San José, Costa Rica
Costa Rica's property register is public and national: the Registro Nacional sells anyone a certificate naming a finca's owner for ₡2,930, and an index of what any person or company owns by name — but only to a registered account, one search at a time.
9 buildings · 6 with an owner established · 22 sources · 7 tier A · 2 tier B · prepared 2026-10-20
Can you find out who owns it?
Ownership in Costa Rica is a public, national register. Every parcel (finca, identified by province and folio real number) is inscribed in the Registro Inmobiliario of the Registro Nacional, whose stated mission is legal certainty 'mediante la publicidad de bienes o derechos inscritos'. Anyone may buy a Certificación Literal — which 'certifica las características, propietario, gravámenes y anotaciones de una finca' — for ₡2,930, or an Índice de Persona listing every finca a named person or company now holds, online at rnpdigital.com with a registered account and card, or at any Registro office. There is no open owner dataset; the full property database is sold as a bulk extract.
Is ownership public?Public, but one paid search at a time
Cost of one title search₡2,930 per Certificación Literal or Índice de Persona (₡2,925 Registro Nacional + ₡5 Archivo Nacional stamp), Junta Administrativa Acuerdo J342-2025 of 24 Nov 2025
Bulk ownership dataRegistro Nacional 'Información Bases de Datos / Inmobiliario', ₡3,189,900 per extract; or nightly convenio queries at ₡3.35 each, minimum 76,000 (tariff J342-2025)
Sale pricesNo transaction data published
Sites that forbid taking their data
- delfino.cr — “La utilización de mecanismos o herramientas automatizadas o tecnología similar cuya finalidad sea realizar la extracción, obtención o recopilación, directa o indirecta, de cualquier información contenida en el SITIO.”
- www.teletica.com — “Usted está autorizado ... (b) para utilizar los Sitios únicamente con propósitos personales, no comerciales”
- crhoy.com — “El PRODUCTO ... no podrá ser reproducido, distribuido, transformado, comunicado públicamente, o editado, en cualquier forma, salvo para uso personal por el SUSCRIPTOR”
- semanariouniversidad.com — “robots.txt: 'User-agent: anthropic-ai / Disallow: /' and a ClaudeBot block — not fetched”
1
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legislative Assembly building (Edificio Legislativo, Asamblea Legislativa) Cuesta de Moras, north side of Plaza de la Democracia, Carmen, San José |
Civic | Fideicomiso Inmobiliario Asamblea Legislativa/Banco de Costa Rica Delfino.cr (Nov 2023) describes the 'Fideicomiso Inmobiliario Asamblea Legislativa/Banco de Costa Rica' as 'propietario hasta el año 2034' of the building that houses the Assembly, and reports the Assembly's president telling party leaders that the building and its furniture 'no son propiedad del Congreso, sino del fideicomiso'. Title passes to the Assembly only when the trust is paid out. Cost: CR Hoy (12 Nov 2018) reported the Directorio approving a second increase of $8.5M (₡7,653M), taking the works to ₡69,240 million, under the trust 'entre la Asamblea Legislativa y el Banco de Costa Rica (BCR)'. First plenary session 19 Oct 2020; 80 m, 17 floors per Wikipedia's tallest-buildings list. |
Government | —A |
| National Stadium (Estadio Nacional; now branded INS Estadio) Parque Metropolitano La Sabana, Mata Redonda, San José |
Civic | Estado costarricense (Republic of Costa Rica) — operated by ICODER Wikipedia's infobox: 'Propietario Estado costarricense; Operador Instituto Costarricense del Deporte y la Recreación (ICODER)'; 35,000 seats; opened 26 Mar 2011; built 2009–2011 by Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group as a donation of the People's Republic of China. Budgeted at $88M, 'alrededor de $110 millones' final, the difference assumed by China. The 'INS Estadio' name is a naming-rights brand of the state insurer, not ownership. A cost of construction, not a price paid. |
Government | —A |
| Gran Hotel Costa Rica (Curio Collection by Hilton) Avenida Central and Avenida 2, Calles 1–3, facing Plaza de la Cultura, San José |
Hotel | Elite Hotels Resorts Opened 30 Oct 1930, 107 rooms. Wikipedia's infobox names Elite Hotels Resorts as Propietario and states the 2013 sale at US$15 million; the Hilton Curio Collection flag is the brand, not the owner (Wikipedia's Leumi article lists the Gran Hotel among Hilton's Costa Rica openings). The 2013 sale is stated by Wikipedia only; no deed or filing was opened, so treat the price as reported. |
