We are raising our property prices on March 16, 2019.
On average, our property prices will increase by 10%.
NOTE: Back in November, we posted about a property price increase to occur on January 15th.
However, we did not announce the January 15th price increase to our Newsletter subscribers until January 1st.
In response to our Newsletter subscribers, we have delayed the increase until March 16th.
Even with the price increase, we will continue to offer beautiful, high-quality properties - at some of the lowest prices around.
1. - For over a decade, property prices all over Panama have been going up.
Meanwhile, Puerto Armuelles, hidden away in the Northwest corner of Panama, has not seen those same price increases.
Puerto Armuelles is now hitting its stride to catch up with the rest of Panama. Consequently, real estate prices in Puerto are starting to go up.
2. - Property Upgrades. For over a decade, we have continued to make improvements to our properties. This means that we can offer you the best planned, best maintained, most attractive, properties in Puerto.
3. - Rising Costs. The cost of various types of permits, infrastructure, and maintenance has been going up.
4. - Buzz about Puerto Armuelles. For the past 2 decades, ever since Chiquita Banana pulled out, Puerto has been generally ignored. No longer. There has been a noticeable uptick of new people, esp. foreigners, spotted in Puerto Armuelles. This spike in interest goes beyond just visitors and retirees. There is also a significant push by Panamanians to develop more space for shops, restaurants, and offices.
5. - Puerto is getting more services. Renovations of existing services, as well as the construction of new public services, are at an all-time high in Puerto Armuelles. 4 significant civic projects are currently underway. (see below)
6. Arrival of Del Monte. Since Del Monte Foods arrived in Puerto Armuelles, about a year ago, there has been a big uptick in interest in our town, both by investors and prospective retirees.
Del Monte is a sign of better economic times to come. Not only will Del Monte's banana operations provide significant annual revenue to the city, but they will be cutting regular paychecks for many residents.
7. Return on investment looks very good. The Republic of Panama continues to attract investments from all over the world, particularly from China. More and more of that money is showing up in Puerto Armuelles.
It is clear that Puerto's dark ages, after the departure of Chiquita Banana, are in the past, and the "Puerto Armuelles' Renaissance" is moving forward full speed ahead.
We will make no official predictions, however, it would not surprise us if Puerto Armuelles provided retirees, investors, and 2nd home buyers with the biggest returns in all of Panama. Time will tell.
Have you been thinking about buying a property from us? Then take another hard look in the next 2 months, before the price increase - or before your lot is sold to someone else. Our real estate price increases go into effect on March 16, 2019.
If you have questions, please feel free to contact us.
Have you visited Puerto yet? Why not buy a ticket and come on down this year? Let us know you are coming and we will give you a tour.
You will never know if Puerto is right for you until you visit.
Do you currently have a property on Reserve? Or are you making payments on a property? In either case, these price changes obviously do not apply to you. However, they do indicate that you can easily sell your property for more than you paid for it.
Reserve one of our properties before March 16th, you will freeze the current price for 60 days.
Anyone else who wants to buy a property after March 16th, will have to pay more.
It is fast, easy, and inexpensive to reserve your property.
The reservation fee is only $1000, and it is credited toward the property purchase. The 60-day price freeze starts the day the hold fee is received.
Learn more about reserving a property here.
2018 has been a big year for Puerto Armuelles. And 2019 promises to be even bigger.
At the time it was offered to us, we elected not to buy the property. For us, this area seemed to be too far from Puerto Armuelles to fit our lifestyle.
Over the past decade, or so, I (Reyn) have occasionally gone to surf in front of what is now the CocoBeach Development.
The waves are often better at CocoBeach than here in Puerto Armuelles. The CocoBeach area is farther from the surf shadow cast by the Punta Burica peninsula. Punta Burica blocks much of the prevailing southwest swell from hitting Puerto Armuelles.
For years, there was no sign of any development at CocoBeach, whatsoever.
