Panama City, Panama
Happy Friday,
It was on fire when I was scouting and sharing deals late last year. I touched base with my insiders on the ground in Panama City this week.
It's stronger now.
Panama spent ten years in oversupply. Flat pricing, too much inventory, no reason to move quickly. That cycle is over. Rents in Panama City climbed 8 to 15 percent over the past year, and rent moves first. Price follows. The quietly wealthy are already positioned. They are not waiting for the headlines to catch up.
The market is not moving as one block. Some parts of the city are flat. A narrow band is not. Walkable corridors like Costa del Este, San Francisco, and El Cangrejo are seeing controlled appreciation of 4 to 7 percent, and the capital chasing them is specific. It wants the $180,000 to $300,000 segment. It wants buildings with commercial licenses or HOA bylaws that permit short-term rentals. Casco Viejo and coastal corridors like Playa Caracol are the names I keep hearing.
Metro Line 3 came online earlier this year. Panama Oeste connected to the capital for the first time. Land values around Panama Pacifico moved before most people noticed the trains were running.
Construction costs are up 15 percent year over year. New buildings cost more to build than they did twelve months ago, and resale units in established towers are starting to look like the better trade on a price-per-square-meter basis. The people who already own in the right corridor, and the ones who locked in pre-sale construction prices, are sitting on a widening gap.
My insiders are also flagging capital moving into Panama from outside the usual US and Canadian buyer base. New money is shifting in from Dubai, new competition for the same limited inventory.
Here's what it adds up to. The $180,000 to $300,000 segment, in buildings with STR-permitted bylaws, in the corridors where supply cannot expand, is where the quiet money is going right now. Not the loud listings. Not the ones with the biggest marketing budget. The ones that were already sold out before most people heard the address.
One corridor in particular keeps coming up. Amador. More on what we specifically like is coming this week.
Stay tuned. Some great opportunities are coming for you to explore.
Andy
P.S. Developers are finalizing numbers on the new project just outside the gates of Reserva Conchal, Costa Rica. STR Scout Members will get first access to pre-launch pricing and founders discounts when it opens.