Qualifications for a Home Equity Loan in Costa Rica

For any of the endless reasons you need a home equity loan, a short-term mortgage using your home as collateral may be the answer. Here are the qualifications for a home equity loan in Costa Rica in 2023.

Assuming you’ve already gone through the process, you know that in Costa Rica, banks and credit unions here take a very long time (up to 6 months or more) to complete the loan application process. Especially if you’re a foreigner, self-employed, without much of a Costa Rican credit history, it can take weeks or months to hear the words “I’m sorry, you don’t qualify.”

The Inaccessible Traditional Bank Analyst

You often won’t get an explanation for why you don’t qualify for a home equity loan. Here are a few reasons why you may never really get a straight answer:

• The bank analyst usually reviews many applications simultaneously and requests more information in areas they need to feel comfortable with before approving any loan.
• This analyst can be kept separate from the bank’s day-to-day activities to avoid favoritism.
• There is no way for you ever to contact the analyst directly

With private equity firms such as Gap Equity Loans, our process is much faster and more transparent that starts with a simple back-and-forth over the phone or email.

You will need to fill out our two-page loan application with 10-15 pictures for us to see the quality of the construction as well as the state of the asset. Also, provide the land survey (Plano Catastro) number on the application, which tells us where the property is located.

Our Home Equity Loan Analyst

With this information, we can calculate the value with great certainty. We, too, have an analyst, except he explains to us in great detail the pros and cons of the property. We check the property registry for any legal problems that may affect our decision on moving forward.

Last but not least, once we have done all our due diligence, double-checking the application, reviewing the status of the property, and more, we move to our final phase, which is a site visit and verification of the location of the property.

During the process, we always communicate with you, the borrower. You will be updated almost daily about the status of the loan. If the answer is no, you will receive an explanation for why we cannot present this loan to our funders.

Some loans do not pass the Loan to Value test (LTV) because the borrower is asking for too much money and has overvalued his property. Just to remind you, in a worst-case scenario, the property needs to be sold quickly. Costa Rican real estate can take a long time to sell at retail value.

From start to finish, we have in the past completed loans in under 14 business days. The private lenders we work with charge competitive interest rates with a balloon payment at the end of the term, and in many cases, they will generally renew the loan if you request it.

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