Over the past 3 or 4 years, there have been little improvements to the property.
In the last couple of years, there has been significant investment in road construction and surface water runoff control on the property. Now there is even an attractive new building being used as an office and tool storage area.
When we have visited most recently, there have been as many as a dozen laborers and a crew boss doing various projects on the roadway and maintaining the lots.
Many of the lots have been platted and marked. The lots now have grass lawns.
The development is at the very beginning stages of feeling like a “neighborhood”.
According to CocoBeach's website, a significant number of lots have already sold. They are supposed to be starting to build their first home within a few months. Currently, when you buy a lot you must start construction of your home within 5 years.
With the recent expansion to the highway from Puerto to Paso Canoas, and other recent investments in Puerto Armuelles, there is a strong sense that our area is growing fast.
We are beginning to think that the CocoBeach Development could be a huge success.
For some expats, a secure, gated community, 20 minutes from town could be just what they are looking for.
(Note: This drive is likely to be reduced to 15 minutes, maybe less, once the road to CocoBeach is improved)
The parent company for CocoBeach is Panama Portfolio. They have 3 projects under development in Panama.
Gated Community
As we mentioned, the big selling point (for some) of CocoBeach is that it will be a gated and secure community, 24/7. Another selling point is their amenities.
Amenities
It is our understanding that the CocoBeach development proposes to include a boutique hotel and restaurant, beach club house, tennis court, a pool, boat ramp and storage, equestrian center, and a secure entrance gate with full time security guard.
Lots for Sale
CocoBeach is a 98 acre development which will be sold in 2 phases. Currently there are 106 lots for sale.
According to their masterplan there are 15 beachfront properties.
Houses
You can select one of their houses to be built by them on your lot, or build your own house.
They require that you start construction of your house (or have them do it for you) within 5 years of buying a lot.
We don't know what happens if someone does not build a house within 5 years, per their contract.
Design Guidelines
CocoBeach is imposing what city planners refer to as design guidelines for the community. These guidelines require that your house conform to a certain look and quality.
As a designer, myself, I think this is a big plus for the community, since it ensures architectural cohesion and an attractive looking community. This will add future value of the development.
This is why we also encourage buyers of our Corazon de Oro lots to build one of our Living in Panama Houses. Having a cohesive look to a neighborhood makes it a much more pleasant place to hang out. And definitely, increases its resale value.
Most of our visitors have responded positively to Puerto Armuelles and to our own Living in Panama House.
Of course, the people who appreciate our philosophy and style are most likely to come to visit us vs. CocoBeach.
As we stated already, CocoBeach is too far from town for our family’s lifestyle, since we like to walk, bike, or just “be” right in town. We don't enjoy spending time in the car, so driving 10 -20 minutes to pick up some milk is not for us.
Also, living in town and not in a gated community allows us to mix more naturally with our Panamanian neighbors.
However, there is another group. A group that seeks a more luxurious and exclusive enclave, further away from town. If that fits you, you may be interested in CocoBeach. CocoBeach is a very attractive place.
An Example
As a matter of fact, we recently gave a tour to a client who took advantage of her visit to Puerto Armuelles to visit all of our properties as well as CocoBeach.
This client’s conclusion was that she, herself, wants to live on the beach, right in Puerto Armuelles, or at Corazon de Oro. However she is certain that her mother, who is planning to move to Puerto Armuelles with her, would prefer to live in the gated community at CocoBeach. She plans on coming back in the near future with her mom.
We look forward to seeing her on her return trip, and we wish her good luck selling the idea to her mom.
One size definitely does not fit all, as the saying goes.
However, one thing is clear. CocoBeach clearly benefits by its proximity to Puerto Armuelles.
The beach at CocoBeach is truly excellent.
But, if CocoBeach were located in the middle of nowhere, it would just be another pretty vacation destination. Not a real place to buy a home and to live a functional lifestyle (Our opinion).
