Looking For A Home In Panama

The business sector has been quick to take advantage of the demand for real estate by foreigners who are moving to Panama. Projects to accommodate the influx are mushrooming in the form of high-rise condominiums in the town, spreading along the Pacific coast and appearing on islands, in rural settings and in the mountains.

The trend began in Bocas del Toro in the past. Boquete then soared into the limelight with endorsements from U.S. retirement publications and the construction of the Valle Escondido complex.

Now the demand is spreading, not just to the areas of the Chiriqui highlands such as Volcan and Cerro Punta, but to Panama City and the mountains and beaches to the west of the town from Chorrera to San Carlos.

On the next paragraphs, you can expect a resum� of a few of the projects under way.

El Alc�zar de Coronado

Coronado Resort, on the beach 80 km west of Panama City, among the best known, and longest-established developments in Panama, has launched a new residential complex, "El Alc�zar", designed for the growing community of foreign retirees and relocating families in Panama. more info is really a 21-story con-dominium overlooking Coronado's superb course.

El Alc�zar offers 64 four-bedroom residences with ample balconies offering vistas of the Pacific Ocean and the forest-clad hills of the Continental Divide. You will see 24-hour security, a heliport, a modern emergency alarm system, connections for internet and cable television and two central air conditioners.

Residents of El Alc�zar will be eligible for free membership at Coronado's golf, beach and equestrian clubs, as well as the resort's Full Wellness Spa (the therapists of which are trained in alternative medicine at the prestigious Uplledger Craneal Sacral Institute) along with other facilities. Owners will also have the right to rent their apartments to third parties.

Tucan Country Club

A haven for golf and nature aficionados, it's possible that golfers and residents will dsicover not merely toucans, but a lot of wildlife, at the Tucan Country Club since this magnificent course and residential development is bounded by virgin rainforest using one side and the Panama Canal on the other.

The Tucan Country Club and Resort has been developed on the old 180 acre Horoko DRIVER, utilized by the U.S. military during their occupation of the Canal area ( the name Horoko was an adaptation of the names of the forts of Howard, Rodman and Kobbe)

The old course, laid out in the 1940's, has been redesigned as a superb par 72 championship course and will be the focus for a thorough development which will incorporate 500 homes, a hotel, clubhouse with indoor and outdoor dining facilities, meeting rooms, ballroom, men's and women's club bars and social areas for events.

The complex includes a full-service gym, spa and tennis club and a shopping arcade with services like bank, laundry, pharmacy, beauty salons, auto rental and gourmet mini-super.

This will be a gated community for members only. In fact a pre-requisite for purchasers of the villas, townhouses and terrace condos at Tucan Resort will be membership. Prices including lifetime membership range from $198,000 to over $800,000. Non-residents should be able to buy a lifetime membership for $25,000.

Stupendous views of the canal, the canal basin and the city shimmering a mere a quarter-hour away, can be enjoyed from the homes and from many points on the course.

Altos del Mar�a

Probably the most successful and attractive real estate projects in Panama is Altos del Mar�a. Located in the highlands of Sor�, 96 km (60 miles) west of Panama City, Altos del Mar�a is a country-style residential project offering parcels having an altitude range between 550mts (1,800 feet) and 1,100mts (3,600 feet) above sea level. Due to the altitude, the region enjoys year-round spring-like weather, with temperatures ranging between 20 and 16 degrees Celsius (61-68 F).

Well endowed with manicured forests, waterfalls, picnic areas and parks, Altos del Maria is fantastic for retirees or families choosing seclusion but with quick access to the conveniences of modern life. The town of La Chorrera, the fastest growing settlement of the spot, is 45 minutes away, offering modern supermarkets, restaurants, cinemas and shopping centers.

Altos del Maria is also not far from the most popular stretch of Pacific-coast beaches in Panama - a location featuring numerous recreational and sports facilities. Among them is Coronado Hotel & Resort, which boasts among the finest golf courses in Latin America, and the Royal Decameron Costa Blanca Hotel, the country's most successful beach development. Altos del Mar�a is linked to the capital by means of a modern, four-lane highway.

San Marino Ocean Front

With either two oceans, many people will prefer the Caribbean for its pure water and minimal tides.

In the event that you fill into this category, it will be worth checking out San Marino Ocean Front, a development near Colon, 65 miles or 90 minutes from Panama City. It really is on the beautiful coastline referred to as Costa Arriba not far from the ruins of the famous old Spanish fortified city of Portobelo.

The development includes 108 lots facing the blue Caribbean and backed by green rainforest slopes.

