Ask any foreigner who has lived in Costa Rica for more than 10 years why they bought property and they will say something like: “The people are friendly, the climate’s perfect, the scenery’s stunning, the wildlife’s incredible, the fishing’s some of the best in the world and the beer’s cheap”. Ask anyone who has bought there in the past year and they’ll tell you it’s cheaper than Hawaii, merely a two-hour flight from the US and Miami property is going downhill. Several homeowners I spoke to had multiple condominium units, a piece of land and – in four cases – their own residential beach development already on the go.

The same qualities that attract tourists also attract buyers. Costa Rica is Latin America’s oldest democracy; it has free health and education; its president, Oscar Arias, won the Nobel Peace Prize; there are two coastlines, a spine of extraordinarily beautiful fertile highlands and conservation areas bursting with toucans and monkeys; and the average temperature is 25°C. Investors also like the low property taxes, lack of capital gains tax, economic stability, English-speaking real estate agents, international schools, private hospitals and returns averaging 300 per cent over the past 10 years. Taken all together this has fuelled rapid development west of the capital, San José, and along the length of the Pacific coast.