Unlike other gated communities, say on the distant shores of Paradise (i.e., in the middle of nowhere), CocoBeach is close enough to Puerto Armuelles to be an easy drive to town.
Puerto is clearly growing and developing fast. So, the amenities here that are available to residents at CocoBeach are likely to increase in number, and quality, as time goes by.
CocoBeach Development is destined to be a multi-year project. This means that CocoBeach community is likely to employ many residents of Puerto Armuelles in construction, maintenance, gardening, cleaning, and other laboring jobs for years to come.
As such, CocoBeach will continue to provide basic employment in a region that has been sorely lacking in stable employment. And, of course, the new residents of CocoBeach are going to need to shop for groceries, gas, hardware, furniture, gardening tools, cell phones, sun screen, etc…
The logical place for them to do their shopping will be right here in Puerto Armuelles. It is clear to me that the ongoing success of CocoBeach is going to be beneficial to our Panamanian neighbors here, and for the ongoing success of Puerto Armuelles.
This, of course, makes Betsy and me very happy. Those of you who are regular readers, all know by now that we love our little beach town, Puerto Armuelles: The only true beach town in Panama. We want to see Puerto prosper and continue to be a happy place to live for all of us.
Overall their information seems pretty good, if you ignore the usual sales-pitch hyperbole. They seem to have a good track record of making plans on paper become successful projects.
(Note: We do not receive any compensation from CocoBeach for our review or otherwise. In fact, the CocoBeach folk don't yet know we wrote about their development. We hope they agree it is a positive review.)
Thanks for reading
Betsy & Reyn
When we arrived in Puerto there was lots of property available to buy. We chose only what we thought was the most appealing.
We singled out the properties where we would be happy to live. Reyn, as a designer, was always thinking of the end user. The person who would ultimately live on the property.
While the price was a factor, it was not our main determining criteria.
We looked for property where we would have liked to live ourselves. Locations that made us feel joy and that we were glad to be alive.
Only then, did we start our careful evaluation of the property as a potential purchase.
We looked at:
If the property had any significant issue, no matter how much we liked the property, we did not buy it.
When we bought property, we took our responsibility as owners seriously.
As the years go by, we are always trying to make the property more attractive, livable, valuable, and secure. Over time we have become pretty good at this. At least, we think so. We welcome your thoughts on the matter.
We have thoroughly vetted and researched all of our investment properties.
Many we have owned for up to 10 years. There are no outstanding ownership issues.
All properties have been well-maintained and improved over the course of our ownership.
We have all of the original property documents. Even the old yellowed originals, some dating back all the way back to the very first issuance of Right of Possession of the property, on up to the present year. (These are kept in a safe deposit box in the US.) All property transactions have been witnessed by the notary and by relevant neighbors, ex-wives, children, etc. Of course, we also have the official engineers’ drawings for all the properties.
Very importantly here in Panama, we have gotten to know all of the neighbors of the properties. We have met all, or at least most, of the siblings and children of the sellers. In many cases, Reyn even knows the neighbors' dogs by name.
All the neighbors recognize us as the sole owners of our properties. Because of our good relations with these neighbors, they would inform us of any suspicious behavior or encroachment. (Thankfully, it is very rare to have such issues in Puerto.)
As we have said elsewhere, most issues, especially ownership issue surface in the first few weeks of a new purchase.
Our goal is to have the best prices in town. If you find a similar property at a better price, please let us know.
Please do your research. You will find that our prices, for what you get, is lower than other expat-owned property for sale in the area. When evaluating a property given its price, you should look at the quality of location, view, size, aesthetic appeal and other critical factors of a quality living experience.
We appreciate your feedback. We'd love to hear what you found. We want to continue to deliver the best quality at the best price.
We love the beach. So we chose properties that would easily allow a beach lifestyle.
Much of our property is beach front. And if it is not at the beach, it is less than 100 yards from the beach.
