Panama Investor Blog

The wager of Panama

 The proposed Panama canal expansion is playing heavily on the construction boom taking place right now. Many developers and speculators believe that the expansion would create a lot of demand for the many condominiums under construction right now. The decision on whether all of this can happen is up to the people of Panama who will vote in a referendum in about six months. The following article itakes a balanced look at both the economic and political issues that are coming into play.

The wager of Panama
Mark Joyce
31 - 5 - 2006

A national referendum on the expansion of the Panama Canal is surrounded by financial and political questions about the 21st-century future of the 19th century's greatest engineering project, reports Mark Joyce.

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FEATURE-Pensioners seek paradise in Panama mountain idyll

Now I'm even more infamous! Quoted on Reuters and they got it right.

  Developer Sam Taliaferro built Valle Escondido, a 200-home gated community for retirees, on a coffee farm in Boquete. Laughing, sun-tanned pensioners scoot around on golf carts in the landscaped environment. "When we wake up, we say, 'Wow, we're in paradise,'" he enthuses.

    Taliaferro says he wants to haul Boquete, and especially the local Ngobe Bugle indigenous group which once relied on sporadic coffee-picking work for a living, into modernity.

    "Now there is something more for the Indians to do than pick coffee," he said. "They are actually waiting on tables, sitting by computers. They're moving from a third-world to a first-world economy."

Read the whole story...

Baby Boomer Survey Shows Big Appetite for Real Estate

This report in from the National Association of Realtors:

5/18/2006 3:55:00 PM

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To: National Desk   

Contact:  Walter Molony of the National Association of Realtors(r),            202-383-1177 or [email protected]

WASHINGTON, May 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Baby boomers have a higher rate of homeownership than the national average and one out of four own more than one property, according to a new study of the largest generation in U.S. history commissioned by the National Association of Realtors(r). Initial results were released here today at NAR's Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.

The comprehensive study of nearly 2,000 Americans born between 1946 and 1964, conducted for NAR by Harris Interactive(r), also shows boomers are optimistic about the future, but many are not adequately prepared for retirement.

Read the rest of the story here...

A mini version of the Burj Al Arab in Panama

I often call Panama the Dubai of Latin America because of it's explosive construction boom. Of course Dubai is on a considerable grander scale justified by the now over 5 million visitors it receives annually. They expect that to grow to over 15 million a year within the next 8 years according to the government figures. To get there, they are investing heavily in tourism infrastructure including a new airport and a theme park three times the size of Disney world called Dubai World. My friend Tomas Portillo pointed out the similarity in the new Trump Ocean Club design to the beautiful hotel Burj Al Arab. Hmmm.

More images of Burj..
http://users.volja.net/jkodri3/Zanimive_slikice/BURJ-AL-ARAB.jpg
http://architektu.rlog.de/wp-content/tennis.jpg

Panama auto sales report

The number of cars sold is a clear indicator of prosperity or at the least perceived prosperity. Here is an interesting report sent to me by a government office on the number and type of cars sold over the past 5 months in Panama and compared to those sold over the last two years. There is a significant increase of 21% over last year and by far the most popular cars sold are Toyota by a wide margin. Ferrari stands at 0 for this year. Download this excel file and look at the details.

Download autos_venta_2006_v_2005total_del_ao.xls

How to help U.S. retirees -- and Panama, too

Andres Oppenheimer is a columnist in the Miami Herald and today wrote this opinion piece which appeared n page 2a. Lets hope someone in the white house is reading it.

Posted on Sun, May. 21, 2006

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THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT

How to help U.S. retirees -- and Mexico, too

Andres Oppenheimer

[email protected]

Here's a proposal that would allow the United States to solve its immigration crisis, control sky-high healthcare costs and rebuild ties with Latin America in one stroke: Make it easier for millions of Americans to retire in style and pay lower medical bills south of the border.

Second-home buyers head for the border

Part 2: Real estate without borders

Thursday, May 18, 2006

By Glenn Roberts Jr.
Inman News

Tony Macaluso, Portside Properties Inc.

Editor's note: Foreign home buyers are playing a significant role in some U.S. markets, and U.S. buyers are showing a growing interest in international markets. Florida is just one example of growing globalization in the real estate industry. In this three-part series, Inman News examines the habits of international real estate buyers and the close ties between cross-border buyers and luxury markets. (See Part 1.)

Help with Panama planned communities list

We are compiling a list of all of the master planned residential projects in Panama that are either underway or planned. This information will be used to produce a new economic impact study we are commissioning Dr. Ruben Lachman to develop.  The criteria is that they must be designed for the foreign market. Here is a list of the larger projects I am currently aware of. If you know of others please send me an email with any information you have. The study will be made available on this blog.

Email me at [email protected]

Rumors to reality

Several months ago there were rumors that Disney was building a theme park on the Pacific coast about an hour outside of Panama. Now the real story comes out and it is significant, but not of the scale of a Disney theme park. The projections for visitors to this aquatic park are within reason. This is a much needed attraction for Panama and I wish them the very best of success. Thanks to Tom Portillo for this heads up.
Read it is Spanish with a machine translation. From Panama America

Lessons from Florida real estate speculators!

Lessons from Florida real estate speculators!

With the recent development boom taking off in Panama I think this article could not have come at a better time. We developes need to take note of what is happening in Florida and learn from their mistakes.

Here is an excellent 3 part article sent to us by our friend Jeff Hornberger. Jeff is the international market development manager for the National Association of Realtors trade group and is quoted a number of times in the article. The first story is about Florida real estate and its attraction to foriegn buyers. What I find most interesting about this story is the data presented on the number of foriegn home buyers and what they want to pay for thier homes. This is very important information because it tells us that although this is a growing market there are price points we need to keep in mind as developers. "The Florida Association of Realtors reported that median sales price in Florida increased 17 percent in March to $248,200, and has more than doubled since March 2001, when the statewide median sales price was $121,600."

And a very important note to the local developers of high end city properties.
"Real estate speculators – both domestic and international buyers – have a lot to do with the current slowdown in the real estate market, said Jack McCabe of McCabe Research & Consulting in Deerfield Beach, Fla. "Speculators were just rampant down here," he said, and particularly with luxury condo projects in South Florida. "Speculators and speculative development and speculative lending created an oversupply in multi-family units – many of these are luxury. A lot of these purchases, both internationally as well as U.S., were done over the phone through brokers. Now a lot of properties are getting   cancelled."

The second story features the growing number of Americans looking outside their borders for second homes or retirement locations and the third story is about the luxury home buyer for foreign real estate and what they look for.

You can read it below or you can

Download inman_news_special_report.pdf

.