By Rico

Copyright qcostarica

Q COSTARICA — Costa Rica is the country with the largest increase in foreign millionaires in Latin America over the last decade, according to a ranking of high-net-worth individuals.

According to the “Private Wealth Migration 2025” report, prepared by the consulting firm Henley & Partners, the growth rate has been 76% over the last 10 years, placing the country sixth in the world ranking.

The London-based consulting firm, which markets passport and residence permit programs in more than 40 countries, estimates that some 8,400 wealthy foreigners have emigrated to the Central American country and projects that approximately 350 more will arrive this year.

The analysis defines a millionaire as someone with assets exceeding US$1 million in “liquid assets” (assets and securities that can be easily converted into cash, such as stocks, funds in bank accounts, certificates of deposit, or bonds), excluding other assets such as property.

While the report considers the increase in these expatriates over the last decade, the great migratory surge in Costa Rica occurred after the pandemic, a milestone that marked a before and after in the flow of millionaires to the country, says Andrés Riggioni, managing partner of The Agency Costa Rica, a real estate firm focused on the luxury market.

This has been reflected in a boom in the construction or purchase of luxury properties and rapidly rising real estate prices, especially in coastal areas, with properties doubling in value in just a year or two.

Known as the “pandemic effect” on wealth flows, Riggioni points out, there has been a global shift in mentality for those with the freedom and funds to live in the country of their choice.

In that sense, he explains, it is currently more difficult to define the concept of residency, when people have multiple passports and move from one place to another.

Although there are wealthy foreigners who have come to live more permanently in Costa Rica, those who fall into the “millionaire” category, according to the Henley & Partners study, are individuals who “do not reside in one place,” Riggioni tells BBC Mundo.

These are people who can live half the year in their Costa Rican residence and the rest of the time in other countries.

Given the difficulty in accessing information about an individual’s net worth and the difficulties in determining a person’s tax residency (as opposed to their place of work or temporary residence), the report has been criticized for its methodology and the use of some data obtained from sources such as LinkedIn to track individuals’ locations.

Some experts believe the study should also include the properties owned by these millionaires to estimate their fortunes, as it has done in previous editions.

Regardless, the growing number of millionaires who obtain residency visas and investor visas in Costa Rica is a widely debated topic in the country, as are the consequences this trend has had on the real estate market and the rest of Costa Rican society.

Citizen movements have even emerged to oppose what they describe as an “invasion” of wealthy foreigners in the country’s coastal areas.

What is the profile of these foreign millionaires residing in Costa Rica?

Those who have been moving to Costa Rica are mainly from the United States and Canada, although Europeans and, increasingly, Latin Americans from countries like Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela are also arriving.

Among the expats with large fortunes, there are not only retirees. There are also the “semi-retired,” individuals who are not involved in the day-to-day operations of their companies, but who oversee them remotely and can live off their income.

The semi-retired group includes people over 40 who do not need to work and who dedicate themselves to managing their investments.

Some of them are part of the new wave of crypto-millionaires whose investments in cryptocurrencies have allowed them to create gigantic fortunes in just a few years.

An example of the arrival of affluent young people is the case of a coastal town called Santa Teresa, known to some as “Silicon Beach,” where there are no more beachfront properties for sale, after it became a magnet for millionaires and investors, Riggioni tells BBC Mundo.

The Tax System and the Golden Visa

Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth, which collaborated on the study published by Henley & Partners, says that one of Costa Rica’s advantages for millionaires is its tax system.

The country does not tax capital gains earned abroad. For example, profits earned from stocks on Wall Street are not taxed in Costa Rica.

Furthermore, the top income tax rate of 25% “is relatively low,” the analyst tells BBC Mundo, and the country does not charge inheritance tax.

Costa Rica has been on and off the list of tax havens compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Consulting firms such as Offshore Protection point out that while Costa Rica is not considered a pure tax haven, the country offers attractive financial incentives that have been compared to Switzerland, for both individuals and corporations, making it “a favorable destination for those seeking to optimize their tax situation.”

The tax system and “the country’s strong banking privacy laws” make Costa Rica an attractive country for investors and high-net-worth individuals.

Along with financial privacy, the country is in the top 10 for golden visas for foreigners with residency rights. One of the ways to obtain one is to invest at least US$150,000 in real estate, a very easy condition to meet for those with large fortunes.

The country is also considered safe, has well-established luxury neighborhoods, and a high standard of living compared to other Latin American countries. Added to this, says Amoils, are the lifestyle, beaches, landscapes, birds, and tropical forests.

“We expect organic farms to take off over the next decade,” something that could further attract high-income individuals, he adds.

However, the security situation has changed in recent years.

A report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published in June warned that insecurity in the country has increased.

“The increase in violence and crime could negatively affect tourism and foreign direct investment,” the publication notes.

And a few weeks ago, the Center for Tourism Studies (CET) reported that citizen insecurity has become the main risk to tourism development, reflecting that Costa Rica is facing a deterioration in its image as a safe destination, a characteristic that for decades has been one of the country’s main attractions.

Guanacaste: Icon of Boom and Local Population Displacement

There are many areas of the country that have served as magnets for wealth.

On the western side of the Central Valley are the cantons of Escazú and Santa Ana, while on the coastal areas are towns that have experienced explosive growth, such as Nosara, in the province of Guanacaste.

And Guanacaste itself has become the icon of this millionaire boom. In 2024, for the first time, the province, which has its own international airport, was the area with the greatest growth in construction projects in the country.

Data from the Observatory of Tourism, Migration, and Sustainable Development of the Chorotega Region of the National University of Costa Rica showed that between 2017 and 2023, property prices rose by up to 400%, a period that includes the “pandemic effect” on the real estate sector.

According to Esteban Barboza Núñez, coordinator of the study, the increase in property values ​​in the province “has increased the price of food and rent, which, evidently, primarily affects lower-income people.”

Bubbles of sorts have emerged within local economies, says Daniela Córdoba, researcher and professor at the School of Economics at the University of Costa Rica, in an interview with BBC Mundo.

Guanacaste is part of the Chorotega Region, where 24.5% of the population lives in poverty. The emergence of these luxury housing bubbles in poor areas often leads to the displacement of the local population, explains Córdoba, who is affected by a process of gentrification.

Community organizations have held peaceful street protests against gentrification, demanding greater regulation of land access and property acquisition to protect local communities.

“Guanacaste has the highest proportion of vacant homes in the entire country. However, one in ten Guanacastecans has been forced to live in informal settlements,” wrote Isabel Muñoz Beaulieu, an expert in public health and development policy, in an opinion piece.

Many Guanacaste residents complain that luxury construction has not improved local infrastructure or generated quality, sustainable jobs. Furthermore, it has had negative effects on the province’s scarce water resources.

Regional Overview

According to the report, the Latin American and Caribbean countries where the arrival of millionaires has grown the most in the last decade are Costa Rica, Panama, and the Cayman Islands.

Costa Rica 72%

Cayman Islands 62%
Bermuda 51%

On the other hand, countries such as Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina have seen a decline in the migration of high-net-worth individuals to their countries.

In the rest of the world, the ranking of increases in the arrival of millionaires in the last decade is led by Montenegro, the United Arab Emirates, Malta, the United States, China, and Costa Rica.

Translated and adapted from BBC News Mundo