Submitted by an expat woman living in San Jose, Costa Rica

Single story or duplex type houses or townhouses are the most common form of accommodation in San Jose. There are not many high rise buildings. Rent is a little bit pricy, but due to the global recession I have to guess it has decreased a little (we moved over a year ago now).

Duplex Townhouse or an Apartment for a couple with no kids (maybe one), 1 master bedroom, 1-2 extra bedrooms, 2 full baths, living/dining room, small family room upstairs (if duplex), kitchen, laundry room, 1-2 parking spaces, terrace/deck and/or small backyard, are rented for approximately between US$ 900-1,200 per month. A 1 bedroom, 1 full bathroom, 1 parking space, small kitchen, dining/living room with terrace are rented for approximately between US$ 500-750 per month. Bigger townhouses can cost between US$ 2,000-4,500 per month.

The typical payment process is monthly based. However, if you have the cash, I would recommend to negotiate 6-months to 1-year payment in advance. My husband and I obtained a 15% discount by negotiating 1-year in advance. Rent contracts are usually for 2 years, but with rent negotiation after the first year.

Most of the townhouses and buildings are quite new, so there should not be major issues. What people do need to be careful with is water filtration. In San Jose it rains 8-9 months a year for an average of 5 hours each and every day, so this is one of the most common problems.

The best places to live are: Santa Ana, San Rafael de Ezcazu, Guachipelin, Belen, San Rafael de Alajuela, Los Reyes. Choosing the neighbourhood is a matter of how much traffic you want to avoid going from home to office and vice-versa. Traffic in San Jose is difficult.

Depending on where you live you might or might not need air conditioner, at least in the bedroom. Temperature can be as low as 64F (18C) and as high as 95F (35C) in San Jose.

I would recommend to bring your own appliances with you seeing as electronics and furniture is extremely expensive in Costa Rica. Costa Rica uses the same power as the US, so if you come from an American standard country bring the fridge, washing and drying machines, TVs, stove, A/C, etc. If you don't need them after your assignment, you can always sell them for a good price.

It is very common to have maids and nannies. Gardeners are usually included in the condominium, and in terms of drivers actually I never saw one. San Jose is very safe to go around driving by yourself.

Depending on your needs and budget, you can hire cleaners/nannies by the day (usually 5-6 hours of work), or you can negotiate exclusivity, and if you have the extra room they can stay at your place. These are the ones that become nannies, when you want to go out. Usually they stay at your place from Monday morning to Saturday morning, some just take Sunday off.

Maids are unionized and the Ministry of Employment protects them. There is a minimum wage by law (not seen in many of other Latin American countries), days off, Christmas bonus, etc. You have to enroll them at the Social Security Department and pay their social security monthly. Be careful how you manage your employer/employee relationship since I've seen some cases where the maids have sued their employers.

Telephone serTelephony is not very efficient but they do offer good local call prices.

If you do not have a fixed line at your place, you can only use your cell phone, it is very cheap. We never paid more than US$ 15 per month (and this was the highest amount we paid).

It is not very easy to get a mobile line if you are a foreigner (they simply do not give you one, at least it has been this way for GSM lines). If the company you work for provides you with a line, good. If not, you will have to ask a Costa Rican friend to request a line for him/her and lend it to you (that's what we did with both our lines). You can make the monthly payment at any bank by just providing the phone number. You can also forward all payments of phone line to your checking account or credit card, and when you leave, you just call to cancel that payment forwarding.

One thing you must know is that the mobile line will not be granted if you do not have a cell phone that has been checked and approved (homolgado) by ICE (telephone company), and they are quite expensive. For example I had to buy a Motorola Pebble at US$700, when it was sold for US$ 250 in the US.

The quality of the local call services is quite good, I have no complaints, the only one is that if you travel overseas, the line must be activated to receive and make calls and to do that you have to leave a cash deposit several days in advance.

We used VOIP services for international calls.

Internet and Cable TV services: We used and were very happy with Amnet. There are other 2 companies (CableTica and Sky-formerly DirecTV). In Amnet you can find some of the American networks (abc, cbs, nbc), some of the cable networks such as Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, HGTV, The Food Network, etc. in Spanish and in English.

There are some internet cafes across town, but it is better to have it at home. Is quite inexpensive too. Internet (2 MB) + Cable TV basic Plan is about US$ 80 per month. The quality is quite good. Some connecting issues, but the customer service department resolves the issues on time. Never had a reported problem for more that day. About local television, I cannot say much, since I used to watch cable TV.

La Nacion is the biggest newspaper, and it has an English version, apparently only in San Jose. In this website you can find a list and links to all major Costa Rican newspapers.

http://www.mediatico.com/es/periodicos/america-latina/costarica/

Postal service is quite efficient.

A lot of people have the false idea that everybody in Costa Rica speaks English, and this is not true. Like any other Latin American country, upper class people are the ones that speak English, and some people in some touristic towns, but in general, at a restaurant, at the supermarket, at the drugstore, they do not speak English. In the tourism business, of course they speak English, French and German, but it is only because of the nature of their business.

They say it is safe to drink water from the tap but is advisable to use filters or buy purified or spring water. I do not recall seeing a company delivering water, but there must be.

Water is pumped. Most of the building and houses have their own water tank in case there's no water service (rarely since it rains a lot in San Jose)

It is not common to have a gas connection installed at your kitchen. I do not recall any company. One buys the gas container and have it next to the stove. Power cuts are frequent – probably a few times a day for a few minutes at a time. Be careful your appliances don't short circuit.

The local currency is the Colon. It is easy to set up a bank account.

The main shopping centre is Multiplaza which is located in Escazu. It has several stores, but a little bit pricy. Salons are very common, and are inexpensive.

The main sport played in the country is football (soccer). You can also find tennis courts, and golf courses. There are good gyms available. In San Jose there is not much outdoor entertainment due to the long rainy season. There are some places to have lunch or dinner during the weekend: Plaza Itzcasu in Escazu, there are mostly restaurants, and there is also another two plazas in the Radial de Santa Ana that have good restaurants.

There are indeed some documents, but you should contact the Costa Rican Consulate at your country and ask them. Most condominiums do not allow pets. This is not a pet driven society.