We only have 2 properties that are not considered beach properties, but even those have views of the ocean.
Puerto Armuelles is a wonderful place to live in. It isn't a tourist destination yet, but it is an ideal place to enjoy a relaxing beach lifestyle.
Puerto Armuelles is a unique town. It has a real sense of place. We loved Puerto from the moment we set eyes on it.
Location is key.
After 3+ months of traveling all over Panama. We decided to buy in Puerto Armuelles.
We wanted to live in a real beach town. We didn't want to live in a resort community, or somewhere which would require a lot of driving to accomplish our daily errands.
Puerto Armuelles was the only place that fit all of our "happy living" requirements. Simply put, Puerto felt right. And it still does.
More and more expats who move here each year agree with our assessment.
I have written about Puerto Armuelles extensively in other parts of our site, so I will just give you a summary of Puerto's features below.
Puerto Armuelles - a Summary
Although it is not yet a tourist destination, Puerto has features that are beginning to attract recreational visitors, as well as retirees.
Puerto Armuelles is a place where you can easily build a happy and relaxed life. Come visit and see if you agree with us.
Everyone in Panama could be a happy recipient of this advantage. Starting in January 2019, if your property is valued at less than $120K, it will be exempt from property taxes. In Panama, the value of the property is assumed to be the purchase price.
Fortunately, all our properties are under $120,000 - many are well under $120,000.
Currently, there is no system in Panama that reassesses a property's value.
Which means that if you build a house on the property, your property value, for tax purposes, will not increase. Or if property prices increase in your area, the value of your property, again for tax purposes, will not increase. It will still be taxed, or be exempt, based on the purchase price.
Of course, this lack of up-to-date assessments may change, but for the foreseeable future, that is the situation. A good situation for property owners in Panama.
Learn more about the Panama property tax reform here.
If you buy one of our properties during your visit, we will pay the airfare you spent to get here.
Our "Welcome to Puerto Armuelles" gift to you. A happy perk to celebrate your new life in Puerto Armuelles. (Note: We cover the airfare of one person only.)
We have been asked about reserving property in the past. And we always said no. We really want people to visit Puerto first. But we have been convinced to change our mind. So now we have the option.
You can now reserve a property for 60 days for only $1,000.
Discover all the details about reserving a property, Click here.
We offer to finance.
This is a great advantage to you since it can be time-consuming and difficult to get bank financing in Panama.
And, if you are interested in ROP property, bank financing is non-existent. You can only obtain bank financing for titled property.
We carefully determined our terms by considering both what our clients have been asking for and looking at other owner-financing options available in the area.
We feel that our terms are fair and competitive. We think that you will agree.
Find out more about our financing.
You can rely on us to provide you with good advice and critical information necessary for success in Panama.
As you can easily see by browsing our website, LivinginPanama.com, we have a wealth of information about moving to Panama, setting up house, understanding the culture, and creating a happy life here in Puerto Armuelles.
We are happy to share this information with you throughout the purchase process and beyond.
Of course, no matter how compelling you find these 10 reasons, you must find a property that suits you.
One of our properties may be perfect for you. Or maybe none of them will call to you. Regardless, we are happy to help and answer your questions.
The main focus of our website is to help expats be successful and happy in Panama.
Of course, we would be thrilled if you bought one of our fabulous properties.
We'd have even more reason to celebrate your decision to join us down in Puerto Armuelles, Panama. The first round is on us!
Thanks for reading.
Betsy & Reyn
We hope you can benefit from the lessons we learned.
Don't Make Emotional Purchase
We have made dozens of property purchases safely and without regret in Panama.
Our achilles heel in this particular case was that this was an emotional purchase.
We LOVED the property too much, and we really WANTED it.
This is precisely the way expats get tricked into buying a property that they shouldn’t.
You need to use your prefrontal cortex to purchase property, not your amigdala. Definitely don’t use your tequila sunrise, or your vodka and tonic brain either. This needs to be a morning coffee sort of a decision.
