Buying a house and obtaining residency are neighboring projects that people keep trying to merge. They share a lawyer sometimes, and a flight sometimes, and almost nothing else. Residency is an immigration filing. The deed is a property filing. The three categories foreign homeowners actually discuss are pensionado, rentista, and inversionista. Each has a test. Only two of those tests have a dollar figure stable enough to print. See Retirement guide.
A pension, or other stable income
Pensionado residency rests on a lifetime pension of at least US $1,000 a month. That is the figure in the immigration statute people cite for this category. The pension has to be the kind of income the application describes, documented the way the current checklist describes. A brokerage account you could draw from is not automatically a lifetime pension.
Rentista residency rests on stable income of at least US $2,500 a month. The immigration authority’s materials expect a bank certification. Where the money comes from abroad, they expect evidence that it moves through the national banking system on a monthly rhythm. Some advisors describe a long run of documented transfers, on the order of two years. Treat the length of that history as something to confirm on the current requirements sheet, not as a number to memorize from a secondary article. The income floor itself is the part that has stayed put.
The investor category, without a false precision
Inversionista residency is a qualifying investment: property, shares, or an approved project, held in the applicant’s personal name, with municipal-tax and solidarity-tax receipts in the file. After July 14, 2026, public commentaries do not agree on the dollar threshold. Some attorneys and firms say the figure associated with the recent incentive law continues. Others say the category reverted to an older, higher number. Both camps are loud. Neither gets to be “the” number on this page.
Confirm the current amount with the immigration attorney who will sign the filing, before you choose a house to fit a threshold you read online. That includes any lower figure discussed for forestry projects. A second transfer, just to put a company-owned house into your personal name, is an expensive way to discover the rule. Temporary residency, once granted, lasts up to two years. Permanent residency is available after three consecutive years. You will need to be in Costa Rica at least once before filing, and you will need to attend the DIMEX biometrics appointment in person.
What expired in July 2026, and what CAJA adds
Law 9996’s tax benefits for new residents — duty-free household goods, up to two vehicles, and a 20 percent reduction in transfer tax — expired for applications filed after July 14, 2026. The filing date decides, not the day you are approved. Do not buy a container of furniture on the theory that an application already in the queue will be judged by the approval date.
Residents enroll in the public health system, the CCSS, still called CAJA in every kitchen in this country, and they stay enrolled if they want renewals. Contributions are a percentage of declared income and are billed in colones. The scale is adjusted over time. This page does not print a percentage or a sample monthly bill, because the figure should come from CCSS or from the residency firm reading the current table, not from a real-estate site. Many residents carry a private policy beside CAJA. Owning a house does not enroll you, and it does not excuse you.