Private company | US$15 million 2013 Wikipedia: 'El 2013, el hotel fue vendido a la firma Elite Hotels Resorts por 15 millones de dólares.' B |
| Atlantic Railway Station (Estación del Ferrocarril al Atlántico) Barrio Escalante edge, Carmen, San José |
Civic | Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles (INCOFER) Wikipedia's infobox: 'Propietario Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles'. Built 1908 as the terminus of the Ferrocarril al Atlántico; a historic building in Carmen district. The State railway, INCOFER, also holds San José's other terminus (Estación al Pacífico) — not separately verified here. |
Government | —A |
| Presidential House (Casa Presidencial) Zapote, San José |
Civic | Not established a paid title search would answer it Wikipedia: the complex was built from 1976, commissioned by the Mexican government, 'en el terreno previamente donado' as the headquarters of the then state company Fertilizantes de Costa Rica (FERTICA), finished 1 Mar 1980 and assigned instead to the Presidency, seat of every presidency since 1980. No source opened names the current titleholder (the State, a ministry or a successor entity); the Registro Nacional certificate (₡2,930) would answer it. |
Not established | —A |
| Leumi Business Center (CLS Business Center) Calle 62A, Ruta 104 / Avenida Las Américas, Mata Redonda, San José 40,000+ m² (developer, quoted on Wikipedia) · 38 floors |
Mixed use | Not established a paid title search would answer it Costa Rica's tallest building: 141 m, 38 floors and four basements, built Jan 2019–Apr 2021; offices, retail, a 132-room Hilton hotel (Hilton San José La Sabana) and six full-floor apartments 'valorados en más de $1 millón' each. Wikipedia names Constructora Grupo Leumi as promoter and builder and gives a cost of $18,300,000; it names no owner. Hilton is the hotel brand/operator, which is not ownership. Offices and apartments are likely separately titled condominium units; titleholders would need Registro Nacional certificates. |
Not established | —A |
| Torres Paseo Colón (Towers 1 and 2) Paseo Colón, Merced / Mata Redonda, San José |
Mixed use | Not established a paid title search would answer it The first Costa Rican building over 100 m: Tower 1 98.2 m / 27 floors (2012), Tower 2 101.3 m / 29 floors (2014), mixed residential, retail and office. Wikipedia's infobox lists Grupo Inmobiliario del Parque as promoter, contractor and 'propietario', with a cost of $30 million — but the apartments are sold condominium units held by their buyers, so the developer is not the owner of the building as a whole. Residential units owned by individuals are left unnamed. |
Not established | —A |
| Edificio San Sebastián (office building) San Sebastián, San José |
Office | F.I. Popular Inmobiliario (FINPO) No Diversificado — administered by Popular SAFI (Banco Popular group) SCRiesgo's March 2023 rating report on Popular SAFI's property funds lists Edificio San Sebastián in FINPO's 11-property, 31,300.24 m² portfolio, with an annual valuation of $4,069,000 (previous $4,012,000) and as FINPO's largest rent contributor (15%). The same fund holds the Condominio Torre Mercedes units on Paseo Colón (valued $603,000) and space in Centro Ejecutivo La Sabana ($329,000). Valuations are appraisals, not prices. The district attribution 'San Sebastián' is from the property name; the address was not separately verified. |
REIT | —B |
| Hospital San Juan de Dios Paseo Colón / Avenida Central, Hospital district, San José |
Institutional | Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) Wikipedia: Costa Rica's first hospital, founded 1845; 'Pertenece a la Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social', and 'en 1977 el hospital fue traspasado oficialmente a la CCSS'. The CCSS also runs Hospital México in La Uruca (San José canton). The CCSS's own site (ccss.sa.cr) did not answer, so no land or building book value is recorded. |
Government | —A |
2
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
Costa Rica values land for the municipal property tax (Ley 7509) on zone maps drawn by the Ministry of Finance's Órgano de Normalización Técnica: each homogeneous zone carries a colones-per-m² value for a reference lot. San José canton's current published map is dated January 2021. Individual assessed values and owners are not published; building values that are public come from property funds' annual appraisals filed with SUGEVAL.
