Renting in Costa Rica: Prices, Deposits and the Fine Print

Guides · Costa Rica

The market has cooled and the law is generous, but the two rules that cost tenants most money are the ones almost nobody quotes correctly.

Renting in Costa Rica is governed by a law that is far more protective than the market behaves. Leases run for three years by default, tenant rights cannot be signed away, and a whole chapter of rules exists that most landlords will never mention. There are also real gaps, including one that can remove the law’s protection from a beach rental entirely. This guide covers the prices, the deposit, the bills and the tax, as they stood in September 2026.

The law behind renting in Costa Rica, and its gap

Ley 7527 of 10 July 1995 has covered urban and suburban tenancies since 17 August that year. Article 2 makes it public order law. A clause that contradicts its mandatory provisions is void of full right and treated as unwritten. Article 3 makes tenant rights non-waivable, and article 4 applies the law to verbal contracts as well as written ones, anywhere in the country. Article 70 sets a minimum term of three years.

Then comes the carve-out that matters to foreigners. Article 7(b) excludes homes and premises let for tourism purposes, in zones the tourism board has designated by reasoned resolution, where the letting is seasonal. A seasonal beach let in a designated zone may therefore sit outside the tenancy law altogether. If you are renting in Tamarindo or Jacó, that question decides whether you have any statutory protection at all.

What rent actually costs in 2026

Take the market data in order of reliability. A September 2026 dataset of 2,924 active listings puts the national median apartment rent at ¢577,500 a month (about US$1,283). That is a typical 72 square metre, two-bedroom unit. The middle half sat between ¢459,950 (about US$1,022) and ¢682,500 (about US$1,517). El Financiero, reviewing seventy districts of the Central Valley in March 2026, found apartment averages above US$15 per square metre in Mata Redonda, Santa Ana and Merced. That is about ¢600,000 (about US$1,333) for eighty square metres.

Houses are cheaper per metre, barely above US$9 and never above US$13. Agency data for June 2026 put the median asking rent at US$2,200, down 4.3% on May. Listings fell 14%, and median time on market rose from 158 to 277 days. Expat-facing sites, which are indicative only, quote roughly US$900 to US$1,400 for a furnished one-bedroom in Escazú, and US$500 to US$900 in Atenas or Grecia.

Dollars or colones, and why the choice matters

Article 57 gives the tenant, not the landlord, an option. Where the price is agreed in foreign currency, you may pay in colones at the central bank sell rate on the date of payment. Every colón figure here is converted at ¢450 (about US$1), the rate on 23 September 2026. In one September 2026 dataset, 1,050 apartment listings were priced in dollars at a median US$1,200 a month, and 329 in colones at a median ¢400,000 (about US$889).

The currency you sign in has a legal consequence that costs real money. A dollar-denominated residential lease cannot be raised at all during its term, under the final paragraph of article 67. A colón lease can be raised once a year, up to inflation. Costa Rica has been in deflation since May 2025, so in 2026 that rule works the other way round from the usual expat instinct.

Deposits: the rule most landlords misstate

The third paragraph of article 58 is absolute for housing: the landlord may not demand more than one month of rent in advance. The security deposit is a different thing. Article 59 says guarantees of any nature answer for rent and for every other obligation under the law or the contract, unless expressly agreed otherwise. It sets no ceiling at all.

The one-month deposit cap that circulates is article 92, and it sits inside the chapter on socially classified housing. Article 89 limits that chapter to homes valued below a state housing bank ceiling. For ordinary market housing, the law caps advance rent at one month but does not cap the deposit. One month is the market norm; two is common where a foreigner has no local guarantor. The law also says nothing about how or when a deposit comes back: no deadline, no interest, no escrow.

Utilities, repairs and inspections

Article 64 lets the parties agree who pays water, sewerage, electricity and other use-based services. Failing agreement the tenant pays them, except the basic water charge, which stays with the landlord. Utilities that fall to the tenant are assimilated to the rent as one indivisible obligation, so an unpaid bill counts as unpaid rent for eviction purposes.

Repairs sit mostly with the landlord. Article 33 puts deterioration caused by the property’s own defects, or by the landlord’s fault, on the landlord. Absent express agreement, wear and tear falls there too. Article 34 requires the landlord to keep the property fit for its purpose without raising the rent for it. Under article 35, if you notify an urgent repair and nothing starts within ten working days, you may do it at the landlord’s expense. You may then withhold the matching part of the rent. Article 51 allows one inspection a month.

The condominium fee and the 13% tax threshold

If you rent inside a condominium, Ley 7933 of 1999 makes the owner liable for the maintenance quota. But article 25 of Ley 7527 lets the parties agree that you pay it, assimilated to the rent. Where that is agreed, not paying the quota is an express ground for termination. Condominium fines are capped at half a salario base, which is ¢231,100 (about US$514) in 2026. You may attend owners’ meetings with voice but no vote.

Now the tax. Residential rent is exempt from the 13% value-added tax only while the monthly rent is at or below 1.5 salarios base. Above that, the 13% applies to the whole rent, not just the excess. The salario base for 2026 is ¢462,200 (about US$1,027), so the threshold is ¢693,300 a month (about US$1,541). At ¢700,000 (about US$1,556) the tax is ¢91,000 a month (about US$202). Commercial leases pay 13% regardless of amount.

What nobody can tell you

Four things could not be sourced, and a guide that states them is guessing. No Costa Rican body publishes a standard rental agency commission, so treat any quoted convention as negotiable. The tourism board list of designated tourist zones could not be located, which leaves the coastal exclusion genuinely open. Deposit-return timing is market custom, not law, because the statute is silent. And no survey of condominium maintenance fees exists, since each assembly sets its own under its own rules.

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