Rents in Costa Rica are climbing almost 10 times faster than prices in general. If you are partway through a lease, though, the law limits how much of that your landlord can pass on to you. Housing rents rose 3.27% in the 12 months through September, according to consumer price data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC). Overall inflation over the same period was just 0.34%, and prices are down 0.39% so far this year.
Rents rose 0.43% in September alone, making them one of the five items that pushed the monthly index up, according to an analysis by the Center for Financial and Real Estate Business Studies (Cenfi). Cenfi expects rents to end the year 3.54% higher. That projection is not what you will pay if you already have a lease.
Cenfi executive director Melizandro Quirós said the market figure applies to people looking for a new rental or renewing an expired contract, not to the yearly adjustment inside an existing one. If your rent is set in colones, your landlord can raise it once a year, on the lease anniversary, by no more than inflation over the previous 12 months. The latest figure is 0.34%, so on a ₡300,000 monthly rent the most you can be charged is about ₡1,020 more, or roughly $2.
Your landlord can also choose a smaller increase or none at all, and any increase above the legal limit is void. While 12-month inflation was negative, as it was for 16 straight months until August, landlords could not raise colón rents at all, though the law does not require them to cut rent when prices fall.
If your rent is set in dollars, it cannot go up at all during the contract. The law fixes dollar rents for the full term because the currency already does the adjusting, and any change requires both you and your landlord to agree in writing. You can also pay a dollar rent in colones at the Central Bank’s reference sell rate on the day you pay. With the dollar near ₡450, that means a fixed dollar rent currently costs fewer colones than it did a year ago.
The real exposure comes at renewal as housing leases run for at least three years under the law, and if your contract has no automatic renewal clause, your landlord must tell you in writing at least three months before it ends what the rent will be if you stay. That is when market prices come into play. Using Cenfi’s projection, a ₡300,000 rent would rise to about ₡310,620, which is ₡10,620 more per month, or ₡127,440 a year (about $23 a month and $280 a year).
Before you sign a renewal, compare the new figure with similar listings nearby. Quirós said actual prices depend on location, size, number of bedrooms and local supply and demand, so some households will see increases well above the average. More than 361,000 homes in Costa Rica are rented, housing roughly 1.5 million people, according to the latest housing sector report by the Federated College of Engineers and Architects (CFIA) and the University of Costa Rica. The share of households that rent rose 19% between 2020 and 2024.
INEC publishes the consumer price index every month, and the Ministry of Housing and Human Settlements uses it to set the maximum yearly adjustment for colón leases.
