September 2026
Costa Rica real estate market report — September 2026
Apartments in Costa Rica stand at $2,420 per m² (sale) in September 2026.
Houses stand at $1,552 per m².
Monthly summary of the Costa Rica real estate market by TuLugar, over 33,786 listings analysed once duplicates are removed. These are asking prices, not closing prices.
Apartments: $/m² (sale)
$2,420/m²
Houses: $/m² (sale): $1,552/m²across 10,254 houses reporting built area (77% of houses for sale)
Typical apartment price
- 1 bedroom
- $170,000
- 2 bedrooms
- $220,000
- 3 bedrooms
- $345,000
Key takeaways
- San José is the country's most expensive city for apartments: $3,164/m².
- Merced is the most expensive neighborhood in San José ($3,443/m²); Uruca the most affordable ($2,108/m²).
- The highest gross apartment yield in San José is in San Sebastián: 9.6% a year.
- A typical Airbnb earns $779 per month at 40% occupancy.
- Gross apartment rental yield is 6.8% a year — about 15 years of rent to repay the purchase.
Key figures
Each figure is computed per property type — we never blend apartments, houses and land into one average.Apartments: $/m² (sale)
$2,420/m²
across 3,138 apartments for sale
Houses: $/m² (sale)
$1,552/m²
across 10,254 houses reporting built area (77% of houses for sale)
Median sale price (apartment)
$225,000
Median sale price (house)
$399,000
Median rent (apartment)
$1,275
Gross yield (apartments)
6.8%
≈ 15 years of rent to repay the purchase
Cities: apartment $/m²
Price per m² of apartments for sale and its monthly change. Two readings: where the m² is dearest, and what the deepest markets are doing. The first monthly change is published when the following month closes.
Most expensive
Cities with at least 200 apartments for sale, ordered by $/m².
- San José$3,1641,014
- San Rafael$2,348214
- Escazú$2,230333
- Santa Ana$2,053233
Largest markets
The 10 cities with the most apartments for sale, ordered by $/m².
- San José$3,1641,014
- Jacó$2,921174
- San Pedro$2,61194
- Curridabat$2,385120
- San Rafael$2,348214
- Ulloa$2,24993
- Escazú$2,230333
- Pozos$2,09560
- Santa Ana$2,053233
- Heredia$1,96763
San José: $/m² by neighborhood
Median price per m² of apartments for sale in September 2026. Neighborhoods with at least 30 apartments; gray = insufficient sample.
| Neighborhood | $/m² | 2-bed apt. | Apt. rent | Gross yield | Apartments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merced | $3,443 | — | $1,300 | 7.1% | 75 |
| Carmen | $3,382 | — | $1,100 | 6.9% | 72 |
| Mata Redonda | $3,370 | $239,000 | $1,350 | 7.4% | 315 |
| Pavas | $3,304 | $238,000 | $1,350 | 7.2% | 177 |
| San Sebastián | $2,295 | — | $1,089 | 9.6% | 38 |
| Hospital | $2,233 | — | — | — | 48 |
| Uruca | $2,108 | — | $1,125 | 8.0% | 73 |
2-bed apt. = median sale price of 2-bedroom apartments (min. 50). Rent = median monthly apartment rent (min. 30). Gross yield = rent × 12 / median sale price, before expenses.
Short-term rentals (Airbnb)
Medians across entire homes active during the month. In small markets and seasonal destinations, large monthly swings usually reflect the change of season, not a trend.
Median nightly rate
$75
Median occupancy
40%
Median revenue/mo
$779
Entire properties analyzed
490
In San José, the largest market with 208 entire homes, the median rate was $73/night at 43% occupancy.
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Sources & methodology
Data: the residential inventory TuLugar monitors continuously in the country — listings published on the site plus supply we track for statistics only — on asking prices, not closing prices, computed per property type and over unique units, plus public short-term-rental data. The full construction is in the methodology.
How each figure is calculated
- Apartments, $/m²: median asking price per built m² of apartments for sale (3,138 in this report).
- Houses, $/m²: median asking price per built m² of houses for sale that report their built area (10,254 of 13,370, 77%). Built areas outside 30–2,000 m² and prices outside USD 100–10,000 per m² are excluded. The median house price uses every house for sale.
- Median sale prices: the median asking price of each property type, never mixing types.
- Median rent: apartments on long-term rental, in US dollars per month.
- Gross yield: a median apartment’s annual rent divided by its median sale price. It is indicative: expenses, taxes and vacant months are not deducted.
- Properties analyzed: 33,786 unique units from the month’s census; a property listed by several agencies counts once.
The median rent covers long-term rentals; nightly and per-season listings are excluded from the calculation. In markets with a large holiday component, monthly rents in resort areas are seasonal and far above the capital — read them city by city rather than as a single figure.
When citing this report, credit TuLugar as the source with a link to this page.
For media
Publication-ready graphics for this edition. Attribution: "Source: TuLugar" with a link to tulugar.com.
