Every week someone asks us the same question. Should we be looking at Montezuma or Santa Teresa? It sounds like a choice between two flavors of the same thing. About 35 minutes of road separate them. They share the same peninsula, the same dry-season light, the same supermarkets in Cóbano, where we are based. But from where we sit, they are different answers to different questions, and picking the wrong one is an expensive way to find out who you are.
Two towns that chose differently
Montezuma decided, somewhere along the way, not to grow up. It is still a small village: one main street, a waterfall you walk to, musicians in the plaza, and a protected reserve at its back. If you plan to work online there, test the connection on the lot itself.
Santa Teresa made the opposite choice, and made it a decade ago. It is now an international surf town, with serious restaurants, coworking spaces, gyms, a fully paved main road, a beach break that works most of the year, and the prices that come with all of it.
The national brokerage 2 Costa Rica Real Estate put the town’s average asking price at $1.67 million in the year to September 2025, about 50 percent above Tamarindo. Despite the reputation for scarcity, the brokerage’s listings in the Santa Teresa area, from Mal País to Playa Hermosa, rose from 181 in September 2025 to about 200 now. In our experience, what stays scarce is a titled ocean-view lot with confirmed water, close to the beach road.
What daily life costs
As The Tico Times reported in June, a single person in Santa Teresa can spend $3,000 a month or more, a couple $4,000 to $5,000 or more, and a two-bedroom rental near the beach runs $1,200 to more than $2,500. That is the same bracket as Tamarindo and Nosara, and a long way above the $1,600 to $2,200 that covers one person in inland towns such as Atenas and Grecia.
Montezuma runs lower. Going by our own clients’ budgets, a single person renting a modest place away from the beach can still manage on under $2,000 a month. In Santa Teresa you are paying for infrastructure Montezuma does not have. If you need that infrastructure, it is worth every colón. If you do not, you are subsidizing other people’s lifestyle.
On healthcare, neither town has the edge. Both drive to Cóbano for the clinic, and the nearest public hospitals are across the ferry in Puntarenas or a long drive away in Nicoya. Retirees should plan around that fact before they plan around either town’s charm.
What your budget buys
Here is the arithmetic we walk buyers through, from our own listings this month. In Montezuma we have 44 active listings with a median asking price of $585,000. Among the 23 houses, the median is $749,000, and the entry point is $300,000 for a two-bedroom that still needs finishing. The 13 houses with an ocean view have a median of about $1.3 million.
In Santa Teresa, the same brokerage’s asking prices averaged $1.56 million between August 20 and September 20, pulled up by a few listings above $10 million. In our experience, half a million dollars there buys a condo, or a lot you will still have to build on. We list almost nothing there ourselves.
Then there are two places few buyers ask about. Cabuya, about 15 minutes past Montezuma at the edge of the Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve, where we have 26 active listings at a median of $360,000, the lowest of any beach-access community we cover. And Delicias, in the hills about 3 kilometers (2 miles) west of Montezuma and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) south of Cóbano, with 25 listings at a median of $398,000, on unpaved roads that get heavy in September and October.
Titled land, concessions and water
The fact newcomers most often miss is a legal one. Both towns sit on a coast governed by Costa Rica’s Maritime Terrestrial Zone Law, Law 6043. The first 50 meters (164 feet) from the high-tide line is public. The next 150 meters (492 feet) is state land, held only on a municipal concession, with a five-year residency requirement for foreigners.
In letters dated September 27 and October 30, 2024, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), the state’s legal adviser, reminded Cóbano’s district council that forest and wetland belong to the state’s natural heritage. That land is managed by the Environment Ministry (MINAE) through its National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), and it cannot be granted or renewed as a concession. A concession that turns out to include either is at risk.
Concessions also need a coastal zoning plan. Santa Teresa’s has been in force since March 2000 and Cabuya-Montezuma’s since September 2016. Mal País, Playa Carmen, Playa Hermosa and part of Manzanillo have plans from 2001 to 2005, and parts of the coast have none. In August a Cóbano council member said the current plans from Mal País to Manzanillo lack approval from the National Technical Environmental Secretariat (SETENA), and the intendant, the district’s elected executive, agreed. We know of no court ruling against them.
Many of Santa Teresa’s most photogenic addresses sit inside the maritime zone. Of the 44 properties we list in Montezuma, 41 are titled. Titled property closes faster, finances more easily and resells more cleanly. Ask which kind you are looking at before you fall in love. The answer is sometimes the entire explanation for a tempting price.
In both towns, the first question on any lot is water. Community water associations, known as ASADAs, issue the availability letters, and the Federated College of Engineers and Architects (CFIA) reported in May that missing letters were delaying projects across the country by months. No water letter, no building permit. It is the least romantic sentence in Costa Rican real estate and the most important one.
The wider picture
Costa Rica’s tourism slowed in 2025: arrivals by air, land and sea grew only 0.8 percent to 2.94 million, according to the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), and it took a strong fourth quarter to turn the year around. From January to August this year, arrivals rose 5.3 percent to 2.19 million, though growth from the United States, the biggest market, faded after April, and air arrivals fell 5.9 percent in August.
The Costa Rican Hotel Chamber projected 82 percent Easter occupancy for the Puntarenas region against 91 percent for Guanacaste. Our reading is that demand is real, the boom is no longer automatic, and the properties that fill in May are the ones that give people a reason to visit beyond the beach.
So which one?
Choose Montezuma if you want a village you can walk, nature at your property line, more house for your money, and you can live happily with fewer conveniences. Choose Santa Teresa if surf and infrastructure are daily requirements and you accept the entry price.
And know that there is a third answer. Some buyers who start out comparing these two towns end up in Cabuya or Delicias, where median asking prices on our listings sit well below Montezuma’s. Whichever you are weighing, stay a week in each place before you buy, and be honest with yourself about which version of you is moving here.
About the Author
Tierra Tropical is a real estate agency based in Cóbano, covering the southern Nicoya Peninsula from Montezuma to Santa Teresa. Its town guides and current listings are at tierra-tropical.com.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Before buying, have a licensed Costa Rican attorney review any maritime zone or concession question.
