In this week’s Your Overseas Dream Home Digest…
- Panama City’s Third Wave
- VIDEO: Panama City at Three Price Points
- WATCH: Why I Plan to Buy in Ipanema
- Your Questions Answered on Buying in a Dollarized Economy
Greetings from Cork, Ireland…
On Thursday, I left my historic villa in Caminha, in northern Portugal, after an unusually warm spell that brought daily highs close to 80°F.
That morning, I snapped one final photo from my office as the sun rose. Within minutes, the pink light had disappeared behind fog rolling in from the Atlantic.
I’ll spend a little over two weeks here in Cork. Then I’m back on the road—to Panama, Uruguay, and, after a short break, Morocco.
Being on the ground is how my team and I spot change before it becomes obvious to the wider market.
And Panama City is a good example of why that matters…
This Wednesday, September 30, I’ll open an exclusive new off-market opportunity there to members of my Real Estate Trend Alert (RETA) group.
It’s at Ipanema, a landmark waterfront community beside Costa del Este, and I plan to buy in the deal myself.
In today’s digest, I’ll explain the wider trend behind that decision and show you what three very different budgets buy across Panama City.
To understand why I’m buying in Ipanema, it helps to look at how Panama City reached this point—and where its growth is heading next.
Panama City’s Third Wave
Panama City’s transformation has come in three waves.
The first wave was discovery.
When I first bought here in 2004, most people I knew couldn’t place Panama City on a map. I bought a one-bedroom preconstruction condo in a prime city location for $147,630. I sold shortly after completion for $220,000. That was an uplift of $72,370.
Then the towers came. Punta Pacífica rose along the bay, almost all of it on reclaimed land. The Cinta Costera turned the waterfront into parks and promenades. And to the east, on more than 700 acres reclaimed from the Pacific, a planned new district was taking shape.
It was called Costa del Este.
The second wave was construction.
Panama built the machine. A metro opened in 2014, the first urban rail system in Central America. The $5.25 billion Canal expansion opened in 2016 and doubled the Canal’s cargo capacity. The Corredor Sur and Corredor Norte cut journey times across the city. Tocumen Airport became the hub of the Americas.
Panama passed a law offering major incentives, tax breaks among them, to global companies that made the country their Latin American headquarters.
Now we’re in the third wave. Occupancy.
The machine is built. The world is moving in.
Multinationals set up regional headquarters. Their executives followed…and brought families, school fees and housing allowances with them. The place they want to live, work and send their kids to school is Costa del Este.
It’s where you see the third wave most clearly.
In Friday’s dispatch, I shared a photo essay that takes you around this “city within a city.”
VIDEO: Panama City at Three Price Points
That brings us to a practical question: What does your money actually buy across Panama City today?
In a video I shared earlier this week, I show you real estate in the city at three very different price points.
We start in Obarrio, the traditional heart of the city’s financial district.
From there, we move east to Costa del Este, the master-planned district attracting international companies, executives, and families.
Finally, we head offshore to Ocean Reef—two private islands with a marina and some of the most exclusive real estate in Latin America.
And stick around until the end of the video. I’ll show you a fourth option—an opportunity I believe is the standout buy in Panama City right now…and where I plan to buy myself. That’s Ipanema…
From an apartment in the financial district to a penthouse on a private island community—see what your budget buys in Panama City. Click to view…
WATCH: Why I Plan to Buy in Ipanema
Of the four options in the video above, Ipanema is my pick—and where I plan to buy myself.
Its location is a big part of the appeal. Ipanema will sit on one of the last prime waterfront sites of its kind in Panama City, right beside Costa del Este.
But my decision comes down to more than the address.
In a new short video, I explain how the developer, 80,000 square feet of planned amenities, RETA-only pricing, and demand from Costa del Este come together—and why I believe the opportunity is so well positioned.
You’ll also see renders of this landmark community, giving you a look at it for yourself.
Click below to watch the video now. And when you’re done, share your thoughts or questions in the comments. My team and I read them all.
In my new video, I explain why I’m buying in the upcoming RETA-only deal. Click to view.
Your Questions Answered
Have a comment for me or my team? A question about owning overseas? Share it here. I’d love to hear from you. Here’s a question I got from a viewer of my YouTube channel recently, in response to my video about the Costa del Este neighborhood of Panama City…
Wishing you good real estate investing,
P.S. If you have a question about buying real estate overseas or have suggestions for destinations my team and I should put on our scouting list, drop me a line here.
