How Is Panama Real Estate Different?

On today’s show we are taking a look at what I see in Panama after having spent three weeks here touring the country. There are some lovely aspects to the country. The climate is amazing. The people are warm and inviting. The country has amazing beaches.

The country has properties for sale everywhere. I mean everywhere. We are here during high season. This is the dry part of the year when expats spend the most amount of time here. 

Panama is known for its favourable tax regime and for its rules which allow for foreigners to gain residency in exchange for investment in the country. This has given rise to a lot of new properties being built. The current government in Panama is very business friendly.

There are a few communities that I would consider to be well developed. Incomes here are pretty low by US and Canadian standards. Properties that are built for expats are generally higher quality. But these too are not up to North American standards. Even in high end condo buildings, the windows are single glazed windows for example. 

If there is one word that summarizes real estate in Panama, it would be “oversupplied”.

Real estate in Panama is unlike real estate in the US or Canada. Some properties are not titled. That is to say, there is something called the “right of possession”. This gives the owner of the right of possession, that is the right to purchase the title from the state. But they don’t actually own the property until they purchase the title. This is an administrative process that can take a long time. More on that later. 

Panama has no centralized MLS like the US and Canada. As such, some properties are listed on their own brokerage websites. realtor.com is one of the larger multi-brokerage websites and you will find a lot of listings there. But this too is not an MLS system. 

There are lots of privately marketed properties. Sometimes this is nothing more than a handwritten roadside sign with a phone number. Many of these privately marketed properties are listed in the online classified ads in places like Encuentra24.

Since there is no MLS system, it is possible to find the same property listed on multiple websites at different prices. It is possible therefore that the agent promoting the listing is not the actual listing agent. 

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