Lush Model in Kalia's Emerald Woods Village

For a gorgeously appointed, luxurious yet ecological home in Costa Rica, look no further than Kalia. Nestled against the Costa Rica jungle with views of the Pacific Ocean, Kalia is comprised of four villages with nine different model homes to choose from. Each home is chosen specifically for each residential lot to minimize the development’s impact on Costa Rica’s natural terrain. We have already shared details about the Breeze and Mist model homes, and this time we would like to introduce you to the Lush.

The Lush

The aptly named Lush is enclosed by floor to ceiling glass windows for 360 degree views of the surrounding natural beauty. The Lush boasts nearly 5,500 square feet of living space with over 2,500 square feet of indoor living space and nearly 2,900 square feet of outdoor living space. The home has three spacious bedrooms with the option of a fourth bedroom from the current family room. Water mirrors surround the home, giving each bedroom a serene aquatic view. A large pool just off the living room and dining room is the perfect spot to take an afternoon dip in the pool, or the ideal place for hosting weekend barbeques and pool parties.

Beautiful Panoramic Views From the Interior

The Lush is one of the few Kalia homes that is all on one level, making it easy to reside in for families with younger children or senior citizens. The single level also means that Lush is an entertainer’s dream vacation home, especially since the home is built around a courtyard for an intimate, welcoming feel. And of course, as with all Kalia homes, the Lush home has convenient access to all the planned amenities the Kalia community will offer including world class spas, workout centers, restaurants and walking trails. For more about the Lush home, please visit Kalia’s website.

Mist Model in Kalia's Ruby Sky Village

As a child, many of us dream about living in our own special treehouse, set high above the rest of the world with a sweeping aerial view of the world below. The inspiration in designing Kalia’s Mist model home was to recapture that unparalleled feeling of freedom, perspective and airiness amidst the sprawling Costa Rica jungle; a state of the art modern tree house with all the luxury amenities you’ve become accustomed to living with. Gorgeous views of the ocean and surrounding jungle, beautiful water features and thousands of square feet of decks and balconies make living in a treehouse a desirable reality.

Residents of the Mist model home enter their luxury abode through a walkway floating over one of the home’s numerous water features. Providing a soothing visual effect, the water features also work to naturally cool the Mist home. An infinity edge pool is the perfect place to take a refreshing dip in the warm Costa Rica afternoons, and the surrounding gardens are filled with native Costa Rica plant life that requires little extra care and watering. These gardens, along with the Mist’s unique rooftop gardens, are there to be enjoyed and to provide a sustainable benefit to the home, not to create additional work for the home’s residents.

All three luxurious bedrooms are upstairs on the second floor of the Mist, furnished with sustainable furniture and decorated with eco-friendly and sustainably sourced interior design materials. To maximize the home’s incredible treehouse effect, each bedroom has a private cantilevered balcony for spectacular views of Costa Rica. With over 4,800 square feet of indoor and outdoor living space, the Mist is the treehouse you dreamed of as a kid, with the luxury amenities and commitment to sustainability you desire as an adult.

Mist Interior Render

The Orchid house is named so because it was modeled after a bee orchid found in the Cotswold nature reserve. The 550 acre privately owned reserve will eventually be home to the Orchid house, which is being built on the edge of a lake. The home will produce more energy than it uses with a complex system that captures geothermal energy and utilizes an underground pump. Shaped like an egg with a camouflage shingled roof, the Orchid house is also known as the most expensive eco-home sold to date. An anonymous bidder purchased the 2400 square foot English home for 7.2 million pounds, which averages roughly 3,000 pounds per square foot.

Acqua Liana in Florida

Pet project of luxury real estate developer Frank McKinney, Acqua Liana is located on an acre and a half of prime real estate in Palm Beach. The 15,000 square foot mega mansion boasts basketball court-sized solar panels, gray water recycling, reclaimed wood throughout and 34,000 pounds of recycled trash and debris from the building process. Walking into the home’s entrance, the first thing guests will be struck by is the amazing atrium that makes people feel like they are floating in a  magic underwater world. Glass floors, a floating spiral staircase and continual water motif runs throughout the home for an unforgettable green experience. And for the $29 million asking price, it better be unforgettable.

Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula

Whether you are a weary traveler in need of blissful escape or a wealthy expatriate looking for a new pied-a-terre, these beach front properties are the place to be. Sweeping ocean views, rich culture and great activities place the Nicoya Peninsula, Cable Beach and Antibes high on our exclusive list of locations.

Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica

More than just a single beach, the Nicoya Peninsula is a stunning expanse of beautiful beaches. Since much of Costa Rica’s coastline is protected through national parks and nature preserves, the majority of the ocean front property is natural and undeveloped. Not only does the Nicoya Peninsula offer both blissful beaches and wildlife-laden rainforests, it is also considered one of the world’s biggest blue zones; areas where residents live unusually long, healthy and satisfied lives. Thanks to new eco-friendly coastal developments like Kalia, expats with an eye for luxury living can own their own dream property on the pristine peninsula and spend their free time saving endangered Leatherback turtles from extinction, hiking through lush rainforests and taking sunset boat tours through winding crystal rivers.

Cable Beach, Australia

Cable Beach

Renowned as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Cable Beach is a flawless stretch of white sand beaches along the Indian Ocean. Blessed with year-round gorgeous weather, Cable Beach’s remote location helps high stress executives escape the fast-paced daily life and truly relax. Among the unique activities on Cable Beach is the sunset camel ride along the shore, which is definitely something to be experienced. Adventure lovers will revel in the freefall skydiving and excellent surfing conditions that characterize the destination. (source: goAustralia.about.com)

Antibes Beach

Antibes, France

Studded with 48 different beaches along the fifteen miles of coastline, Antibes is lush with history and beach front beauty. The dramatic rocky cliffs that characterize Antibes’ beach front property offer breathtakingly gorgeous views of the crystal blue waves breaking along the shoreline. For entertainment, travelers and residents can revel in the culture and history of Antibes’ abundant music festivals, theater, and museums. Well heeled shopaholics can also enjoy the famed shopping among ritzy Antibes boutiques.

(source: wikipedia)

Foreigners who want to own property in the lush expanse of Costa Rica should first become familiar with the country’s real estate laws. As with any foreign real estate purchase, understanding the country’s particular rules, regulations and procedures is invaluable in buying real estate. To help future buyers in their endeavors, we are going to pen a regular series about navigating the Costa Rica real estate laws to tackle topics such as titles and transfers, ensuring a clear title, closing costs, mortgages, property taxes and utilities and corporate property. Today we’ll begin the series with a brief background on Costa Rica real estate titles and transfers for foreign buyers.

Costa Rica Titles and Transfers

One of the first processes encountered in purchasing a Costa Rica property is titles and transfers. In Costa Rica, real estate is transferred through the execution of a property transfer deed. The fee simple deed involved is very similar to real estate ownership in the United States, which is likely why so many Americans are comfortable owning real estate in Costa Rica. The property transfer must be done in the presence of a Costa Rica notary public who is also an attorney and has the power to draft and interpret legal documents as well as authenticate and certify them.

To close on the sale of the Costa Rica real estate property or home, the deed transfer and sale must be registered in an office known as the National Registry, where all Costa Rica real estate deeds are filed. Costa Rican real estate can be purchased in one person’s name, jointly with other individuals, or under the name of a corporation. Deciding what is best for your situation can be done by consulting with an attorney who is versed in Costa Rican real estate laws. Once you have the title for your new Costa Rica dream home, you are one step closer to living in paradise.

Source: Roger Peterson, San Jose-based lawyer specializing in foreign real estate purchase in Costa Rica

We recently came across a fascinating article about purchasing real estate in Costa Rica, and wanted to share the exciting information for those interested in owning a gorgeous property there. The article discusses Costa Rica’s rating as the #2 most attractive country in Latin America by Foreign Direct Investment Magazine.

Visitors and expatriates now have another compelling reason to visit Costa Rica: The blissful country ranks #1 on the Happy Planet Index, created by the New Economics Foundation. The Happy Planet Index measures how well a country uses its natural resources to create long and happy lives for its citizens. Costa Rica’s abundant natural resources enable its people to live happily and healthily to the average ripe old age of 79 (National Geographic). Read all about why Costa Rica is such a great place to live in the original article on the Happy Planet Index website.