Highest land value on the zone map₡1,300,000 per m² (zone 101-01-U01 'Boulevard Avenida Central', El Carmen; reference lot 300 m², 11 m frontage)
ONT/Hacienda zone map for San José canton, January 2021 (s23). The same ₡1,300,000 figure appears for three other zones in the canton's matrices; Avenida Central's next zone (101-01-U02) is ₡1,000,000.
La Sabana's west side (Mata Redonda district)up to ₡1,250,000 per m²
Same map's Mata Redonda matrix (s23), where values run from ₡175,000 up to ₡1,200,000–1,250,000 per m² for the top zones.
Legislative Assembly building, cost of works₡69,240 million (as of Nov 2018)
CR Hoy, 12 Nov 2018 (s5): a construction budget under the Assembly–BCR trust, not a sale price.
Gran Hotel Costa Rica, sale priceUS$15 million (2013)
Wikipedia (s8): sold in 2013 to Elite Hotels Resorts; no deed or filing opened.
New-tower apartment prices, west San José77 m² units at US$220,000–250,000 (Núcleo Sabana, June 2023); new apartments from about ₡72 million (July 2026)
El Observador, 11 Jun 2023 (s20); Teletica, 23 Jul 2026 (s21). Developer asking prices, not recorded sales.
3
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
The largest holders of land in San José canton are public: the Republic and its ministries (the National Stadium, ministries, the presidential complex), autonomous institutions (the CCSS's hospitals, INCOFER's railway stations and track, ICODER's management of La Sabana), state banks, and the Legislative Assembly's building, which belongs until 2034 to a BCR trust. No register-based ranking exists: the Registro Nacional answers one finca or one name at a time and sells its database only in bulk; the Municipality of San José's site did not answer, so municipal holdings are not recorded.
| Name | Type | Holding as the source states it |
|---|---|---|
| Republic of Costa Rica (Estado costarricense) Wikipedia names the State as owner and ICODER as operator of the stadium (s7). Other State holdings in the canton were not separately sourced. |
Government | National Stadium, La Sabana (35,000 seats)A |
| Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) Hospital San Juan de Dios 'pertenece a la Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social' (s15); Hospital México is one of the CCSS's principal hospitals (s16, which describes operation rather than title). No land figure: ccss.sa.cr did not answer. |
Government | Hospital San Juan de Dios (transferred to the CCSS in 1977); Hospital México, La UrucaA |
| Fideicomiso Inmobiliario Asamblea Legislativa/Banco de Costa Rica Delfino.cr (s6) for ownership; CR Hoy (s5) for cost. |
Government | The Legislative Assembly building, owner 'hasta el año 2034'; works cost ₡69,240 million by Nov 2018A |
| Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles (INCOFER) Wikipedia names INCOFER as owner of the station (s9). Track and the Pacific station were not separately sourced. |
Government | Atlantic Railway Station (1908), CarmenA |
| Instituto Costarricense del Deporte y la Recreación (ICODER) Wikipedia: La Sabana is 72 ha, the city's largest public space, and cites ICODER's own La Sabana page as part of ICODER's facility management. Administration is not title; who holds the parcel was not established. |
Government | Administers the 72-hectare Parque Metropolitano La SabanaB |
5
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
New housing in San José canton is overwhelmingly vertical: condominium towers in Mata Redonda (La Sabana), Pavas (Rohrmoser, Nunciatura), Carmen (Barrio Escalante) and La Uruca, sold off-plan unit by unit, many to investors who let them on Airbnb. El Observador (June 2023) counted 'al menos 30 torres de uso residencial' in 15 years on the west side and in Escalante. Teletica (July 2026), citing the engineers' college CFIA, reported 176 building projects of five or more floors registered nationally in 2021–2025, 43 of them over 15 floors, and six large developments under way in San José province adding 1,279 apartments. No builder league table exists; the figures below are per project as the developers stated them to the press. The State's housing institute, INVU (Ley 1788, 1954), is the public developer of social housing.
