Tamarindo rentals average US$48,000 a year per listing. Most of it is earned by owners who live abroad, paid out abroad, and never documented in Costa Rica. In November, the country gets audited on exactly that.
Everyone asks what a rental earns. Nobody asks where the money goes.
When a foreign client comes to me about buying a property to rent by the night, we run the numbers together: occupancy, rate, season, competition. That part of the conversation is easy. The part nobody brings up is the one I now ask about first: who is going to receive the money, where is it going to be declared, and what are you going to show the next notary when you want to buy the second property with it?
I pulled twelve months of data for Tamarindo, the strongest short-term rental market in the country (it also leads our ranking of eleven Costa Rican markets). The figures are good. They are also the reason this is a legal problem and not just a financial one.
Roughly 1,500 active listings, about US$48,000 a year each. That is on the order of US$70 million a year flowing through one beach town, most of it to people who do not live here.
That volume is exactly what an anti-money-laundering evaluator looks at. And from November, one will.
What a Tamarindo rental actually produces
| 12-month average | February (peak) | September (low) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Occupancy | 46% | 62% | 28% |
| Average nightly rate | $411 | $432 | $318 |
| Median monthly revenue per listing | — | $4,702 | $1,330 |
| Top 10% monthly revenue per listing | — | $17,278 | $6,414 |
| Active listings | ~1,435 | 1,597 | 1,470 |
AirROI data, trailing twelve months to September 2026, in US dollars. Guests book about 64 days ahead and stay 5.6 nights on average.
Two things stand out. First, the spread: the average is pulled up by a small number of luxury villas, and the median property earns far less than the headline figure suggests. Second, the seasonality: a property that clears US$4,700 in February clears US$1,300 in September. Both matter later in this article, because both are what a seller’s projection tends to hide.
Three places where rental income becomes a legal problem
1. The second purchase: income you never declared cannot be your source of funds
The most common scenario in my office. A client buys a first property with documented savings. Two years later they want a second one, paid in part with what the first one earned. If that income was never declared in Costa Rica, there is no clean way to use it. Banks, notaries and brokers are required under Law 7786 to establish the origin of the funds before closing, and «my Airbnb» with nothing behind it does not pass.
It is worse than an inconvenience. In Costa Rica, tax fraud carries a prison sentence of five to ten years, which places it among the serious offences that can constitute money laundering under Law 7786. Undeclared rental income is not a tax matter that gets fixed with a late filing. It is the kind of thing that stops a closing.
2. The seller’s projections: numbers are part of due diligence now
A seller presents a property with «US$120,000 a year in rental income». The market says the top 10% of Tamarindo listings reach about US$17,000 to US$20,000 a month in high season and far less the rest of the year. Either the property is exceptional, or the number is inflated.
An inflated number is not only a bad investment. An overstated purchase price justified by fictitious income is one of the classic ways real estate is used to move money. A due diligence report that stops at the title and ignores the revenue claim is doing half the job.
3. Three names for one flow
The property is held by a corporation. The listing is in the name of a property manager. The payouts land in an account abroad in the owner’s personal name. Three different names for the same money.
Nothing in that arrangement is illegal by itself. All of it is what an evaluator, a bank compliance officer or a notary doing enhanced due diligence is trained to flag. Since Law 9416, the beneficial owner of every Costa Rican corporation has to be declared in the Transparency and Beneficial Ownership Register; the person behind the company cannot be a mystery. And the platform paying into a foreign account does not change where the income was generated or where it is taxed.
Why November matters
GAFILAT, the regional body of the Financial Action Task Force, evaluates Costa Rica on site in November 2026. The results are published in 2027. Real estate is one of the sectors under review: attorneys, notaries and real estate brokers are regulated parties under Law 7786, supervised for anti-money-laundering purposes by SUGEF, and the quality of the files we keep is part of what gets graded.
For an owner, the practical consequence is simple. Over the next year, every bank, notary and broker in the country has an incentive to ask harder questions. The owners who already have the answers will close. The ones who do not will wait.
Before you buy a rental: the file to build
- Source of funds for the purchase. Bank statements, the sale of a previous property, an inheritance, a loan. Have it ready before you make an offer, not after the notary asks.
- Tax registration in Costa Rica. Short-term rental income is taxed here regardless of where it is paid out. Lodging services carry 13% VAT and the income is subject to income tax. Both require registration with the tax authority.
- ICT registration. Law 9742 requires non-traditional lodging to be registered with the tourism board. You inherit an unregistered operation with the purchase.
- Municipal licence. The municipality of Santa Cruz requires one for commercial lodging.
- Beneficial owner declaration. If the property is held through a corporation, the declaration has to be current and has to match who actually receives the money.
- One name across the chain. Owner of record, host on the platform and bank account should tell the same story. Where they cannot, the explanation should be written down and kept.
- Platform payout statements. Keep every one. They are the proof of income you will need the day you want to buy the next property or move the money abroad.
The conclusion
Buying to rent in Guanacaste is still a sound decision; the numbers in this article say so. Buying without deciding who receives the income, where it is declared and how it is documented is not, and it is about to get less sound with every month after November.
Run the revenue numbers before you buy. Then build the file. The best RevPAR in the country is worth nothing if the income it produces cannot be used.
Methodology. AirROI data for the twelve months to September 2026, Tamarindo market, in US dollars. Monthly revenue figures are per active listing; «median» and «top 10%» refer to the 50th and 90th percentile of listings in the month indicated. These figures measure market performance, not return on investment: they do not incorporate purchase price, operating costs, management, taxes or financing. This article is general information and does not constitute legal or tax advice for a specific matter.
Buying or selling a rental property in Guanacaste? Our office is in Tamarindo.
