Beachfront homes and condos

This is a portion of the Playa Langosta beachfront.  The glass house that I showed in yesterday's photo is visible in the center of this photo.  The new hi-rise condos are not as close to the beachfront homes as it appears in this photo, as the telephoto lens compresses the distance between them, which is about 2 blocks.

The house on the left with the dome peeking above the trees has Moroccan architecture.  It was designed by Abraham Valenzuela, the award-winning Costa Rican architect who designed both of the buildings in which our condos are located.  Our Langosta condo is about a block to the right of this photo. 

The height of the new condo buildings that you see in this photo is controversial in the community.  The President of Costa Rica last year issued an executive order that limits the height of buildings near the ocean in our area of Northwest Costa Rica.  The condos shown in this photo could no longer be legally built today.

Of course today, there are not many new condo projects being built because the demand has dropped off due to the worldwide recession.  Most of the condos are marketed to visitors from the USA and Canada seeking vacation and retirement homes.  With so many people having lost equity in their primary residences and having lost value of their investment portfolios, they lack the extra money for second home or condo purchases.  Hopefully, the market will return to health and growth in a year or so.