Monterrey

About Monterrey:

Monterrey sits in the middle of Aserrí canton, with Vuelta de Jorco to the northwest, Legua to the south, Acosta canton to the west, and León Cortés Castro and Desamparados to the east. Two national roads meet here. Route 313 runs from San Gabriel and La Fila through Trinidad and Monterrey to Legua and on into León Cortés, while Route 336 branches off toward San Andrés and San Antonio, also in León Cortés. A bus line connects San José with Monterrey, La Legua and San Andrés. San Ignacio, the seat of Acosta, lies about seven kilometres to the northwest as the crow flies.

The district was carved out of Legua on 5 April 1966, and a small boundary adjustment before the 1984 census left it at its present 8.28 square kilometres. It takes in five communities: Monterrey centre, Portuguéz, Sebadillas, Bajos La Zorra, and Bajo Máquinas, which it shares with Legua. Around five hundred people live here, a number that has hardly moved since 2011, and only Piedras Negras in Mora has fewer residents anywhere in San José province. That works out to some sixty people per square kilometre. The district has its own EBAIS, the basic public health clinic, and drinking water is run by a community aqueduct association, the ASADA de Monterrey de Aserrí.

This is coffee country, but not the high Los Santos kind. Acosta and Aserrí form their own subregion of the Los Santos coffee zone, where coffee grows between 800 and 1,200 metres on stony soil and steep slopes, with a sharply marked dry season. That dry season is why water decides so much here: a parcel with its own spring, or with an aqueduct connection already in place, is a different proposition from one with neither. Toward the Caraigres hills the ground steepens and turns to forest, and that land is valued at a small fraction of a lot in the centre. Forest in Costa Rica cannot be cleared to build, so a wooded slope is scenery and watershed, not a house site.

People buy land in Monterrey to build a family house, to plant, or both. A good plot here has three parts: frontage on the road for access and services, a flatter patch near the road where a house can go, and slope behind it for coffee or fruit trees. Lots on Route 313 and around the centre have services within reach; the further a parcel sits from the main road, the more its value rides on the access track and on water. Compared with the coffee towns of León Cortés and Tarrazú, Monterrey is lower, milder and closer to Aserrí, on the same kind of steep, stony ground.

Land and Lots in Monterrey:

Land is the whole market in Monterrey. In the centre, lots are small and urban, close to the size of a town-house plot; outside it, almost everything is rural ground on a slope, much of it planted with coffee. Parcels run from roadside lots of around a thousand square metres to plots of several thousand, and the best come with something you cannot add later: a spring, a stream along the back boundary, or frontage on the main road. On a hillside the usable flat area matters more than the size on the survey plan, so measure what you could actually build on. When comparing lots for sale in Monterrey, Aserrí, walk the land from the road down to its lowest corner and see where water comes in and where it leaves.

FAQ:

• How do I reach Monterrey from San José?

  The usual way is south through Desamparados and Aserrí, joining Route 313 for the last stretch; that tertiary road links San Gabriel and La Fila with Legua and León Cortés. A bus runs from San José through Monterrey and La Legua to San Andrés. Route 336 carries on from Monterrey to San Andrés and San Antonio in León Cortés, so the district is also a way through to the Los Santos side.

• Bajo Máquinas is split between Monterrey and Legua. What should I check before buying there?

  Start with the boundary. Confirm on the survey plan and on the property’s record at the Registro Nacional which district the parcel actually belongs to, and make sure the plan matches what is on the ground. That tells you which ASADA should supply your water and which district the Municipalidad de Aserrí will read when you request a land-use certificate. Get that certificate, and a written statement of water availability, before you sign.

• The land has a spring on it. Can I use it and build near it?

  A spring adds real value here, but it comes with rules. The Forestry Law protects a 100-metre radius around every permanent spring, where trees cannot be cut and building is restricted, and on a small lot that circle can swallow much of the usable ground. Water in Costa Rica is public, so drawing from the spring needs a concession from the Dirección de Agua. Work out where the protected circle falls before you decide where the house goes.

• Is the land here good for coffee?

  Coffee is what these hillsides grow. Monterrey sits in the lower part of Los Santos coffee country, where farms ride out a hard dry season on stony ground, and the Acosta–Aserrí subregion is known for a sweet, soft cup. If you plan to farm, look at the gradient, the condition of any coffee already planted and how a vehicle gets down to the lower rows. A plot whose bottom end can only be reached on foot costs more to work every harvest.