Residential Developments

Costa Verde Estates

A private mountain sanctuary above the Pacific.

• 1,000+ acres
• 24-hour guarded gate
• Tennis/Pickleball Court
• Fitness Center

More than a thousand acres of protected rainforest and ridgeline above Dominical. It is the community I explain most often, because it answers the question buyers are really asking: who looks after this when I am not here?

The gate is staffed around the clock and the community is professionally managed by Mabinsa, with a full-time on-site team and groundskeepers. That matters more than an amenity list. Roads, drainage and common areas on this coast degrade fast in green season, and a community without real management shows it within a few years.

The amenities are genuine: a private helipad, a fitness center, a combined tennis and pickleball court, a garbage and recycling center, and Vista Park — the gathering spot with the panoramic view down the coast to the Whale’s Tail. Fiber runs throughout with a twelve-hour battery backup on site, which is the detail that matters when the power goes out and you are on a call. Community dues cover all common-area landscaping and full maintenance of the internal roads twice a year — which is why they are the best-kept in the zone. Water is the unusual part: supply comes through the Puerto Nuevo ASADA, but Costa Verde Estates maintains and manages the system itself, with its own on-site staff — which means faster service and upkeep that stays current.

The parcels are the other thing that sets it apart. Homesites in most communities on this coast are modest, and you can see it — houses sit within sight of one another and the privacy is notional. Here the estates are genuinely estates. You rarely see a neighbor and they rarely see you, which on a ridge where everyone came for the same view is harder to achieve than it sounds.

Not every homesite faces the ocean. The Valley Collection looks east toward the Diamante Waterfall, the tallest in Costa Rica — a different proposition, and for some buyers the better one. Much of the community is built out, but a limited number of premium homesites remain.

Available now: ¡Que Brava! · Casa Luz · Casa Koules · Casa Ola Azul · Whale’s Tail View Estate · 17.59-acre titled lot · Whale’s Tail homesite · Villa Oro Verde

Bella Vista Estates

Boutique luxury above Dominical.

• Gated
• Paved internal roads
• Ridge position

A small collection of homes. That is the whole community, and it is the reason to care about it.

Bella Vista sits on the ridge in Escaleras above Dominical, on the stretch that gave the area its reputation for ocean views. It was originally laid out by the landscape architect Ben Morris with the Paradise Homes team, and the planning shows — the houses are positioned to hold their own outlook rather than stack up behind one another, which is what goes wrong in hillside developments subdivided without much thought.

Paved internal roads throughout. Every residence has the Pacific view and the sunset, and the spacing gives each one real privacy without the isolation you get further up the mountain. Three minutes to the highway, five to the beach.

The trade-off with a community this small is obvious: nothing comes up often. When something does, it tends to move. There is no phased release coming and no remaining inventory to build out, so availability here is entirely a function of who happens to be selling.

The houses are built to a consistent standard — that was the intent from the start — with the indoor-outdoor living this climate rewards. And it is close in: the beaches, restaurants, cafés and shops of Dominical are minutes down the hill, along with the waterfalls people come here for.

Available now: Casa Bella Viña · Casa Horizonte

Las Olas

Boutique mountain living on the lower ridge.

• Gated
• Private internal roads

The Escaleras communities all connect to the same road, and people new to the area tend to treat them as interchangeable. They are not, and the difference that matters most is elevation.

Las Olas sits on the lower edge, along Pacific Edge road. Lower than the rest of Escaleras, while still high enough to hold the long Pacific view. If you have driven Escaleras and found the upper communities further from the water than you expected, this is the one to look at.

It is intimate and gated, a limited collection of custom homes and homesites on private internal roads winding through the community. The spacing between houses is generous, so each property keeps its own setting rather than borrowing its neighbor’s.

Well established at this point, which means opportunities are limited. Existing homes come available occasionally and a small number of homesites remain for someone who wants to build.

It reads as removed from the pace of the coast without actually being far from it. Beaches, restaurants, boutique shops and waterfalls are all a short drive, and both Dominical and Uvita are close enough that you are not committing to one town over the other.

Available now: Casa Belmer

Las Colinas

Elevated living above Playa Hermosa.

• Paved, 2WD access
• Low density
• Near Ballena Academy

Las Colinas is in the Playa Hermosa hills above Uvita, and its single biggest advantage is one most listings bury: the road is paved, and you can reach it in a two-wheel-drive car.

That sounds mundane until you have spent a green season on this coast. A steep unpaved access road changes what your vehicle has to be, what a delivery costs, what a rental guest will tolerate, and what the property is worth to the next buyer. It is one of the first things I check on any hillside listing.