In our case, the property in question was to have been for our own personal use, at a popular surfing spot in the neighborhood of Corazon de Jesus.
You see, we had gotten to know the sellers so well over the years of surfing and swimming there, and we liked the property so much for having used it every day or so over that time, and we were paying such a high price for the land…….(Blah, Blah, Blah)…
We assumed we knew everything we needed to know about the property. We had know the sellers for years, and made the mistake of believing what the sellers told us.
(Notice that our train of thought in this emotional purchase is not logical. We were using the wrong part of our brain. Basically, we were worried that if we didn’t buy it, someone else would, since many other properties in Corazon de Jesus had sold fast at that time).
Fortunately, we did much more cognitive research on our investment properties, since we bought for resale purposes. We made doubly sure we were on top of all stages of the vetting process.
We only purchased properties where we ourselves would be happy to live. And over the years, we have fallen in love with them, especially with the Corazon de Oro development where I now swim every day, or stroll 5 minutes down the beach to Corazon de Jesus to go surfing. As it turns out, we like it better than we ever liked Corazon de Jesus and the purple house.
We made several payments for the property, over 2 years, and were about to make our final, largest payment for the land, when we began to hear things that made us suspect that what we had been told by the family of the seller might not have been true.
You see, in this family there is an adult son who drinks too much. However, since I usually visited the property in the early morning when I swam, or surfed, I rarely ran into him, or if I did, he was not drunk in the mornings.
However, a couple of times, near the due date for our final payment, I visited the property in the afternoon. I got to witness this man drunk and belligerent. Most importantly to this story, this guy was yelling “crazy” things to me about the property having been left to him by his late father, as well as to the family member we were buying from. Previously, the family had convinced us that this person was the only legal owner of the property.
At this late date and for the 1st time, it was clear that this drunken relative was not happy with the idea of this sale. (Huh? I had been so confident that I knew everything about the property). I had spent hundreds of hours there over the years. I had been to births and funerals of various members of the family of the seller. I had lent the family money to help with travel and education expenses. How could this be?
Betsy and I immediately asked our lawyer do a review of the property documents to ease our doubts, before we handed over the final payment for the property.
It took this lawyer all of 5 minutes to discover that the drunk was exactly correct.
You see, the grandmother of the family, had (intentionally or not. We cannot be sure, although the last minute will was drawn up by this woman’s attorney who certainly should have known what he was doing) written a new will ceding her portion of the property back to her husband just before he died.
This meant that, though the property had been given to the seller only, by both his grandmother and his grandfather, upon the death of the grandfather all of this widow’s children, and their children’s children, as legal heirs, became the rightful owners of the property.
In the developed world, this series of events would have been labeled “felony real estate fraud”. In Panama this is considered a "grey area" especially where poor Panamanians are the sellers and expats are the buyers.
In fact they admitted it was fraud.
When we called them on their deception, they admitted it was true. There was more than one owner of the property.
They even signed a notarized declaration to that fact. Their attitude was one of, "Okay, we tried to defraud you. So what?"
At this point, we are fed up. And we are also "tied up" on this deal.
We are taking measures to protect ourselves and our investment. In our case, we own lots of other great properties so it is not the end of the world. However, for a retiree on a limited budget this could be devastating. They might have decided to give up and go home to North America.
We still want to buy the property. We have invested too much in it now to back down.
We have been informed by neighbors that they are now trying to sell this property to other unsuspecting victims. So please beware. This property is in litigation. It is not a property you should buy, unless you want to inherit problems.
We certainly hope that no other expats get involved in this troubled property until we win our suit. Feel free to contact us for more information.
This is why, for most expats, it is not a good idea to buy property directly from Panamanian sellers, or to buy a property that was only recently purchased from Panamanians.
Learn how to be safe buying property in Panama.
