Remote work, artificial intelligence, and their impact on the real estate market

Remote work was one of those shifts nobody fully saw coming, and artificial intelligence is shaping up to be exactly the same, not as a distant concept or an industry buzzword, but as something that is already showing up in real conversations with clients, how they search for property, the way they weigh their options, and how they define worth.

Location was almost everything, people bought or rented close to where they worked, and that shaped the real estate market in a very direct way. Today is not necessarily true. I regularly see clients working for companies in the United States or Europe while looking to live in Costa Rica, not because they have to, but because they “can”, this reason is driving a lot of movement.

Remote has been a game-changer, not everyone moved to the beach or left the cities. What has changed is that people now have more flexibility in deciding where to live, the type of properties they look for, more space, reliable internet, locations that offer quality of life but were not previously on the radar for someone tied to a physical office. From a legal standpoint, this also brings new questions. Where is that person taxed, where is their tax residency, what happens if they work for a company in one country while living in another. There are no universal answers, there is no single answer that works for everyone, this conversation did not exist a few years ago.

Artificial Intelligence is different, but just as impactful in the real estate market dynamics. Not because it replaces the buyer or the investor, but because it changes how people access and process information. Someone can analyze markets, compare properties, identify trends, or even estimate returns using tools that were not available before. Customers are better informed, but not necessarily more confident. Access to information is not the problem, the real challenge is knowing what actually matters and is applicable and what is just noise or a hallucination. There is a big gap between what the numbers suggest and what actually moves someone to buy, that is why experience is so important, context matters more than any model can account for, and how projects are conceived and developed should still very much be a human conversation.

Not everything revolves around office spaces or corporate hubs anymore. You start to see developments designed with remote work in mind, hybrid spaces, communities built around services and connectivity. This doesn't mean the previous model disappears , but the range of possibilities expands.

In Costa Rica, this is particularly noticeable. The country already offers a strong lifestyle

component, and when that is combined with the ability to work from anywhere, it becomes attractive in a different way. It is no longer just about tourism, people come, stay for longer periods, and eventually consider buying. That has a direct effect on the market, especially in areas that were not previously seen as investment locations.

Even though there are challenges, infrastructure, services, regulation, and expectations that do not always align with reality. I have seen clients arrive with a very clear idea of how things should work, only to find variables that where not considered by their AI investment advisor. That is why going back to basics still matters, because asking the right questions to someone that can evaluate and offer context since the beginning is often what saves time at the end.

From where I stand, as a lawyer but also as someone closely observing the market, what is

happening is not a complete disruption, it is more of an adjustment in how decisions are

made. Location still matters, but for different reasons. Value still exists, but it is accessed and measured differently and artificial intelligence is definitely shifting market dynamics, not by necessarily replacing people, but by offering access to large amounts of information, and with that information at hand is where a sharper, more deliberate way of thinking and decision-making is fundamental to avoid getting off track.

SEBASTIAN JIMENEZ

Attorney at Law