◇  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.

The restoration grammar of Casco Antiguo: how a colonial shell becomes a 2026 apartment
◇  Design

The restoration grammar of Casco Antiguo: how a colonial shell becomes a 2026 apartment

Behind Casco Antiguo's protected facades, a strict legal grammar dictates what can be kept, what must be rebuilt, and what a buyer of a restored colonial building is actually purchasing.

21 de mayo de 20264 min de lectura
How to vet a real estate broker in Panama: a foreign buyer's checklist
◇  Guides

How to vet a real estate broker in Panama: a foreign buyer's checklist

Real estate brokerage in Panama is a licensed, bonded profession. The person showing you an apartment in Costa del Este may hold no license at all. Here is what to verify before money moves.

21 de mayo de 20265 min de lectura
Costa del Este versus Casco Antiguo: two ways to spend a week in Panama City
◇  Living in Panama

Costa del Este versus Casco Antiguo: two ways to spend a week in Panama City

Fifteen minutes apart, Panama City's master-planned district and its UNESCO old town offer opposite versions of daily life. A look at how a week actually unfolds in each, and who each one quietly suits.

20 de mayo de 20264 min de lectura
Three years into Panama's construction slump, the National Assembly convenes a tripartite table
◇  Market

Three years into Panama's construction slump, the National Assembly convenes a tripartite table

Q1 2026 permits rose 36.3% year-over-year, but Panama's construction sector still sits 44.1% below Q1 2023. A tripartite table convened May 19 at the National Assembly. The supply-side picture for metro Panama City buyers.

19 de mayo de 20265 min de lectura
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