San Francisco

About San Francisco:

San Francisco is the third district of Heredia canton, postal code 40103, a band of neighbourhoods south of the city centre at 1,124 metres. In the west it runs out to the edges of San Joaquín de Flores and Belén; in the east it reaches the San Pablo boundary. Addresses name barrios such as Santa Cecilia, Los Lagos, Guararí, Aries, Gran Samaria, Esmeralda, Malinches, Granada, Trébol, Tropical and Bernardo Benavides, and the district shares La Aurora, El Cristo and Mayorga with its neighbours. Ruta 111 carries traffic past Mall Oxígeno, while the road heading west from the Walmart San Francisco junction runs through La Aurora to Global Park and the General Cañas, the fast way to San José and Juan Santamaría airport. Bus 405 links Heredia with La Aurora and San Antonio de Belén, and the train has its own platform beside Walmart.

Few parts of Heredia have this much shopping within reach. Oxígeno Human Playground, the Cuestamoras development on Ruta 111, opened in late 2018 on a four-hectare site that mixes shops with sports areas, entertainment and restaurants. Paseo de las Flores, the two-storey mall that opened in the mid-2000s, lies toward the other side of the district. Global Park, a 35-hectare free zone in La Aurora, holds medical-device plants and service companies, with special buses running between the park and Heredia. Universidad Fidélitas has its Heredia campus 1.3 kilometres west of Walmart on the La Aurora road; it was expanded in 2019 and gained new laboratories in 2025. Even the Hospital San Vicente de Paúl sits on the line, its front in Heredia district and its back half in San Francisco.

Not long ago most of this was coffee. Guararí started in the 1980s on Finca La Libertad as a self-build project run by the COPAN association, and its first residents, living out on an open farm, fought to bring in electricity and water. Los Lagos is social-interest housing too, laid out on small lots. In Guararí, the INVU, the Municipalidad de Heredia and the housing ministry run an integrated urban renewal plan that has added parks in Nísperos, pavements and storm drains. The district is a place of sharp contrasts, from the free-zone buildings of La Aurora in the west to La Milpa, the eastern end of Guararí.

The 2011 census counted 49,209 residents, more than 7,600 per square kilometre, and the latest estimate is slightly lower. The district is close to full. That makes it a resale market first, with new building squeezed into the few gaps left. Buyers are mostly Costa Rican families and first-time buyers using bank credit, who want to live near work in Heredia, Belén and the free zones. Investors pick up small houses and apartments to let to free-zone staff, students at Fidélitas and the UNA, and people who work at the hospital or the malls.

Houses in San Francisco:

The typical house here is compact and fills most of its lot. In Los Lagos, a three-bedroom home of 84 square metres on an 81-square-metre lot is a normal sale, and in Lagos 2 house and lot can both measure 92. Santa Cecilia gives a little more room, such as a three-bedroom house of 123 square metres on a dead-end street, while residenciales like Monte Rosa have two-storey homes with four bedrooms and more than 200 square metres built. Gated condominiums such as Los Sauces add shared security and a monthly fee. When you look at houses for sale in San Francisco de Heredia and the built area matches the lot, ask what was added and when. A second floor or an extra room may never have made it onto the plan.

Apartments in San Francisco:

Apartments here mostly come in towers and mid-rise condominiums, and several stand close to Oxígeno. Torres de Velarde, about 800 metres from the mall, has three-bedroom units of 125 square metres with views over the Central Valley, a staffed gatehouse and a monthly maintenance fee. Torres de San Marino, finished in 2017, has three-bedroom flats of 112 square metres with two parking spaces. Smaller ground-floor units, 70 square metres with two bedrooms and a patio, have been sold in Condominio San Francisco, 800 metres west of the Fidélitas campus. Compare apartments for sale in San Francisco de Heredia on the condominium fee as well as the price.

Rentals in San Francisco:

Rentals run from a one-bedroom unit to a furnished family flat. Near Oxígeno you will find one-bedroom apartments let to a single tenant with water and electricity included, three-bedroom units of around 85 square metres, and furnished two-bedroom flats with two parking spaces aimed at people who work at Global Park. Two-bedroom apartments with a living-dining room and a laundry area also come up in Los Lagos. Ask whether utilities and parking are in the rent. Then check the bus to your job; route 405 and the Global Park services both cross the district.

Land and Lots in San Francisco:

Vacant land is scarce, and what reaches the market is usually a single lot inside an existing residencial. One near Oxígeno, in Residencial Tenerife, measured 8 by 21 metres, 168 square metres with residential land use: room for one house. Before you pay a deposit, get the land-use certificate from the Municipalidad de Heredia and a water availability letter from the ESPH, which supplies water in the canton, and make sure the frontage on the cadastral plan matches what you see from the street.

FAQ:

• Which San Francisco is this?

  San Francisco district in Heredia’s central canton, postal code 40103. Heredia province has a second San Francisco, a district of San Isidro canton, and there are others in Goicoechea, in San José province, and in Cartago, where the official name is Aguacaliente o San Francisco. Check the canton on the cadastral plan before you rely on an ad.

• The house began as social housing. What should I check before buying?

  Pull the property record from the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) first. Much of Guararí and Los Lagos started as social-interest housing, and a home financed with a bono familiar de vivienda carries BANHVI limitations for ten years: in that time the owner cannot sell, mortgage, lease or donate it without BANHVI’s permission. Then compare what is built with the cadastral plan and ask the Municipalidad de Heredia for the permits behind any extension, because a second floor or a back room added later may never have been approved.

• Does the train stop in San Francisco?

  Yes, at the San Francisco platform beside Walmart, the first stop west of Heredia station. Only trains continuing to Alajuela call there, about ten a day counting both directions, Monday to Friday; there is no passenger service at weekends or on public holidays. Heredia station is three minutes away and the Atlántico station in San José just under half an hour.

• Is La Aurora in San Francisco or in Ulloa?

  Both. La Aurora is split between San Francisco and Ulloa, and El Cristo and Mayorga are also shared with neighbouring districts, so two ads for the same street can name different districts. Go by the district printed on the cadastral plan and the registry record, not the barrio name in the listing.

• Is it easy to let a property near Global Park?

  Demand comes from people who work at the free zone, students at the Fidélitas campus on the La Aurora road, and staff at the hospital and the malls. Furnished one- and two-bedroom units with parking are the type most often offered to them. If the unit is in a condominium, read the regulations before you buy to confirm the kind of rental you have in mind is allowed.