| Name | Type | Units as stated (project) |
|---|---|---|
| Core Inmobiliaria Also URBN Escalante and Cosmopolitan Tower (El Observador). Core said it operates its buildings for owners. Wikipedia's tallest list puts Secrt Escalante at 105 m / 33 floors (2025), the second-tallest in the country. A 2025 development fund financing a 377-unit Secrt Escalante tower was reported in search results only (not opened). |
Developer | Secrt Sabana 366 units (32 floors, delivered Mar 2021); Secrt Escalante 384 apartments (34 floors); Babylon 173 apartments (24 floors, Rohrmoser)A |
| RC Inmobiliaria El Observador, June 2023: tower 1 finished with 22 left; 202 of tower 2's 346 sold; 77 m² units at $220,000–$250,000. Its other projects (Bambú 106, Bambú Rivera, Bambú Eco-Urbano) are in Heredia, outside the canton. |
Developer | Núcleo Sabana: tower 1 357 apartments, tower 2 346 unitsA |
| Citizen Inmobiliaria El Observador: units of 33–55 m² at $140,000–$220,000, 12 left in June 2023; also Sky Garden Sabana and Bö Escalante. |
Developer | Sky Garden: 258 apartments (24 floors)A |
| Civitar El Observador: Ser's units 31–68 m² from $100,000 (studio) to $190,000 (two bedrooms); Silentia's from $500,000 to $600,000. Also Ü Nunciatura and Nunciatura Flats. |
Developer | Ser (Barrio Escalante): 141 apartments, 17 floors; Silentia (Rohrmoser): 33 apartments, 25 floorsA |
| Garnier & Garnier El Observador names Garnier & Garnier as the Azenza Towers developer; heights and floors from Wikipedia's tallest-buildings list (s13). No unit count stated. |
Developer | Azenza Towers (2 towers: 78 m / 23 floors, 2015; 77 m / 24 floors, 2023)B |
| Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo (INVU) Wikipedia: an autonomous institution created by Ley 1788 of 16 Jun 1954 to provide affordable housing, clear unsafe settlements and rehouse their residents. invu.go.cr allows robots but no unit figure was read. |
Government | Public housing institute since 1954 (no unit count opened)A |
6
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
Costa Rica's institutional landlords are closed-end real-estate investment funds (fondos de inversión inmobiliarios) run by SAFIs — mostly subsidiaries of the state banks — regulated by SUGEVAL. The fund, not the SAFI, is the owner of record, and each fund must file an annual appraisal of every property, which is published as a 'hecho relevante'. Figures are national; few large holdings sit in San José canton itself, as the big malls are in Escazú, Montes de Oca, Curridabat and Heredia.
| Name | Type | Holding as stated |
|---|---|---|
| BCR Fondo de Inversión Inmobiliario del Comercio y la Industria (FCI) No Diversificado — BCR SAFI (Banco de Costa Rica) BCR SAFI's hecho relevante CHR-719 (1 Dec 2022) lists the eleven properties whose annual valuation moved the unit value from $1,097.53 to $1,093.18. Mall San Pedro (Montes de Oca) and Plaza del Sol (Curridabat) are just outside San José canton. BCR SAFI's other fund (Fondo de Inversión Inmobiliario No Diversificado) bought Parque Empresarial del Pacífico, which search results tie to a pricing investigation — not opened, so not recorded as fact. |
REIT | 11 properties revalued Nov 2022 including Mall San Pedro, Plaza del Sol, C.C. Paseo de las Flores, Real Cariari, two Universidad Latina campusesA |
| F.I. Popular Inmobiliario (FINPO) No Diversificado — Popular SAFI (Banco Popular group) SCRiesgo report, Mar 2023: 45% offices, 28% retail, 27% warehouses; San José holdings include Edificio San Sebastián ($4,069,000 valuation), Condominio Torre Mercedes units on Paseo Colón ($603,000) and Centro Ejecutivo La Sabana ($329,000). Popular SAFI also runs F.I. Popular Inmobiliario Zeta. |
REIT | 11 properties; 31,300.24 m² lettable (Dec 2022)A |
?
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Whether the 'Consultas Gratuitas' area of rnpdigital.com (described by costaricalaw.com and other third-party guides as free once an account is registered) shows the current owner's name — not checked, because it sits behind account registration, which this research does not do.
