Why Costa Rica Real Estate?
Building
Construction
Building on your Costa Rican real estate involves a detailed order. The total cost of construction services alone can be up to 18% of the total cost of the actual construction. Negotiating and bargaining along the way is important with the architect or civil engineer involved in order to keep costs down. If you have the time and language skills, you can save money by serving as the administration for the project to reduce the need for professional involvement. Most importantly, before beginning the actual construction, have your attorney review the agreements and documentation that you and your architect create!
The first step in the construction process is an initial study. The initial study should cost about 0.5% of the total project cost. This is usually done to make sure that the developing of the plans matches what is going to be feasible in practice. This helps avoid needing to make changes further along in the process which can by extremely costly.
The next step is the draft design. The draft design is done between you and your architect or civil engineer at the pre-construction phase. This is the time when you communicate your expectations and desires for the project. Typically the cost will be between 1% and 2% of the cost of construction. After completing ad agreeing upon the draft design, the architect will compose a site plan and some preliminary drawings for your review. All architects have computer programs that enable a three dimensional view of the sketches. If the two dimensional versions do not bring the architects plans to life for you, it is important to ask that you see the 3D versions to avoid any differences between their plans and yours.
The technical specifications and the final construction plans cost roughly 4% to 5% of the total cost of construction. Your architect will present to you a final version of the plan that will be communicated with the construction team for the entire building process. This is the last chance to make corrections to the plans in a cost effective manner so make sure that you are completely satisfied with the plan.
Upon your approval, the plans will be sent to the Costa Rican Association of Engineers and Architects for their approval. The final construction plans must include: a distribution plan, a site plan, roof design, gutter design, elevation, interior fittings, mechanical layout, sanitary plan, finishings, electrical layout, structural plans, footing design, support beam design, longitude perspectives and a transversal.
Once the Association approves the design, you and the architect should create a budget. The cost of creating a budget with itemized expenses for materials, services and labor is roughly 1% of the total construction cost. At this point construction can begin.
When construction is ready to commence, setting up a supervision plan is crucial. This allows mistakes and miscommunication to be caught early and fixed without too much time or money lost. Setting up an inspection plan where your architect or engineer makes a site visit a couple of times a week to ensure that the general contractor is on schedule and following the plan is the bare minimum supervision. These visits should also be used to verify that the correct materials are being used and the invoice is within the expected budget. This costs between 3% and 4% to do.
For larger projects it may be ideal to have your engineer or architect perform technical supervision in which they are on site daily and are more hands on in each step of construction to ensure success. Typically this costs up to 6% to perform.
The best way to guarantee a project that results in your complete satisfaction is to have your architect serve as the administrator for the project. When setting this up, it must be in writing that they are completely responsible for the successful completion of the project. Adding this kind of accountability is ideal, but it usually costs twice as much as technical supervision.