It is far safer to buy from expats who have held the property for a number of years.
Yes, you as the end user, pay a premium for property being sold by expats. But in exchange you get much more assurance that there are no conflicting ownership issues.
Of course, you should still throughly investigate the property and get to know all the parties, but the risk is much lower.
And we are not saying you should not buy from Panamanians. We bought almost all our properties from Panamanians. All with absolutely no issues. But keep in mind, we decided not to buy some properties because of issues that our investigations uncovered.
Buying from Panamanians directly is a great way to get a good deal. But to do that, you really should move here first. You need to personally get to know the players. And you need to do a tremendous amount of research. Buying from locals is a higher risk purchase. You should exercise greater caution. Go slowly and investigate the property and ownership throughly.
Such research will be more effective, and less likely for you to be a victim of fraud, if you are living in the area you want to buy. Plus, you will find out if you really will be happy in the area.
The most important detail to investigate is whether you will enjoy living on the property. After all, the end goal is not only to make a safe purchase, but to be happy with your life on that property.
We hope you found this tale informative.
[leadplayer_vid id="597E47811BA25"]
The hardest part is using the new-to-me software needed to edit the footage. (At least it is necessary when you take experienced photographers advice and you shoot in dlog. That makes everything "flat", requiring more intensive post-editing!) I attempted to use Adobe Premier Pro. Please let me know how you think it turned out.
I will be taking more and better drone footage. Hopefully soon.
It is the rainy season so I cannot do it just anytime. I need to wait for blue skies in the morning. The afternoons are abit too breezy for my skill level.
Corazon de Oro is really beautiful. Which is one reason we are building our first Living In Panama House there.
The end of the video above, includes footage from Friday, July 28, of the house under construction.
If you are searching for a wonderful place to live on the beach, you should check out our Corazon de Oro properties.
Find out more about the beautiful Corazon de Oro here.
This beautiful beach property (seen in the video above) is for sale in Puerto Armuelles, Panama.
It is just one of the 20 beautiful properties we have here at Corazon de Oro.
Stay to the end of the video, to see one of our Living In Panama houses in the process of being built.
This property leads right down to a beautiful beach. It is the rainy season so, driftwood has accumulated for the time being.
It is only a half-hour beach walk to town, or 5 minutes by car. Check out the video I made of walking on this beach, into town.
This is truly a beautiful place just to be.
The prices for these 20 lots range from under $100 thousand for beachfront, to as low as $32 thousand. You can find out more about these 20 lots by clicking (the link below).
This beachfront lot is 54 feet wide and 140 feet deep.
As you have probably heard, Puerto Armuelles is the charming beach town in the Chiriqui Province that Chiquita Banana built back in the 1920s. It a unique town in Panama.
We will be filming comprehensive videos of these properties this summer. After which time we will start marketing them in earnest.
If you have a chance, check them out before your favorite one is taken or its price goes up.
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You can find more photos and details about this property by clicking here.
In the video, I mention a few links you may want to click. Here they are:
Hi, this is Betsy of Living in Panama.
About the Property
We have a wonderful beachfront lot for sale in the charming beach town of Puerto Armuelles
This property has everything going for it:
Also For Sale
The 2 adjacent properties you see are also for sale, -- which includes the yellow beachfront house we are currently remodelling. To find out more, click the link below
As I said, this property is in Puerto Armuelles, in the Chiriqui province.
Here we are getting closer; to get a Google Earth view of the property.
Price
It is only $54,500 dollars.
Near Services
This beachfront property is in a great location. Just a block and a half from the Tsunami Inn which hosts a horseshoe game and expat hang out event every Sunday afternoon.
Even closer, in the other direction, are 2 restaurants. Las Juanas which is a seafood restaurant with outdoor seating right on the beach. It is really a great place to hang out.
Next to it is Big Daddy's Hotel, which has a restaurant inside, with air-conditioning.
