Homes/Villas/Condos
As 95% of beachfront property in Costa Rica is concession land, owning a house/villa/condo on this land is a bit different from owning the same in the U.S. The developers of the concession land, or concessionaires, have the right to use the land. When you buy a house/villa/condo on that land, you are also buying into the right to that land, and thus your house/villa/condo.
Buying a house/villa/condo on land other than concession land is just like buying the same in the United States. With the purchase, you will receive the title to the land the house/villa/condo you are buying.
Titled/Fee Simple Land
In Costa Rica, foreigners can own titled property in their own names and can share the same rights to it as a Costa Rican citizen. There are two documents which, similar to the states, describe "titled" or fee simple property (land outside the beach zone.) The first document is the title itself or escritura. Titles are registered in the national registry or Registro Nacional, and show ownership along with any liens, mortgages, or judgments. The second document is the registered survey map or plano catastrado. The plano serves the purpose of recording measurements, size and location along with other useful information like whether the land falls inside restricted areas. The escritura and the plano are individual documents referring to the same piece of property. The plano may reflect a previous owner's name. Both documents must be checked to verify that ownership and mapping coincide with the same piece of land. These two departments of the National Registry are currently making internal changes to make the process more efficient. Once a property is titled for the very first time (original inscription), there is a three-year "incubation period" where third parties can make a claim. However, any new claims must carry a fair amount of proof before a title can be challenged. After three years, a claim can still be filed but calls for extraordinary circumstances. There is a ten-year statue of limitations for such claims.
Untitled land is also called "possession" land. Most of the land in Costa Rica falls in this category. Even though many lands are untitled, it does not mean that they do not qualify for title. In a possession scenario, it is the recording of the legal transaction that establishes possession or ownership rights... not a title. The reason for this is that for many years, farmers and settlers (for any number of reasons) never applied for their title but possessed the land in a "legal manner", established boundaries and transferred rights through private documentation. When properly recorded, these rights are completely legal, fully transferable and can qualify for inscription in the national registry as fee simple title. Legitimate possession rights can be demonstrated by researching the history of ownership recorded through private documentation. The bill of sale or carta de venta shows transfer of ownership and describes the property in words relating to the surrounding properties and well defined landmarks. This information, typically obtained with the help of a lawyer, can then be added to the National Registry.
On the other side of the possession issue are lands occupied and claimed by illegitimate settlers or "squatters". A squatter is someone claiming rights of ownership of the land but that has no "ownership documentation". They have simply occupied the land for a certain amount of time. In these cases, there may be some form of rights established, but it is more difficult to define. Sometimes there is a clear distinction between "legitimate possession" and "illegitimate possession" and sometimes there is not.