The real estate market in Panama City is definitely still active - while we are not seeing the activity that was present in 2004-2006, buyers still are coming to invest and to live either part-time or full time in Panama.  Prices are lower in the City than they are in the Pacific Beach area where […]

The higher costs of everything are forcing the government to increase the money paid to the 175,000 people who receive pensions in the country. At just $60 a month increase it will amount to over $10 million a month that was not in the original budget. The combination of higher commodity prices and U.S. dollar […]

The proposed plan to have automatic wage adjustments in response to inflation would spell disaster for foreign investment in the country. When Panama needs investment the most investors will turn to other countries rather than bare the risk of ever increasing labor costs. On a local level, wage increases translate immediately into hire prices for […]

The article in La Prensa puts a very positive spin on the fact that Panama has the highest mortgage to GDP ratio of any country in Latin America by a factor of 400%. I certainly agree that making homes available to the population at subsidized interest rates is a viable approach to helping to […]

On June 22nd the President announced that they had signed an agreement with Taiwan to extend their free trade agreement. Coincidentally just one week later, Taiwan donates $2.6 million for a new hospital. Sounds like a good deal to me!
Panama, Taiwan, ink FTA
Panama and Taiwan have agreed to renew the four-year-old free trade agreement between […]

An article in La Prensa today quotes port authority excuses for declining numbers in cruise ships. There are a number of reasons for the decline none of which are mentioned in the article but are obvious to any in the industry. You can read a well written piece about the cruise industry difficulties with Panama […]

This article points out that many of the contractors performing public works in the country did not have an escalation clause in their contracts and did not count on the huge increases in construction costs that have been seen over the last year or so. Of course when this happens they just stop the work. […]

This article is about the continued battle by residents of the reverted areas against the supreme court decision to change the zoning law of the areas. Allowing high rises in an other wise low rise residential area has caused those folks enough grief that they have been protesting for weeks. They may not have to […]

I sometimes post news on other countries in Central America that I find might be of interest to expat’s considering buying property in those lands. Since last year’s election of Daniel Ortega to the Presidency of Nicaragua, I have been following the events there more closely. Nicaragua is a beautiful country and a visit there […]

Here is an article from La Prensa that is so ridicules that I have to post it. The housing ministry believes there are not enough rental properties on the market and incentives need to be given in order to get this part of the real estate market going. They honestly believe that the 20,000 plus […]