There are a couple of small grocery stores within a block or two of the property. Puerto also has a great Romero grocery store as well as others about 5 minutes away.
Nearby Things To Do
This property and Puerto Armuelles, in general, can take advantage of all that Chiriqui Province offers.
It is only an hour day trip down to visit Mono Feliz and maybe feed the monkeys.
You can take a swim in front of your property in the morning and then go take a hike in Volcan or Boquete or Cerro Punta and be back at your beachfront home after a leisurely day.
David is about an hour and 15 minutes away. Its the biggest town in Chiriqui, Puerto Armuelles is the 2nd biggest, but David is definitely the shopping mecca. You can get pretty much you’d ever want there. And it keeps growing in that way. (e.g., a huge expansion of the Chiriqui Mall in David is currently underway)
And even outside of the Chiriqui province you can go along up this way to Almirante and take the ferry to Bocas del Toro for maybe a long weekend.
Or you can go right over here and visit Costa Rica.
About Puerto Armuelles
Or you could simply hang out in Puerto Armuelles.
Chiquita banana built Puerto Armuelles from scratch starting in the late 1920s. They put a unique stamp on this charming beach town. Including building whole neighborhoods of wooden houses on stilts.
Today Puerto is a charming beach town.
In fact, it is the only true beach town in Panama.
It has pretty much everything you need to live comfortably, including a great beach life, whether for you that is walking on the beach, boogie boarding, stand up paddleboarding, or surfing, or going there to buy fish from the fishermen.
More Info
For more information on this property, please contact us at our site, LivinginPanama.com or click the link below.
Please give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed this video and don’t forget to subscribe (YouTube).
You can explore more properties in Puerto Armuelles here.
And you can learn more about our charming beach town starting here.
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Click to get more details about this Puerto Armuelles beach front house for sale.
We are always happy to answer any questions you may have, just shoot us an email, or give us a call.
You can read what I said in the video below.
Video Transcription
Hi, I’m Betsy from Living In Panama
I want to let you know about a very affordable beach front house we have for sale
It is only $87,500.
It is on a beautiful beach
The lot is ample at 6100 sq. feet.
The house is 1350 sq. feet. It has 2 bedrooms, 1 bath
It needs some remodeling, although you can move in as is.
All utilities are set up and functioning.
The metal roof does need some immediate repair.
It is in the charming beach town of Puerto Armuelles.
Which is located right on the Pacific Ocean in the popular Chiriqui Province.
It really is an ample lot, with a nice house, on a beautiful beach for a very affordable price.
If you have any questions, please click the link below to find out more and to contact us by phone or email.
Thanks for watching
Given that, I was surprised that one of my favorite things to do as we traveled around Panama was to stop by construction sites and talk with other builders. I had fled the hustle and bustle of the building trade in Seattle only to discover, once again, how much I enjoy the fundamental beauty of human “dwellings” and how they are built. Apparently I made a good choice when I chose to become a designer/builder.
It doesn’t take long for one builder, chatting with another builder, in a new area, before the conversation winds its way around to the cost of materials, the cost of labor, the cost of land, to arrive at the potential profitability of being a builder in this new location.
Although I always prided myself on being more of an artisan design/builder than just a financially-motivated contractor, the profit potential in Panama is very seductive.
Early in our Panama travels we met a young builder and his girlfriend at Playa Cambutal. Playa Cambutal is out on the Azuero Peninsula, past Pedasi and Tonosi. They were both surfers and they loved this beautiful surf spot. The young man had borrowed $30,000 (as I recall) from his father who was a realtor somewhere in California. With this money, he and his girlfriend were able to buy a number of oceanfront farms, totaling over 2 miles of beachfront. Amazing!
We all know stories like this, and at first glance, one might say, “Wow! You guys are lucky. I guess we got here too late.” I remember my Dad telling stories about the farm he could have bought in Northern Virginia, a farm that later became Tyson’s Corner Mall.
