Payment Arrears in Real Estate And Tourism
Worries Bankers
Johnny And Laura Neck In Neck In the Polls
Taxi Vehicles
Older Than 10 Years May Have To Be Pulled
From Service
Bus Fares Drop
In Effect Today
The First Giraffe Born
On Tico Soil
The Last Great
Race on Earth
A Piece of A&M
In The Rainforest of Costa Rica
Payment
Arrears in Real Estate And Tourism Worries
Bankers
Arrears in payments of loans has grown
between August 2008 and January 2009, with
the biggest defaults in real estate, hotels
and restaurants, according to a report by
the Superintendencia General de Entidades
Financieras (Sugef).
The report indicates in August 2008,
companies and individuals involved in
rentals, buying and selling of properties
were up to date with their loan payments to
the state banks before the financial crisis.
Five months later, for every ˘100 has lent
in the real estate sector, ˘15 is behind on
payments.
The late payments range from one day late to
judicial recovery.
In the hotel and restaurant sector the late
payments was ˘7 colones for every ˘100
colones on loan, last August and now more
than doubled to ˘15 colones.
The real estate and tourism sector rely in
great part by an influx of revenue from
foreigners who come to Costa Rica to buy or
rent real estate. The drop in income is due
to the world economic crisis, especially in
the United States, a major source of revenue
in Costa Rica.
According to official figures, the number of
people arriving at the country's airports
has dropped 2.4% or 22.000 between July and
December 2008. And although numbers for last
two months have not been made public, there
has been a sharp decrease in the number of
arrivals, perhaps as high as 20% or more.
The difficult in meeting debt obligations is
not only affecting the real estate and
tourism sector, but other areas as well.
Bankers can only predict the situation to
get worse as the "external" economic crisis
worsens. |
|
|
|
|
