Santa Ana

About Santa Ana:

The district sits on the eastern side of Santa Ana canton, with Pozos to the north, the canton of Escazú to the east, Uruca to the west and Salitral to the south. Four national roads cross it. Ruta 121, the old road between Escazú and Ciudad Colón, threads through the centre along Calle 5 and Avenida 3 as a narrow, curving two-lane street, while Ruta 147 runs north to Lindora and Belén, Ruta 310 sets off through Pozos, and Ruta 311 climbs south to Salitral. Ruta 27 passes about a mile north of town, and its first two westbound ramps serve the district. Blue buses run to Escazú and San José, white-and-violet ones go to Belén, and the official taxi rank is on Calle Central in front of the church.

Day to day, the centre still works like a Costa Rican town: small shops, bars and restaurants, banks and medical and dental clinics within a few blocks of the church. Every Sunday from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. the Centro Agrícola Cantonal runs the farmers’ market, and each March it puts on the Feria de la Cebolla at the Jardines fairground on the south side of the church, with growers selling white, yellow and purple onions. Two newer centres have grown up by the Red Cross. City Place, 200 metres north of it, mixes offices, shops and the Hilton Garden Inn Santa Ana, and Santa Ana Town Center, 100 metres east and 100 metres south, has offices, stores and the Vía Gourmet food hall that opened in 2018. The municipal culture building houses the Escuela Municipal de Artes Integradas, with a gallery and an auditorium, and children go to the Escuela Andrés Bello, with the Liceo de Santa Ana just over the line in Uruca.

Before there was a town, the spot was known as Las Cuadras, part of Matías Robles’s land, and he left the blocks where the church and the football ground now stand. Santa Ana became the canton seat in 1907, when the canton was split off from Escazú, and received the title of city in 1970. Growth came slowly at first: the 1,068 people counted in 1864 had fallen to 962 by 1927, and only after 1950 did the district start to fill, reaching 11,320 at the 2011 census. The church that anchors it all is built of cut stone and masonry in a plain neoclassical style, with three naves, a triangular pediment over three equal doors and two stone towers, and it is protected today as architectural heritage.

The barrios on local addresses are Aguas Lindas, Cabañas, Casa Blanca, Obando and San Rafael, parts of Lajas and Paso Machete, and the settlements of Corrogres and Pilas. Calle Corrogres, on the Lindora side, carries gated condominiums such as Hacienda Lindora, Alma Verde and Posada del Sol, while the streets near the church keep older houses, small apartment blocks and ground-floor businesses side by side. The district suits buyers who want both halves of Santa Ana: a town where the bank, the market and the bus are a walk away, and the offices and malls of Lindora a few minutes’ drive north. Condominium homes are priced in dollars, but small apartments and some houses on the town streets are still advertised in colones.

Houses in Santa Ana:

Houses in the district come in three kinds. Along the streets around the church and in barrios like Obando, Casa Blanca or Aguas Lindas, you find older single-family houses on their own lots, right on the street. Small condominiums of a handful of houses sit behind a gate a few blocks from the centre, some with contemporary three-bedroom designs and a real garden, and these are sometimes priced in colones. On Calle Corrogres, the larger gated developments put family homes behind a single guarded entrance, closer to Lindora than to the church. If you are weighing houses for sale in Santa Ana centro, compare an independent house’s land and freedom with a condominium’s security and monthly fee before you compare prices.

Apartments in Santa Ana:

In the centre, Condominio Tempo puts two-bedroom units on a single floor in a three-level building, with 24-hour security, a pool, a gym and a barbecue area. Some balconies look out over the wind turbines on the ridge and the hills behind town. Penthouses in small, well-kept condominiums appear as well, along with apartments in buildings of only a few units on ordinary residential streets. Sale prices for apartments in Santa Ana are usually quoted in dollars, but the maintenance fee at Tempo and similar complexes is billed in colones, so convert both before you set a budget.

Rentals in Santa Ana:

The rental market in the centre is more local than Lindora’s. Small one-bedroom apartments, some newly built with a balcony, are let by the month and often priced in colones, and properties with only two or three units go to tenants who want something quiet. Three-bedroom houses for rent turn up in barrio Corrogres and on the streets around it. Furnished condominium units, on the other hand, follow the dollar pricing of the business parks a short drive north. Ask whether water, electricity and the condominium fee are included, because that varies from one landlord to the next.

Land and Lots in Santa Ana:

The district is almost fully built, so land here means infill: a lot between two houses, or an old house sold for the value of its plot. Some lots near the centre carry mixed-use zoning, which lets you combine shops on the ground floor with flats or offices above. Some plots run down to a creek with fruit trees along it, which is pleasant to live beside but takes a protected strip out of the buildable area. With the canton’s new plan regulador in force since 5 October 2026, height, coverage and density depend on the zone your block falls in, so ask for a current land-use certificate before you value any lots for sale in Santa Ana.

Commercial Space in Santa Ana:

As the canton seat, Santa Ana has the most varied commercial stock outside Lindora. City Place and Santa Ana Town Center lease offices and retail units with parking, and Town Center’s food hall draws customers into the evening. Large spaces of several hundred square metres become available inside shopping centres from time to time, while the central streets offer smaller street-front shops and second-floor units suited to a clinic, an office or a studio. On the older streets, ask where your customers will park.

FAQ:

• Is the district of Santa Ana the same as Santa Ana canton?

  No. The canton has six districts, and this is the first of them: the 5.4 square kilometre town around the church, postal code 10901. Adverts often say “Santa Ana” for a house in Pozos, Lindora, Río Oro or Salitral, so check the district on the plano catastrado to know which part of the canton you are actually buying in.

• Can I live in Santa Ana centro without a car?

  More easily than anywhere else in the canton. The farmers’ market, supermarkets, banks, clinics, City Place and Town Center are all within walking distance of the church, buses leave for Escazú, San José and Belén, and there is a taxi rank in front of the church. Some pavements are in poor shape, so walk your daily route before you decide.

• What should I check before buying an older house or a lot near the church?

  Start with what the new plan regulador allows on your block and on the ones beside it, because mixed-use zoning means a neighbouring house can become a shop or a three-storey building. Then compare the house as it stands with the plano catastrado: extensions added over decades are not always on the plan or in the building permits. Finally, pull the property record from the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) for liens and easements, and if a creek crosses the lot, find out how wide the protected strip is.

• How do I get from Santa Ana centro to San José or the airport?

  The fastest way into the city is Ruta 27, which you join a mile or so north of town; it also runs west to the Pacific. For Juan Santamaría airport, Ruta 147 heads north through Lindora to Belén and Alajuela, but it crawls at rush hour, and the planned seven-lane widening of its stretch between the Corrogres and Virilla rivers is still waiting for funding. Ruta 121 is the back road to Escazú, with far less capacity than the motorway.

• What is the Feria de la Cebolla, and will it affect me?

  It is Santa Ana’s onion fair, run by the Centro Agrícola Cantonal on the Jardines fairground beside the church for close to two weeks each March. Growers sell their onions, stalls serve dishes made with them and there are cultural performances. If you buy within a block or two of the church, expect crowds and tight parking during those days, and on Sunday mornings when the farmers’ market sets up.