Peninsula Papagayo Concession Resale ICT Approval: Fees, Steps and Terms

On February 16, 2026, the board of the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo, or ICT, approved the full transfer of a 4,282.59 square meter concession on the Gulf of Papagayo. Residencia Turística Estero Pedregoso, Limitada assigned it to Ecodesarrollo Papagayo, Limitada. The fee due to ICT before the contract could be signed was US$7,537.36.

That figure works out to about $1.76 per square meter. For land on the same peninsula as Four Seasons and a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, it barely registers. That small number is the point of this post. In a Papagayo resale, the government's fee is a minor line on the settlement statement. The items that decide whether a transfer goes smoothly are elsewhere in the file: the approval sequence, the legal path the transfer takes, and the term written into the specific concession you are buying.

The developer's Nekajui due-diligence summary says that every residence on Peninsula Papagayo sits on land registered to ICT. It also says that words like "title" and "ownership," when used about Papagayo real estate, mean a concession interest, not fee-simple ownership. Most cross-border buyers have heard that much. The ICT board minutes show what it looks like in practice.

The Fee Is the Smallest Number in the File

ICT publishes the minutes of its Junta Directiva, and recent sessions include several Papagayo concession transfers with exact amounts. The fee is consistent across them.

ICT does not publish a single per-meter rate in the material we reviewed. The $1.76 figure is our own math from these three approvals. Under ICT's consolidated regulation, the rate is adjusted each year using a twelve-month average of the SOFR rate, and the amount owed is the one in force on the day the board approves the transfer. For a condominium unit, the regulation assigns the cession fee by the unit's proportional share of the land under the building, so a buyer pays on that share, not on the whole parcel.

So no buyer will lose sleep over the fee. The friction is in the path that leads to it.

The Board Calendar Sets the Pace

The current Article 12 of the Papagayo regulation, as amended by Executive Decree 45823-MP and published in La Gaceta on June 16, 2026, gives the ICT Junta Directiva authority over a long list of acts. These include total or partial cessions, segregations, encumbrances of any kind, transfers into trust, condominium submissions, and any act that requires changing a concession contract. These requirements appear in the same consolidated regulation.

The minutes show a consistent sequence:

1. The Dirección Ejecutiva of the Papagayo project issues a technical opinion, and ICT's Asesoría Legal issues a legal opinion.
2. The Consejo Director of the Polo Turístico reviews the file and sends a recommendation to the board.
3. The Junta Directiva approves the transfer and states the fee.
4. The assignee pays the canon de cesión, and only then is the contract or addendum signed and recorded in the Registro Nacional de Concesiones.

The timing varies. Both February 2026 transfers were recommended by the Consejo Director on February 9 and approved by the board a week later. Their technical files, though, carry 2025 reference numbers, so they were in process before the new year. Here is another example. For the Mangroove hotel and residential condominium, where Enjoy Hotels & Resorts S.A. was the concessionaire and the units were held in trust with Banco Improsa, the Consejo Director acted on September 22, 2025. The board then authorized registration of the four filial lots on November 29, 2025, about ten weeks later. That approval was needed even though the condominium itself had already been approved.

For a buyer, this means a closing date on Peninsula Papagayo depends partly on a government agenda. A purchase agreement that assumes a quick close, with no room for that cycle, sets the deal up for stress.

The paperwork also lands on the buyer. Anyone acquiring a concession by cession has to show they meet the requirements to be a concessionaire. The annex requires a notarized certification of share ownership that confirms compliance with Costa Rica's beneficial-ownership reporting under Law 9416. It also requires sworn declarations on financial capacity and the absence of criminal records, plus a cadastral plan of the area being transferred. The construction-proposal requirement drops away when the concession is an already built residential unit.

Two Paths, Two Different Offices

The minutes also show a naming pattern. Concessions on the peninsula are often held by a company named for the residence, such as Residencia Turística Gobio Cabeza Roja or Residencia Turística Bahías y Corales. That matters because a resale can happen at two levels.

