◇  Bitácora

Notas desde el istmo.

Mercado, zonas, inversión y vida cotidiana en Panamá. Sin postales: datos verificados, voces honestas y la lentitud necesaria para entender un país.

Twenty-eight years of stalled concessions on Panama City's Amador Causeway
◇  Neighborhoods

Twenty-eight years of stalled concessions on Panama City's Amador Causeway

Three islands at the Pacific entrance of the canal were supposed to anchor a tourism corridor when they reverted from US control. The unfinished result still shapes how foreign buyers should read the city's waterfront real estate.

19 de mayo de 20264 min de lectura
Costa del Este at thirty: what Panama City's most ambitious masterplan actually delivered
◇  Neighborhoods

Costa del Este at thirty: what Panama City's most ambitious masterplan actually delivered

Three decades after Costa del Este's 310-hectare masterplan was first presented, the eastern enclave has matured into a self-contained district inside metropolitan Panama City. The trade-offs are clearer now than they were in 1995.

18 de mayo de 20265 min de lectura
Panama's proposed rail corridor lands its terminus in Albrook. The honest read for metropolitan property
◇  Market

Panama's proposed rail corridor lands its terminus in Albrook. The honest read for metropolitan property

Panama and Costa Rica signed a memorandum for a $4–5 billion regional rail corridor with its terminus at Albrook. What that does and does not yet change for metropolitan property buyers.

17 de mayo de 20264 min de lectura
Panama's OECD accession bid and the slow unwinding of the anonymous sociedad anónima
◇  Investment

Panama's OECD accession bid and the slow unwinding of the anonymous sociedad anónima

A May 17 interview sketched a 12-24 month timeline for Panama to require direct registration of beneficial owners behind every sociedad anónima with the country's tax authority. For foreign metro property owners, the privacy era of the corporate-veiled deed is closing.

17 de mayo de 20264 min de lectura
Vetting a real estate broker in Panama City: what licensing actually means here
◇  Guides

Vetting a real estate broker in Panama City: what licensing actually means here

Panama's brokerage market is two-tiered. Licensed corredores answer to the Junta Tecnica de Bienes Raices. The informal layer answers to no one. Most foreign buyers do not learn which they hired until something goes wrong.

17 de mayo de 20265 min de lectura
Panama's dollar regime, and what it does to a non-USD buyer's purchase
◇  Market

Panama's dollar regime, and what it does to a non-USD buyer's purchase

Every Panama City property is quoted in US dollars. For a buyer whose savings sit in euros, sterling or another currency, that single fact reshapes the economics of the purchase before any number is negotiated.

16 de mayo de 20264 min de lectura
Punta Pacifica: anatomy of Panama City's reclaimed-land tower district
◇  Neighborhoods

Punta Pacifica: anatomy of Panama City's reclaimed-land tower district

A peninsula of dredged sand now hosting some of the tallest residential towers in Latin America. What buying or leasing in Punta Pacifica actually involves once the skyline stops being an abstraction.

16 de mayo de 20265 min de lectura
Panama's four residency paths for foreign buyers, ranked by metropolitan property exposure
◇  Investment

Panama's four residency paths for foreign buyers, ranked by metropolitan property exposure

Four legal routes deliver Panama residency to foreigners. Three of them shape the metropolitan property market — and one of them resets to a higher price on October 15, 2026.

16 de mayo de 20266 min de lectura
Panama's economic substance bill enters debate. What it means for foreign owners holding metro property through a sociedad anónima
◇  Investment

Panama's economic substance bill enters debate. What it means for foreign owners holding metro property through a sociedad anónima

The National Assembly opens debate May 19 on a bill that conditions tax treatment of passive foreign income on real economic presence in Panama. Foreign owners using anonymous corporations as personal holding vehicles sit close to the perimeter.

15 de mayo de 20265 min de lectura
Casco Antiguo's restoration grammar: the rules that govern a 17th-century building's second life
◇  Design

Casco Antiguo's restoration grammar: the rules that govern a 17th-century building's second life

Restoration in Panama City's UNESCO-listed historic district is not a renovation contract but a regulatory choreography. A field guide to the legal grammar that decides what a colonial shell in Casco Antiguo can — and cannot — become.

14 de mayo de 20266 min de lectura
Costa del Este vs Casco Antiguo: how a foreign resident's week actually unfolds in each
◇  Living in Panama

Costa del Este vs Casco Antiguo: how a foreign resident's week actually unfolds in each

The two neighborhoods are 12 km apart and inhabit different cities. A practical compare-contrast of how a foreign resident's day, errands and weekends actually shape up in each.

14 de mayo de 20264 min de lectura
Panama City is hosting the World Free Zones Congress. The metro real estate question is what gets leased after the delegates leave.
◇  Market

Panama City is hosting the World Free Zones Congress. The metro real estate question is what gets leased after the delegates leave.

The annual Congress brings 1,500 delegates from 93 countries to Panama City. For metropolitan property, the durable question is which corporate apartments and office floors get signed in the six months that follow.

13 de mayo de 20264 min de lectura