The community is small and still filling in — a handful of completed homes alongside several homesites. The elevated position gives the ocean view and the sunsets, and the low-density layout means each house keeps a genuine sense of openness rather than looking straight into the next lot.

Practical for families: Playa Hermosa is minutes away, Uvita and Dominical are both close, and Ballena Academy is nearby.

The tropical landscape around it does a lot of work — it feels comfortably removed from the activity of the coastline even though it isn’t far from it. This is still an emerging community rather than a finished one, which is a fair part of the argument for buying now rather than later.

Available now: Casa Tango

Dulce Pacífico

Thoughtfully planned. Naturally connected.

• Paved roads & sidewalks
• Underground utilities
• Fiber internet

This is the community I point people to when they want a mountain setting without mountain infrastructure problems.

Paved roads, sidewalks, underground utilities, planned streetscapes. That combination is genuinely rare for a hillside development on this coast, and it is why Dulce Pacífico holds up. Underground utilities in particular: no poles to come down in a storm, and nothing overhead cutting through the view.

Behind the gate it reads as an actual neighborhood rather than a scattering of houses that happen to share a road. Homes are positioned for a mix of outlooks — ocean, mountain, and jungle — and the architecture varies without the community losing coherence.

It is minutes from the beaches, shops, restaurants, schools and everyday services of Uvita, which makes it work for full-time residents and families in a way the more remote ridge communities do not.

Fiber runs to the lots, which matters more than it sounds: it is the difference between working from here and visiting here. The community is deliberately low-density, and homesites are selling in two phases — the elevated ocean-view lots, and a quieter set held further back into the trees.

Unlike most established developments here, Dulce Pacífico still has a real selection of premium homesites alongside completed houses — so you can buy finished or build. The buyer profile is broader than the ridge communities: full-time residents, retirees, families, and second-home buyers all make sense in it.

Available now: Ocean view home bordering a forest reserve

The Terraces of San Martín

Elevated living, effortlessly enjoyed.

• A private pool with each
• Old-growth canopy
• Trail to the beach

Mostly standalone three-bedroom villas of around 3,900 square feet, with a handful of duplexes at about 2,930. Every one of them has its own pool. All of it sits on the bluffs above Playa San Martín, against preserve land.

One number describes the place better than any adjective can. On the larger villa, 1,389 of those square feet are terrace — close to forty per cent of the house is outdoors. That is what people are reaching for when they call it treehouse living, and it is why the rooms feel like part of the canopy rather than a view of it.

The community was planned around what it would not disturb. View corridors are protected by the rainforest preserve alongside, the buildings were set among a grove of old-growth trees for shade and passive cooling, and land inside the concession was given over to the Path of the Tapir biological corridor. Brick interior roads, a private trail system down to the waterfall and the sand, private and public water with a reserve tank, its own wastewater treatment, and a gate staffed around the clock.

The buyer this suits is specific and I see them constantly: someone splitting the year between two countries who wants to lock the door in April and come back in December without wondering what the jungle did in the meantime. There is an administration office on site — on a standalone house on a hillside, that is a caretaker you hire and manage yourself.

The elevated position gets the mountain breeze, the Pacific view and the sunsets, and the beaches, restaurants and shops of Dominical and Uvita are minutes away.

It works as a primary residence, a vacation home or an investment property — and unusually for this coast, about equally well as all three.

Elan at Ballena Beach

Luxury living on the shoreline.

• Beachfront
• Direct beach access
• 24-hour gated

The only beachfront community on this page, and the only one where you are not driving down a mountain to reach the water.

Elan sits on the shore at Playa Ballena near Uvita — a condominium community of contemporary residences with open living spaces and deep terraces. Some look straight out over the ocean; others face the planted grounds and the pools.

Being beachfront on this coast is genuinely rare, and it comes with its own set of questions I would want answered before you commit — how the maritime zone applies, what the condominium regime covers, how the salt air is handled in the maintenance budget. Those are answerable, and I would rather work through them with you than have them surface at closing.

The amenities suit the low-maintenance case: landscaped grounds, swimming pools, direct beach access, and 24-hour gated security, with common areas professionally maintained.

Minutes from the restaurants, shops and services of Uvita, and close to Marino Ballena National Park — the whale watching in season, the sport fishing, the waterfalls inland. A limited collection, and opportunities to buy are limited with it.

Marina Vista I, II & III

Where exceptional homes meet extraordinary views.

