It has been three full days of attendance at the Sima fair in Madrid and what an experience it has been. I am AMAZED at the number of projects all over the world being built for the growing market of people retiring. There were ten halls each bigger than ATLAPA full of project models and high tech displays of lifestyle choices. I spoke with one of the fair organizers and she told that this was the 5th year of the fair and each year it gets bigger. In 2000 they had just one hall and now ten.
The hotspots of the retirement world were all present with of course Spain being the biggest, attracting Europeans looking for sun and mild weather. It was a full day of just walking each isle until they all became a blur and it was hard to tell one from the next. Eastern Europe is certainly competitive with low tax structure for developers and buyers alike. Dubai had several booths highlighting the many incredible oil funded projects being built in that part of the worlds. Florida was very prominent as a major player with big names like “W” hotels and Jack Nicolas golf courses. The photo album shows just a glimpse of the many exhibitions that were present. Panama made a good showing with about 60 Panamanians flouting their projects. Grupo Mall had an outstanding booth showing their new Faros project in Punta Paifica and the president of that company made a statement at a presentation that he believes Panama is the new frontier with the greatest potential.
As I went from one booth to the next, whenever I was asked where I was from people immediately said that they have heard it is booming in Panama. At the end of day my wife asked me, what did I get from this event besides the many new contacts? I told her that I came away more convinced than ever that Panama has a very bright future in this industry, and that it has a long way to go in order to execute the many projects that are planned. It will take tremendous effort to train people to do more than build and sell because the next challenge is to serve and maintain. This is our toughest hurdle but one I feel we can accomplish with planning.
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