- BCR SAFI's Fondo de Inversión Inmobiliario No Diversificado: search results report US$371.9 million of assets, 12 properties, 132 tenants and 41.74% occupancy in Q3 2025, and an internal audit finding that it paid US$70.8 million for Parque Empresarial del Pacífico against a value of about US$34.8 million. The quarterly report and the CR Hoy / La Nación stories were not opened, so none of this is recorded as fact.
- Grupo Inmobiliario del Parque's claim of 'más de 2.600 apartamentos construidos' appears only in a paid El Financiero brandvoice item seen in search results; not opened.
- The Municipality of San José's own property holdings (parks, markets such as Mercado Central and Mercado Borbón, municipal buildings) — msj.go.cr did not answer, so no inventory or figure could be read.
- Who holds title to Casa Presidencial (Zapote), the Teatro Nacional (Wikipedia names the Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud only as administrator), the Museo Nacional (Cuartel Bellavista) and the Banco Central headquarters — each would need a ₡2,930 Registro Nacional certificate.
- Leumi Business Center's owner(s): Wikipedia names Constructora Grupo Leumi as promoter/builder, and Hilton as hotel brand; no titleholder established.
- Transaction data: no per-sale or aggregate price register for Costa Rica was found. Deeds sit in the Registro Nacional as digitised testimonios, sold one image at a time (₡2,930 per first ten pages), and its bulk database extract is ₡3,189,900 — so transactionGranularity is recorded as 'none' (no published sales series), pending a BCCR or INEC house-price index check.
- Juan Santamaría International Airport (Alajuela), the Universidad de Costa Rica's main campus (Montes de Oca), Mall San Pedro (Montes de Oca) and Multiplaza Escazú are outside San José canton and are deliberately not marquee entries.
- Industry totals for Costa Rica's property funds (about US$2,647 million of assets, 1.9 million m² lettable, 1,769 tenants, 81% occupancy, March 2026) were read in a CAFI presentation hosted on bcv.hn, but its URL carries a private individual's name, so it is not cited here; the figures should be re-sourced from SUGEVAL or CAFI directly.
§
Sources
- Tarifas de servicios — Acuerdo Firme J342-2025, Sesión 31-2025 (24 Nov 2025), as published in La Gaceta — Junta Administrativa del Registro Nacional · openA
- Guía de Servicios Inmobiliario Registral 2025 (versión 22/11/2024) — Registro Nacional de Costa Rica · openA
- Sistema de Certificaciones e Informes Digitales — login page (mission statement; registered users only) — Registro Nacional de Costa Rica · registrationA
- Preguntas Frecuentes — 'Dónde me registro para realizar consulta y adquirir certificaciones digitales' — Registro Nacional de Costa Rica · openA
- Congreso aprueba $8.5 millones más para construcción de edificio (12 Nov 2018) — CR Hoy · openA
- Congreso deberá asumir costo de curules y tabletas dañadas por mal uso de los diputados (Nov 2023) — Delfino.cr · openA
- Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Gran Hotel Costa Rica — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Estación del Ferrocarril al Atlántico — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Leumi Business Center — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Torres Paseo Colón — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Casa Presidencial de Costa Rica — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Anexo: Edificios más altos de Costa Rica — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Popular SAFI — Fondos inmobiliarios: informe de mantenimiento de calificación de riesgo (SCRiesgo, 6 Mar 2023; data to Dec 2022) — Banco Popular y de Desarrollo Comunal / Sociedad Calificadora de Riesgo Centroamericana · openA
- Hospital San Juan de Dios (San José) — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Hospital México — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Parque Metropolitano La Sabana — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- BCR SAFI — Comunicado de Hecho Relevante CHR-719: nuevo valor en libros, BCR Fondo de Inversión Inmobiliario del Comercio y la Industria (FCI) No Diversificado (1 Dec 2022) — BCR Sociedad Administradora de Fondos de Inversión S.A. (hosted by Bolsa de Valores de El Salvador) · openA
- Costo de apartamentos en torres al Este y Oeste de San José supera los $100.000 (11 Jun 2023) — El Observador CR · openA
- Torres de apartamentos ganan terreno frente a las casas en Costa Rica (23 Jul 2026) — Teletica · openA
- Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Mapa de valores de terrenos por zonas homogéneas — Provincia 1 San José, Cantón 01 San José (Enero 2021), with district matrices — Ministerio de Hacienda — Órgano de Normalización Técnica (ONT) · openA