There have always been great deals. And there will always be great deals. And we are all going to die some day. We still see amazing land deals in Panama.
About 10 years ago we spent some time investigating Pedasi and Tonosi, and other nearby locations. Yes, we discovered some amazing land deals. However, we decided that we were not interested in living so remotely, so far from services. And we had no interest in traveling to check in on any land we would buy in such a remote location.
This young couple (above) explained to us that they had to spend several hours, twice a week, driving to a small town, about 40 miles away, to do their basic shopping. For our own family, spending so many hours on the road, just sitting in the car, and burning gasoline, would not have fit our desired lifestyle. This was the in-the-car lifestyle we were trying to avoid by moving from Seattle. So we left the Azuero Peninsula and chose to live and invest in Puerto Armuelles. If you have read our site much, you will know we are very happy with our decision.
When I am asked if there are any “deals” left in Puerto Armuelles, I have to chuckle.
In truth, the big speculator class of investors arrived in Puerto 12 or 13 years ago. We got here 3 years after the miles of beachfront were sold to speculators from out of town. These same early investors continue to sit on some of the largest tracts of beachfront property in our area. I have no idea how they spend their days. But I am sure that they hardly ever think about our little beach town, unless they are looking at their investment portfolios.
A couple of these “big fish” are now offering schematic drawings of their future plans for these properties, but they haven't started to build yet. Or seemingly will in the near future. Meanwhile, a smaller class of builders, folks like us, is beginning to develop and build.
Yes, there are deals still to be had here. But you will not find the best deals advertised on the internet. You will find them by being here in Puerto.
You need to look around. Decide on your favorite locations and start talking with people. You will start to hear about some stellar deals.
For instance, if you shop, you can still pick up a house, a block from the water, for only $11,000 and a buildable lot for as low as 3 to $5,000.
Puerto Armuelles is a beach town of 25,000 residents, give or take.
It has many good properties and existing buildings, that with a skillful touch can still be resold for a substantial profit.
We want to encourage designers and builders to come check out Puerto Armuelles. To discover if there are any potential projects that suit them in our town. If so, not only will you have a great project, but you can step out of the stressful lifestyle of being a builder, contractor, or designer up north.
If you have experience in alternative energy housing, cooling, and transportation, even better. That is an untapped market here.
There is plenty of room for competitors in our market. Puerto Armuelles does have a few good builders, but we definitely need more motivated and skilled investor builders to provide housing for the growing influx of expat retirees. More good builders will just bring a greater diversity of expats and Panamanians to enjoy the lifestyle that Puerto has to offer.
Small-scale projects are definitely in demand. We recently sold a couple of our own projects. We did not make ten, or even five times our initial investment, but we have done well enough to carry us forward. Plus we have had a good family adventure and enjoyed our time doing it. And we have also slowly evolved our guiding design principles for building in our area. We are eager to continue to buy, to build and to sell.
We are excited by the uptick in the housing sales market. This enables us and others to design and build in a manner that inspires us, and that we think will be useful to new expat residents of Puerto Armuelles.
Our friend Victor describes life in Puerto Armuelles as being similar to that of Hawaii, or Southern California of 50 years ago.
You may find Puerto Armuelles is a more relaxed, and probably a more profitable building environment. And you won't have the stiff competition from other builders.
The broadest market niche by far available to expats in the construction field is that of “investor/builder”. You don't need a work permit to work on your own property, even if your intent is to sell it.
However, for the last few years, Panama has made getting a work permit much easier. This is especially true if you obtain the easy-to-get, Friendly Nations visa. That permanent resident visa was designed as a stepping stone to a work permit.
If you are a builder looking for a change in lifestyle, we invite you to check out our town.
For the builder who loves a beach town lifestyle, I would say that Puerto Armuelles is similar to Puerto Vallarta 50 years ago. It is a relaxed, maritime environment. And it probably won’t be like this forever.
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