Is now a good time to buy Panama Apartments?
July 6th, 2010
The boom years for Panama City apartments (or condos) is well documented. The city’s status as the region’s most important financial center, its good transport links and shiny new infrastructure projects saw a flurry of investors snapping up apartments, mostly off-plan. Buyers arrived from well known destinations such as the US and Canada and from the more unusual, including Venezuela and Colombia.
But as the global financial crisis took hold, the whiff of oversupply grew stronger. The speculator who had been driving the market retreated, sales volumes dropped and a number of condo projects stalled or suspended operations completely.
Now, as we enter the second half of 2010, some market watchers are saying that it’s a good time for investors to come back into the Panama City apartment market. That inventories are high, sellers are motivated and it’s time to push for a bargain.
Unfortunately accurate price and transaction data is hard to find in Panama – something we’ve written about before. Often the best insight into what the market is doing comes from special offers at individual projects, a review of asking prices (ideally compared with previous years) and feedback from real estate agents on the ground.
After reviewing our database of Panama property prices and contacting local agents we were able to find examples of completed apartments priced at 30-40% below 2008 levels. These falls are not across-the-board as some developers are holding their asking prices firm. It may be a buyer’s market for apartments in Panama City, but don’t except (all) vendors to throw property at your feet.
Here’s our advice for those looking to get into the Panama apartment market:
- Refine your search to established condo towers in prime areas that are completed.
- Avoid off-plan purchases.
- Buying re-sales from individuals may be a better option than purchasing directly from developers.
- Be very clear about your objectives. Are you planning a Panama retirement? Are you more interested in a vacation home? An investment?
- Build a network of local contacts to bring you real-time deals and get up to speed with what the best local market commentators are saying.
- Don’t assume you’ll be able to get the kind of financing terms available before the economic downturn. The availability of mortgage finance has slimmed.
- Finally, take your time. Be careful not to be seduced by discounts and incentives so that you forget considerations of value.
From Reveal Real Estate - charting overseas property trends in Central America.
Related posts:
- Panama property: doing better than many markets, but not immune to the global downturn
- What $50,000 will get you in Belize, Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua less than 90 minutes from the international airport.
- The real estate market in Central America: In graphics
- The 7 most expensive regions to own an ocean view condo in Central America
Tags: Panama, Panama apartment, Panama City Real Estate
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Investment Strategies, Market statistics and data. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I completely agree with many of the points that has been raised in this article. Panama is a great place to live. It is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. White sand beaches, lush tropical jungles, and marvelous old colonial architecture are just a few of the perks. The people are extremely friendly, and the pace of life is slow. It is sort of like sitting back in eternal summer. There are so many things to do in this developing region. Panama real estate is on its way up, so don’t miss your chance to get property now while the prices are reasonable.
Jaiden
Interesting article. I just hope the new tax laws don´t scare new investors.
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[...] Costa Rica has the largest number of real estate developments that target the international investor, with 34% of the total in our database. No surprise really. It’s been on the international real estate map for longest. Panama follows close behind. This is largely due to the explosion in condo projects in recent years in the capital city selling Panama apartments. [...]
[...] and closures. In areas where a high level of sales have been made pre-construction (such as Panama apartments in Panama City) more price falls are expected as buyers default on their payments. And resale [...]
[...] boom years saw hundreds of new condo towers in the capital city (see more analysis on Panama apartments) and real estate projects launched across the country. This was followed in 2009 by a marked [...]
Panama is a great destination; as long as this remains true, apartments are likely to continue having a lot of demand.
It is an investment worth making!