The first is a cession of the concession itself, which goes through the board process described above. The second is a sale of the company that holds the concession. The regulation handles that separately as an accreditation of a share-capital transfer, filed with the Dirección Ejecutiva. The filing includes a notarized record of the shareholders' meeting naming the new owners, along with statements on criminal records and the company's continued financial solvency.

The developer's due-diligence summary for Nekajui, the Ritz-Carlton Reserve residences, reflects the company-level path. It says that at closing, the parties notify ICT that ownership of the Costa Rican company has been transferred to the purchaser.

Either path keeps ICT involved, just at a different office with a different file. Your Costa Rican attorney should be able to tell you early which route the seller's structure requires. Learning it late is how a closing date slips.

The Date That Belongs in the Price Is 2042

The term is where the real diligence sits. Nekajui's buyer summary describes each Peninsula Papagayo concession as having an initial 49-year term that began January 15, 1993. A renewal fee for a second 49-year term starting January 15, 2042 was prepaid under the Master Concession Agreement. Further 50-year renewals become available from 2091. That second term is subject to the extension language included in each unit's own concession agreement.

The board minutes show that this extension is not always recorded the same way on each contract. In August 2025, the board noted that the original term of the Gobio Cabeza Roja concession ran to 2042. Ecodesarrollo's concession, by contrast, carried an automatic extension to 2091. The board approved a 49-year extension on the transferred area, running from January 15, 2042 to January 15, 2091, for a separate fee of US$746.18. In February 2026, the Estero Pedregoso consolidation also included an extension to 2091, at a fee of US$768.04. At the same meeting, the Bahías y Corales transfer was approved with both concessions keeping a 49-year term from January 15, 1993 to January 15, 2042. The board did not change it.

None of this suggests a concession with a 2042 date on its contract cannot be extended. The extension fees in these minutes are smaller than the cession fees. Still, from today, 2042 is a little more than fifteen years away. That is within the horizon of a typical mortgage, and within the period a future buyer's attorney will review. A concession whose recorded term already runs to 2091 is a simpler asset to resell than one where the extension is a right that has not yet been written into the contract. Your attorney should confirm the recorded term from the registry, not from marketing material.

The Annual Cost Tied to the Concession

Concessions also carry an annual charge paid to the municipality. ICT sets the value of the concession, and the municipality applies a yearly rate by authorized use. That rate is 3% for tourist-residential, 4% for hotel, and 5% for commercial. For condominium units, each buyer is responsible for a share proportional to their unit's ownership coefficient. The tax base is ICT's assessed concession value, not the purchase price. Ask the seller for recent canon receipts so you can see the number you will actually be paying.

A Bill That Would Have Changed All of This

In January 2026, Deputy Cynthia Córdoba Serrano filed bill 25.367, titled "Papagayo en Equilibrio." Bill 25.367 would have reaffirmed that the Papagayo project is for tourism, not residential real estate. It would also have made non-transferability the general rule for concessions and added public beneficial-ownership registries. The Legislative Assembly's register shows the bill archived on April 28, 2026 under Article 81 bis, so it did not become law.

The bill still matters in two ways. Its target was the transfer mechanism described above, which shows where the policy debate is focused. It also explains why clean files have value. A concession with a recorded long term, a current beneficial-ownership certification, and a straightforward transfer history is the kind of asset that holds up best under whatever rules come next.

New homes will enter the same system. In February 2026, Peninsula Papagayo announced a second oceanfront Andaz Residences neighborhood with 35 homes, developed by Mohari Hospitality and Gencom. Prices start under $4 million, construction was planned to begin in mid-2026, and completion is anticipated in 2028. Those homes, like every resale, will pass through ICT on their way to an owner.

Nothing here is legal or tax advice. Every concession contract is different, and a Costa Rican attorney should review the specific file before you commit.

If you are weighing a Peninsula Papagayo resale and want to know early which transfer path it requires, what term is recorded, and what the board calendar means for your closing date, ACT Costa Rica can review the file with you and your counsel. Request a Private Consultation.