Of all the destinations on my global beat where I’ve found incredible lifestyle and investment opportunities, only one is a major world capital.
That’s Panama City.
Panama City is a booming metropolis…a vibrant, dynamic safe haven drawing in multinational corporations, digital nomads, wealthy retirees, and remote-working professionals from around the world.
Whether you want to own for lifestyle or investment, it needs to be on your radar.
My scout Ciaran Madden just spent 10 days digging into the best opportunities in this thriving metropolis.
Below, he shares a helicopter-eye view of Panama City’s transformation. And he offers boots-on-the-ground scouting from the two most sought-after communities to own there.
Read on…
Wishing you good real estate investing,
P.S. I’ve prepared a special Panama report for members of my Real Estate Trend Alert (RETA) group detailing the country’s ongoing economic transformation and the incredible opportunities in its vibrant capital city today. Given the scale of the opportunity here, I wanted to share this report with you here in Overseas Dream Home as well. Click here to start reading this special RETA report.
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Why Lifestyle Buyers and International Investors Are Flocking to Panama City
By Ciaran Madden
I awoke in a 5-star hotel backed by a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course…
From there, I took a 20-minute helicopter flight to see a brand-new master-planned beach community emerging at pace on a stunning stretch of Pacific coast.
Later, I returned by chopper to visit man-made islands, home to one of the region’s most exclusive communities.
This is how I spent a day last week while scouting Panama City.
Let me stress that scouting is rarely this glamorous. More usually, it involves staying in basic Airbnbs, moving fast from one location to another. Our goal is always to cover as much ground as possible…to find the opportunities.
But when you want to understand Panama City, it makes sense to go big and sample the incredible lifestyle here. Because this lifestyle is drawing folks from across the world.
Panama’s huge international appeal may come as a surprise. It certainly would have surprised me before I became one of Ronan’s scouts. But when you put boots on the ground here, it’s undeniable.
On an economic level, Panama is booming.
Panama uses the dollar as its currency…has a world-class banking sector…and is a renowned safe haven…
It has the Panama Canal, a crucial piece of global infrastructure traversed by 40% of U.S. container traffic every year.
And it has zero tax on foreign-earned income. Although Americans still owe Uncle Sam no matter where they live in the world, that’s not the norm. Many foreign nationals can dramatically slash their tax bill, or even eliminate it, by moving to Panama.
All of that is hugely attractive for internationalized folks. But it’s the lifestyle that seals the deal.
Panama City offers everything you’d expect of a true world city—top-class fine dining, incredible shopping, world-class golf, incredible resorts, and amazing accessibility. And on its doorstep are stunning beaches and soaring mountains.
I got to experience all of this firsthand…from the ground and the air.
I spent the first part of my scouting trip in the master-planned community of Santa Maria.
Perfectly located 15 minutes from Panama City and the international airport, this is a vast 692-acre urban sanctuary complete with stunning residential communities and top-class amenities.
I stayed at the 5-star Santa María Hotel & Resort—part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection.
From the rear, the pool looks out to Santa Maria’s Jack Nicklaus course. From the front, you have access to a row of boutique cafés, stores, and restaurants. Next door is Santa Maria country club, with tennis courts, squash, pools, a gym, soccer fields, even a bowling alley.
Santa Maria has all the amenities you’d expect of a 5-star resort, but this is a lived community.
In my tours of the area’s stunning real estate and in my early morning wanders along its pristine grounds, I passed children going to kindergarten…couples walking dogs…professionals leaving to work in nearby Costa del Este…
Santa Maria is a place where people come to put down roots.
While in Panama City, I met Alfredo Aleman, the developer behind some of the country’s most prestigious communities, including in Santa Maria. He offered to fly me by helicopter from Santa Maria down to Playa Caracol, a beachfront community he and his GLP group are developing on the Pacific coast.
Scouting Playa Caracol was one reason for the flight. (I returned to stay at Playa Caracol later in the week and I’ll share more on that tomorrow.) The other reason was to see Santa Maria from above.
Santa Maria sits beside Costa del Este, a new district of Panama City.
Spanning 766 acres, Costa del Este is more like “a city within a city” than a district, purpose-built to attract multinational corporations. It has wide boulevards, underground wiring, fiber optic connectivity, dedicated green spaces, parks, and sculpture-filled roundabouts. And it’s home to sleek malls, cutting-edge hospitals, and the country’s best international schools.
Developed from reclaimed land just three decades ago, Costa del Este has been a roaring success. It’s now home to more than 50 multinational companies—including Procter & Gamble, Adidas, Nestlé, and Samsung.
Costa del Este has been so successful that it’s now roaring right up the gates of Santa Maria.
From 800 feet in the air, you get a view not just of the skyline—but of the opportunity.
Santa Maria will soon be surrounded by the city…an island of luxury protected and perfectly located in booming Panama City.
After returning from Playa Caracol, our chopper landed not on Santa Maria but Ocean Reef.
Ocean Reef is another community by the same developer…two man-made islands off downtown Panama City with a marina for mega-yachts in between.
Ocean Reef is one of the most exclusive communities in the hemisphere. I toured two and three-bed condos here listing for $1.4 million and $1.6 million…and those price tags are by no means the top of the market here.
One of the last communities on the islands will be townhouses for $2 million and up. The developer says all of their projects on the islands will be completed by 2028.
That’s why attention is shifting to Santa Maria and the last area of land left for development within that master-planned community.
The developer, Alfredo, called this area “the third island.”
Standing on the islands, looking at the towering skyscrapers of Panama City just ahead, it’s impossible not to be bullish on Panama’s future.
The vast majority of these skyscrapers didn’t exist at the turn of the century.
They exist now because money has been flooding into Panama. And because there’s a big squeeze on land.
Developers only go up when there’s little or no room to go out.
They only built islands from scratch when the scarcity is insane!
Put those factors together and it spells opportunity.
The big squeeze here is only beginning.
RONAN SAYS: Panama City is now three times the size it was in 1990. Almost half the country’s population lives in its metro area. It’s drawing in foreign talent like never before.
Demand for high-quality residential real estate—especially in the city center—is soaring. But there’s almost no prime land left…
- To the south is the Pacific Ocean.
- To the north are canal-protected rainforests. (Panama City is the only capital in the world with a rainforest inside its city limits.)
- To the west is the Canal. A fourth bridge is planned—a billion-dollar mega-project with six lanes, towering pylons, and even a high-end restaurant. But everything west of the canal is essentially “out of town.”
The only way left to build is east. Toward the airport. Toward Santa Maria.
That’s a moat. A development moat.
I’ve previously brought RETA members incredible deals in Santa Maria…
- Boost of $136,800—In October 2020, they could own two-bed, two-and-a-half bath condos in Ocean House in Santa Maria from $238,200. A similar condo recently listed for $375,000. That’s $136,800 more.
- $154,980 more—In September 2021 RETA members could buy one of a handful of three-bed, 3.5-bath condos in the prestigious Pinnacle community, inside Santa Maria, for $540,020. My scouts found a resale listing for $695,000. That’s $154,980 more.
Now RETA members are getting a chance to own luxury condos in a new and exclusive part of the Santa Maria community where I expect gains of $293,000 five years after delivery.
Learn more about Panama’s growth and this upcoming deal in this special RETA report.
But to get access to the deal, you need to be a RETA member. Details on how you can join are here.