San Marino Ocean Front includes a Club House overlooking the ocean with pool, gazebos, barbecue, bar area for just about any resident or private meeting. Another benefit is the marina with break water for safe using the boat ramp which enhances the complete development.

Brisas de Los Lagos

Twenty five years back, Ricardo Velasquez, a respected eye surgeon in Panama City, bought a cattle farm near Chorrera, between Panama City and the Pacific beaches. He named it Brisas de los Lagos (Breezy Lakes) and started to plant trees--teak, mahogany and pine. He attempt to create, not only a re-forestation project but an ecological park.

Now, 57 well-chosen lots among the lakes and streams have been segregated from the wooded acres and so are being offered on the market to form an exclusive residential enclave, in the country but within 40 minutes' drive from Panama City.

Hacienda Las Nubes

Probably the most intriguing projects is Hacienda Las Nubes (Ranch in the Clouds) above Cerro Punta in the Chiriqui highlands which will be the best residential project in the country and the closet to nature, located in the cloud forest on the borders of the Baru and Amistad National Parks.

It's the brainchild of author, photographer and film-maker Ricardo de la Espriella. He has sub-divided a tract of his land on the slopes of the Talamanca mountain range, overlooking the city and fertile valley of Cerro Punta and with an impressive and almost eye-level view of the peak of the extinct volcano Baru.

Plenty of generous proportions (eg.half acre $50,000) are on special offer as the project gets under way. A hotel with bars, restaurants and meeting rooms will add country club style to the project.

Valle Escondido

Valle Escondido translates as Hidden Valley, and its own name is appropriate, because the magnificent valley around 150 acres, although just a ten-minute walk from the city center of Boquete, is totally hidden and isolated.

A U.S. citizen, Mr. Sam Taliaferro, discovered the valley while out riding horseback. But not a developer (his career up to the revelation of Valle Escondido have been in computer equipment) he envisioned a community in this idyllic place, and attempt to buy the valley and build.

Built-in Spanish colonial style, the complex is self-sufficient. It incorporates its "town center" with shops, an amphitheatre for music and cultural events, alternative health center and also a school. An extremely special feature is really a multi denominational chapel with an impressive ceiling and murals of allegorical paintings by Roger Valdez depicting the original ferocity of the Baru Volcano and the fertility, which followed its eruption.

Valle Escondido has its own water supply from a pure spring, which gushes from the mountainside. A river runs through the property, creating scenic hazards on the 9-hole golf course. Coffee, the initial resource of the valley has been left largely intact and the working plantation's profits are shared among home-owners.

Hacienda Los Molinos

Boquete is also the site of another residential development, Hacienda Los Molinos, offering the most exquisite scenery to be found on the mountain slopes. Lots are scattered around a 360-foot-deep canyon -- a beautiful gorge with the R�o Cochea running through it. Something of lakes also beautifies the area.

The project, created by the Dutch architect and landscape specialist, Angrid Titanos, offers views of the peak of Baru and the Pacific Ocean. Residents get access to trails through natural forests and past rivers and waterfalls.

The developers of Los Molinos also plan a clubhouse, restaurant, piano bar, library, pool, tennis courts along with other facilities.

Monta�as de Caldera

This private residential community is aptly named for its magnificent 360 degree view of pure mountain scenery including the continental divide and the mountains of El Pe�on. The district of Caldera lies about two thirds of the way up the slope leading from Chiriqui's capital city David up to Boquete slightly below the peak of Volcan Baru.

Monta�as de Caldera may be the vision of John Richardson, a well-known property developer originally from the uk, who latterly lived in the Cayman Islands until he visited Panama in 2001 and discovered the mild climate and green beauty of Caldera. Associated companies of his family have been established since 1895.

The community has been developed on 460 acres -- plenty of room for nature trails (and the 954 species of birds, which also call it home) around the residential areas, which are increasingly being divided into 350 lots of between 1,500 m2 and 5,800 m2. The community will have its own plentiful supply of pure water from springs on the property, which borders the area's principal river, Rio Caldera.

Amenities planned for the city include a country club and restaurant, restaurant, bar, driving range, tennis courts, fitness center, equestrian center, doctor's office, a store and even a church.

Brisas de Amador

The Amador Causeway, which joins three islands alongside the entrance to the Canal, is on the way to realizing its tourism potential.

On the island of Perico an ambitious project called Brisas de Amador is underway.

The initial phase, Causeway Boulevard, a restaurant and shopping complex has already been complete with a number of first class restaurants and bars accumulating their trade.

