santa Bárbara, while Ruta 119 heads south-west through San Juan de Santa Bárbara and Barrantes de Flores to Río Segundo in Alajuela, a well-used alternative to Ruta 3 that also puts Juan Santamaría airport less than ten kilometres away. The postal code is 40204 and the centre stands at 1,110 metres.

The growth came late and fast. San Roque had 223 inhabitants in 1883 and still fewer than 900 in 1973; it doubled by 1984, passed 3,000 in 2000 and is now home to about 6,000 people. That growth arrived as urbanizaciones: Juan Pablo II and Urbanización San Roque, Bello Higuerón and Amaranto, La Plantación, El Pórtico on Ruta 119, Puente de Piedra, Residencial Los Luises and Brisas del Río. Around them is the older core of San Roque Centro, Calle Cipreses, Genezareth and Santander, plus two gated condominiums, Camino del Sol and Hacienda Nueva. The school shows the pressure: by 2013 the 1893 schoolhouse was too small, and the Ministry of Education opened a new building beside it with preschool classrooms, a library, a computer room and a dining hall.

Daily life still turns on the church and the square. The San Roque church is a filial of Barva’s San Bartolomé parish, with Parque San Roque next to it, and every 16 August the district celebrates its patron saint with a communal paella and concerts. The coffee-farm house behind the long adobe wall is now Casa del Café, a small family-run guesthouse. For bigger shopping, people drive into Heredia or out to the malls in San Francisco de Heredia.

Most buyers here want a house within easy reach of Heredia, the Flores area and the airport side of the valley, without paying for a flat in the city. Families tend to look first at the urbanizaciones, where lots are small and houses have grown room by room over the years. Buyers who want a guard at the gate and shared green space go for Camino del Sol or Hacienda Nueva, where land carries the highest value per square metre in the district. Large plots are rare: outside two sloping rural pockets, almost everything is already divided into house lots.

Houses in San Roque:

In the older urbanizaciones the standard house sits on 120 to 220 square metres of land, has one or two storeys and three bedrooms, and often carries an extension or a second floor added later. Inside the condominiums the stock is newer. Camino del Sol has detached, contemporary two-storey homes with three bedrooms, a garage for three cars, a service room and a garden, plus three playgrounds, a multipurpose hall and round-the-clock security, all covered by a monthly fee. Hacienda Nueva, on the side towards San Joaquín de Flores, offers houses of around 165 square metres on lots near 200. Residencial Los Luises, between Mercedes Norte and Barva, is made up of independent houses on their own lots. At the top, a few single-storey homes of close to 400 square metres sell for several times the price of an urbanización house. If you are comparing houses for sale in San Roque, set condominium and non-condominium prices side by side only after adding the monthly fee.

Rentals in San Roque:

Rentals run from rooms to whole houses. New three-bedroom homes inside Camino del Sol go for dollar rents, and some owners in Hacienda Nueva offer the same house for rent or for sale. At the lower end there are furnished rooms in shared houses, for example in Residencial Brisas del Río, and the occasional one-bedroom apartment of about 50 square metres, with rents quoted in colones. Inside a condominium, ask whether the monthly fee is included in the rent or billed to you separately.

Land and Lots in San Roque:

Building lots come up one at a time inside the existing urbanizaciones, and they are small, often under 300 square metres. Bigger parcels are rare and priced as development land: one mixed-use plot of 1,833 square metres, with 22 metres of frontage and 84 metres of depth, was pitched for a combined residential and commercial project. A long, narrow shape like that affects how many units you can fit and where a driveway can go, so get a surveyor’s view early. Before you commit to any of the lots for sale in San Roque, request the uso de suelo from the Municipalidad de Barva and a written water availability letter.

FAQ:

• Is San Roque de Barva the same place as San Roque de Grecia?

  No, and the mix-up is common. San Roque de Grecia is a larger district in Alajuela province with postal code 20304, and it even borders a district called Puente de Piedra, which is also the name of a residencial in San Roque de Barva. The San Roque on this page is in Heredia, postal code 40204. Check the province on the ad and on the cadastral plan before you book a viewing.

• What should I check on a house in one of the older urbanizaciones?

  Many houses here have been enlarged over the decades, with second floors, closed-in garages and rooms built over the back patio on lots that are often under 200 square metres. Compare the built area on site with the construction recorded at the Municipalidad de Barva and the description on the title, which you can pull from the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) together with the cadastral plan. Work done without a permit can delay a bank loan or leave you with the cost of regularising it.

• What do I need when buying inside Camino del Sol or Hacienda Nueva?

  A house in a condominium is registered as its own filial unit, with rights over the common areas. Ask the administration for the condominium rules, the current monthly fee and a written statement that the unit owes nothing, because unpaid fees follow the property. Read the rules on pets, extensions and renting before you sign.

• How do I get to Heredia without a car?

  Several bus lines pass through or near the district, including Heredia–San Roque–San Lorenzo, Heredia–Santa Bárbara and Heredia–Mercedes Norte, and the San Roque line leaves from the east side of Parque Los Ángeles in Heredia. From central Heredia the train runs on to San José and Alajuela. Most buses run along Ruta 119 and Ruta 128, so a house near either road is the easiest to live in without a car.