For Rent
Find and offer property for rent in Costa Rica.
A room in a shared house a few blocks from the UCR, a studio for one in Cartago, a family house with air conditioning near Liberia: long-term rentals are listed here furnished and empty, in brand-new buildings and in houses with some years on them, alongside shops and offices. In Costa Rica an unfurnished rental can come without a fridge or a stove, so ask whether the fridge and stove stay before you go to see it. On the coast, the electricity bill says as much about the real rent as the asking price does.
A room, a studio or a whole house:
each asks something different of the tenant. A room in a shared house gives you a private bedroom, with the kitchen, the bathroom and the laundry sink shared. Studios and apartments built for one person, common around the campuses in San Pedro and Cartago, put your own kitchen and bathroom into very little floor space and often come without parking. Houses, including those in gated condominiums, suit families and anyone with a car or a dog. Shops, offices, storerooms and warehouses are let too, often quoted by the square metre, and there the questions are frontage, loading access and whether the electrical supply can run your equipment. Nightly and weekly stays have their own listings under short-term and vacation rentals, and if you would rather own than rent, start with property for sale.
Appliances, parking and hot water in a rental listing:
are where two apartments at the same rent stop being equal. Unfurnished can mean no fridge and no stove at all, so look for an ad that says the appliances stay, and treat semi-furnished as anything from a fridge to a sofa set until you have asked. Parking is often extra, or simply absent, in the tight streets near the universities. Ask about hot water as well: some places heat only the shower with an electric head while others have it at every tap, and in Cartago or Coronado that difference is felt every morning. Confirm pets and the minimum contract length before the viewing, not at it.
Rent near the UCR and the power bill in Guanacaste:
show how far the real monthly cost can sit from the asking rent. A studio for one within walking distance of the campus in San Pedro asks roughly ₡250,000 to ₡320,000 a month, and most of those include water and internet, so the rent is close to the whole bill. On the Guanacaste coast it runs the other way. A house near Liberia or Nosara can look reasonable until the electricity arrives, because air conditioning is what drives it: fans by day and a bedroom unit at night keep the bill around ₡30,000, while cooling the whole house through the afternoon and night takes it to ₡100,000 and beyond. Ask to see a recent electricity bill before you sign.
Mould, the shower head and the air conditioners at a viewing:
tell you more about a rental than the photos do. Open the wardrobes and look behind the bed for mould or a musty smell: a damp wall or a room that never airs ends up on your clothes. Run the electric shower and look at its wiring: scorched plastic or tape around the cable is the owner’s job to fix before you move in, not after. In a coastal house, switch on every air conditioner, ask how old the units are and when they were last serviced, and stand in the room long enough to feel whether they cool. Be wary of anyone who cannot show you the place in person and wants money sent first; a real landlord or agent meets you at the door.
Letting out an apartment, a room or a shop:
works best when the ad answers the messages tenants send before they come. Say whether the fridge and stove stay, whether parking comes with it or costs extra, whether there is hot water at the kitchen tap and which floor the flat is on. For a room, describe the shared spaces and the house rules plainly, because students and young workers choose on those as much as on the rent. Photograph the kitchen, the bathroom and the view from the main window in daylight. For a house on the coast, put a typical hot-month electricity bill in the ad, because a tenant moving down from the Central Valley will not think to ask until the first one arrives.