The promotors are now shifting to the provision of tourist accommodation... a marina, hotel and a cruise port, that may take four years and $50 million.

Next to Causeway Boulevard will be an apartment hotel with 180 rooms in ten separate buildings. The mark market will be executives and professionals who need to stay in Panama for some time and who are searching for a place more "intimate and personal" when compared to a hotel and also more economical. Another type of guest will be passengers and crew of visiting yachts.

There should be plenty of business in this category because the planned marina could have 400 berths for luxury yachts, sailboats and other craft.

The cruise ship pier will have duty free shops and a cultural center featuring the seven ethnic Indian tribes on the isthmus. A five-star hotel and casino next to the cruise pier will complete this tourist-oriented complex and really put the Amador Causeway on the map.

Punta Barco Village

For those seeking property on the beach, Punta Barco Village provides an attractive opportunity. The project is located at Punta Barco on a little bay with an exclusive beach. The offering is varied; the choice is between 1000 m2 lots, "garden apartments" and condos.

Prices of a lot with house start at $190,000. Three 3-story buildings round a pool contain the garden apartments which are from $235,000. The condos, each with 212 m2 in two 9-story buildings, start at $230,000.

Punta Barco, a gated community incorporating a driving range and tennis courts, is 48 miles to the west of Panama City and next door to the leisure community of Coronado with its supermarkets and restaurants. You can find three golf courses inside a 20-minute drive. Another charac-teristic of Punta Barco may be the exclusive homes for which the area is renowned and the ranches of breeders of Peruvian paso horses who utilize the equestrian center at Coronado.

Costa Blanca Golf y Villas

The enormously successful Decameron resort at Farallon on the Pacific Coast west of Panama City has been quietly promoting an adjoining residential development called Costa Blanca Golf and Villas for the past three years and it is now a well-established community with 35 % Panamanians and 65 % foreigners of several nationalities... from Canada, U.S., Italy, France, Spain, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Japan along with other countries. Sales of villas and townhouse are ongoing.

This exclusive beach project is surrounded by a beautiful professional Golf Course "Mantaraya".

An 80-minute drive from Panama City, this residential resort has all you could want, not only for living but also for investment.

The project itself has two types of houses: Townhouses: A cushty two-story house with an outdoor, terrace, barbecue and decorative pergolas. You will find a spectacular view to the "Mantaraya Golf Course" which purchasers will automatically be members. The minimum size of the land is from approximately 726sq feet to 4,900 sq feet, with a construction area from 610sq feet. The bottom floor includes a spacious living/dining room, kitchen, laundry room, guest bathroom. The first floor includes two comfortable bedrooms, each with its private bathroom, balcony, terrace and independent entrances.

Villas: You can find three models of three, four and five bedrooms, each using its private bathroom, sufficient reason for a construction area from 802.59 sq feet. These excellent villas offer the alternative of choosing independent lands from 2,475sq. feet to 4,950 sq feet, each with a view to the golf course. On the primary floor there exists a powder room, ample living and dining area, domed ceilings and maid's bedroom and bathroom that some owners use being an office or storage room. The laundry and kitchen can be on the primary floor.

Owners of Costa Blanca Golf & Villas, and their own families, can be members of the exclusive Mantaraya Golf and Beach Club supplying a professional 18-hole course that surrounds the complete Costa Blanca development. The spectacular Beach Club is designed for the owners and their guests with a restaurant, swimming pool and what they claim is the best Pacific beach in Panama. You can find nature trails, convention center, casino, spa, tennis court, water sports.

N�are Boquete

The developers of Nuare in Boquete reach back to the culture of the indigenous folks of the mountains for inspiration in the planning and construction of a fresh residential project. As their brochure points out, the Gnobe Indians of Chiriqui regarded Boquete as a special place -- a location of enchantment and magnetism. They will have a word to spell it out it, "Nuare", which means something agreeable and enchanting.

The luxurious houses available certainly are a far cry from the thatched hut, however the guiding principles are sound. The resulting concept is better still. The first phase includes 35 lots along two streams and on the edge of a canyon by which flows the Caldera River.

The project, situated on a superb site at Alto Boquete will add a 24 hour security gate, spectacular club house, pool, spa gym, tennis courts, piano bar, reading room, billiards room, a shopping center and medical facility with ambulance. Nature trails are provided, throughout the property.

The Azuero Peninsula

One particular emerging destination is the tip of Panama's Azuero Peninsula.