This model home, known as the Lush, features a green landscaped roof and special water features to cool the home, solar energy to regulate the pool’s temperature and a gray water recycling system to water the landscaping.

Rooftop gardens overflowing with lush local vegetation, sprawling modern pied-a-terres and oversized lots are just some of the features in the sexy new wave of luxury green living. What was once considered a frivolous, hippie driven movement has become the preferential way to live – eco-friendly and fabulous; minimal impact on the natural environment paired with maximum comfort and luxury for the home owner.

Green living may have had Spartan beginnings, but the sustainable trend has since reached the upper echelons of society. Luxury green living is a status symbol embraced by eco-conscious celebrities, aristocrats and business moguls who spare no expense or luxury while living a green lifestyle. Celebs with major star power are building and buying green homes including: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Rachel McAdams and Daryl Hannah, to name a few. The luxury green living movement is also spreading like wildfire beyond the borders of North America and Europe, taking countries like Costa Rica by storm.

This home is currently under construction in Kalia's Emerald Woods Village in the area of Marbella in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

Renowned for its unspoiled biodiversity, abundant national parks and stunning vistas, the effort to keep Costa Rica’s natural beauty intact has resulted in a number of luxury green living options for natives and foreigners alike. Gorgeous new socially responsible housing developments are popping up across Costa Rica, promising eco-friendly luxury homes, condos and apartments. Many of these Costa Rican luxury green living communities are catering specifically to a discriminating foreign clientele with rich on-site amenities, exclusive gated communities and stunningly modern home designs. Included in these luxury amenities are sprawling golf courses, tennis courts, spas, restaurants and fitness centers that are designed using sustainable, local materials, native plants and built in low density to maintain the natural surroundings. Kalia is lucky to be a green luxury living community  located on Costa Rica’s Pacific Northwest coast. For more info on Kalia’s eco-luxury lifestyle, please visit our main website, kalialiving.com.

A model home under construction in Kalia's Black Beauty Village in the area of Playa Ostional in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

Imagine waking up every day to the sound of ocean waves laced with distant calls of the macaw in the rustling of the rainforest. In this beautiful land, your schedule for the day might include a dip in the ocean, hiking beneath majestic canopies of flora and catching a nap beneath a banana tree. If this scenario sounds too good to be true, you haven’t lived in Costa Rica.

After visiting Costa Rica, the pristine beaches, rainforests and happy locals are like a siren song calling you back again and again. A growing economy, political stability, and the tourist-friendly people are a few more reasons Costa Rica is becoming an increasingly popular place for foreigners to own a home. Owning a home in Costa Rica offers a welcome refuge from the daily rat race of working a 9-5 job in the United States or Europe. Whereas Americans and Europeans tend to focus on getting ahead and acquiring physical possessions, the people of Costa Rica place an emphasis on enjoying life’s simple pleasures and the beauty of being immersed in nature. University of Washington studies have shown that being in natural greenery for just twenty minutes at a time substantially lowers stress levels, which perhaps accounts for why Costa Rica residents are ranked among the happiest in the world. (Source: www.happyplanetindex.org)

Surprisingly, owning a home in Costa Rica is easier than one might think. A whopping 20% of Costa Rica’s population is currently comprised of foreigners living abroad, of which one third is American. Financing a home is similar to the mortgage structure in the United States, although financing rates are typically a few percentage points higher. However, land taxes are substantially lower, enabling Costa Rican home owners to save a lot more on taxes than they would through buying a home in the U.S. Another allure to becoming a home owner in Costa Rica is the ease with which a foreigner can do business. Travel visas allow people to conduct business for three months at a time, and once they are ready to establish a full time business they can file for a temporary residency permit. (Source: www.costarica.com) Many popular eco-tourism companies, hotels and restaurants are run by expatriates who have joined the leisurely, enjoyable pace of life that Costa Rica has to offer.

One of the best and easiest ways to buy and own a home in Costa Rica is to find a housing development built by an American-based company. This gives foreigners the hands-on guidance and help they might need to navigate through local laws, financing and regulations, ensuring that they have a smooth, positive experience purchasing their Costa Rican dream home.