• No HOA
• Expansive parcels
• Private road systems

Three established enclaves across the Escaleras mountainsides, originally laid out as separate communities by the same developer. Each has taken on its own character since.

The defining decision here was deliberate: Marina Vista was designed without a homeowners’ association and without shared amenities. For some buyers that is disqualifying, and I would rather say so plainly — there is no association budget, no communal fitness center, no gate staff. For others it is precisely the appeal: no dues, no board, no one voting on what color you paint your house. Each of the three maintains its own private internal road system, so access is looked after without the rest of the apparatus.

The parcels are large and the houses widely spaced, which produces a real sense of privacy and a landscape that still reads as mountainside rather than subdivision. Architecture ranges from contemporary tropical to more traditional Costa Rican estates.

Well established now, and opportunities are increasingly limited — occasional resales and a small number of remaining homesites.

Mature rainforest and established vegetation throughout, which is not something a new development can manufacture — it takes decades. And despite the seclusion, you are in the middle of Escaleras: beaches, restaurants, boutique shopping and waterfalls are all a short drive in either direction.

Escaleras Village

Where mountain living comes together.

• Mixed-use
• Walkable
• Restaurants & market on site

The one community on this list that is not purely residential, and the reason it matters is that mountain living on this coast is usually a trade: you get the view and the quiet, and you give up being able to walk anywhere.

Escaleras Village was planned as a mixed-use community along Escaleras Road, and it has become the place people from the surrounding communities actually gather. Scala is the upscale chef-driven restaurant, open for lunch and dinner. Sibu is the café — coffee, breakfast and lunch, and well regarded for it. Alexa’s Market is a genuine specialty market: what you need to cook dinner at home, plus a serious selection of beer, wine, spirits and gourmet ingredients.

If you have spent time up here you already know these places. Being able to walk to them from your own front door is a different proposition from driving down the mountain for a bottle of wine.

The residential side is a collection of contemporary homes and homesites, many with the ocean view and the sunset. Existing homes come available occasionally; a limited number of homesites remain.

The infrastructure and planning are of a piece with the rest of it, and the surrounding mountain landscape has been left to do what it does. Minutes from the beaches of Dominical and Uvita in either direction.

Las Terrazas

Private living above the coast.

• Gated
• Custom homes
• Generous spacing

A private gated community tucked into the Escaleras mountains above Dominical, and a quiet one — which is the whole proposition.

A single private internal road winds through it, serving a collection of custom homes and homesites that use the elevated topography for the Pacific view and the sunsets. The spacing between properties is generous, so each residence sits in its own setting rather than in a row.

There is no amenity package here and no commercial component. If you want a gate, a road that is looked after, neighbors you rarely see, and a house that is genuinely yours to design, that is what this is. If you want a fitness center and a community park, look at Costa Verde instead — I would rather point you to the right one than sell you the wrong one.

Removed from the activity of the coastline but only minutes from the beaches, restaurants, shops and everyday services of Dominical and Uvita. Well established now, so availability is limited: occasional resales, and a select number of remaining homesites.

What you get in exchange for the absence of amenities is the thing that is hardest to buy back later: a genuinely quiet, well-established gated address in the middle of the Escaleras mountains.

Pura Vida Falls

Inspired by the Nauyaca Waterfalls.

• Paved internal roads
• Underground utilities
• Homesites still available

In the mountains of Barú just east of Dominical, and oriented inland rather than out to sea — which is unusual for this coast and worth understanding before you rule it out.

The community was conceived around the Nauyaca Waterfalls, and many properties look out over that mountain landscape. Some capture Pacific views as well, but the primary outlook here is rainforest and waterfall country. Buyers who arrive fixed on an ocean view sometimes leave having reconsidered, because the setting holds up and the land tends to go further.

The infrastructure is done properly: paved internal roads, underground utilities, a private gated entrance. It is one of the newer communities on the Southern Pacific coast, and that shows in the standard of the groundwork.

Access to the waterfalls themselves — the pools, the hiking trails — is just beyond the community, and the beaches, restaurants and shops of Dominical are a short drive. Living ten minutes from one of the most spectacular waterfall experiences in the country is a different relationship with the place than visiting it once.

The scale is worth knowing: 130 acres divided into 49 lots of two and a half to three and a half acres each, with the remaining ninety per cent of the land left as it was. Two and a half acres is a generous lot for a gated community on this coast, and it is why the place reads as forest with houses in it rather than the reverse. Water is ASADA, electricity is ICE, access holds year round, and the gate is staffed around the clock. Several of the completed homes were designed by Vista Architects.