Favorable articles in lots of publications as distinct as The NY Times and The Robb Report suggest this previously unheralded Pacific peninsula is about to join what THE DAYS and many others are calling "Panama's land rush."

The Azuero Peninsula is normally described in the guidebooks accurately enough, to be "off the beaten track". A charter flight from the skyscrapers of Panama City to the Azuero peninsula takes 40 minutes. By car, you travel, some 250 kilometers west on the Panamerican Highway before turning south for another hour. get more info pass through country sprinkled with roadside homes and Spanish-style towns to take brief respite in quaint central squares amidst friendly Panamanians and their folkloric festivals.

At the tip of the attractive peninsula are tan-sand beaches with surf, hills, and dales for campers, excellent fishing just off-shore. And everywhere, it appears, cowboys, horses and cattle share the street with modern automobiles.

The visionaries who have first seen the potential of the area are more worried about restoring its ecology than maximizing human habitation. And for good reason: The wealthy or the well-known who've bought land here (the Robb Report lists such recognizable names as Mick Jagger, Bruce Willis and Tommy Lee Jones) have a tendency to value both ecology and privacy.

Among advocates of responsible development, two of the most influential are Edwina von Gal, a fresh York landscape designer, and Gilles Saint-Gilles, an internationally known French designer of mansions for princes along with other wealthy Europeans.

In accordance with a two-page color spread in THE DAYS, Ms. von Gal and her associates "are pooling their funds to buy up old cattle ranches before developers choose the land for high-rise resorts, casinos and golf courses. They are reforesting eroded lands and planning to build with local wood and local labor."

Saint-Gilles, who on 1,000 acres is accomplishing a lot of what Ms. Von Gal among others laudably desire to, coalesces his passion for Old World craftsmanship, exquisite design and environmental stewardship in "Azueros", a sustainable luxury community just beyond Pedasi. Enamored with the area's Tuscany-like hills and cerulean ocean waters, Saint-Gilles chose a secluded stretch of the Pacific as the location for Azueros and contains now commenced his ambitious vision-- a balance of luxurious living and ecological restoration.

Azueros' work force is currently building masterfully crafted homes designed by Saint-Gilles on beachfront and ocean-view lots of up to 20 acres, some of which are surrounded by their own private nature reserve. Four years in to the project, Villa Camilla accommodates prospective buyers seeking privacy and such recreations as fishing and horse riding, but who would like telephone and Access to the internet as well.

Ocean Park Tower

Ocean Park is a private and secure luxury residential complex situated in Punta Pacifica, just about the most desirable neighborhoods in Panama City. Its towers offer panoramic views of Panama City and the Bay of Panama.

The Ocean Park lifestyle offers the advantage of living in the heart of the city within walking distance of shopping, hospitals, and entertain-ment, in a modern, luxury complex.

Ocean Park includes two towers 42 stories high within 55,000 sq feet of land in Punta Pacifica, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Tower 1 is all sold, and Tower 2 has few units left.

Ocean Park Tower 2 has a lot more than 6,000 square meters (64,583 square feet) of recreation and social areas, including two parks for children, controlled security access, and high-end luxury finishing.

Amenities include 24/7 security gate, large indoor pool and visitor parking.

Each building has two pools, fully equipped gym with sauna, basketball court, lounge, spectacular lobby, three high speed elevators, 24/7 concierge; full reserve power-plant, internet-ready and security surveillance system.

Isla Viveros

The wave of real-estate developments directed at foreign expats and second-home buyers has reached the beautiful islands of Las Perlas archipelago, more specifically to Isla Viveros -a little-known, but well-endowed tropical island approximately eight miles south of Contadora.

Grupo Viveros is currently marketing an ambitious residential project on the island. With mansions facing the crystal-clear waters of the Gulf of Panama, and a golf course created by Jack Nicklaus.

Isla Viveros will undoubtedly be transformed right into a secluded community of 550 residences built on 600 hectares (300 on the seafront and 250, facing the course.) The project also demands two marinas with capacity for one hundred, 150-feet yachts, shopping centers, an air strip, medical facilities and three five-star hotels, featuring between 100-300 bedrooms. Lots, range between $300,000 and $500,000.

Clients will have the opportunity to choose from various house models, even though company can also build mansions for probably the most demanding tastes. The full total price of the common property, land included, is approximately US$750,000.00.

A little canal separates Isla Viveros from Isla del Rey, the largest & most populated of the Pearl Islands -an archipelago that gets its name from the abundance of pearls found there during the colonial period. The complete region is a paradise for anglers, divers and water-sport enthusiasts. The waters of the Pacific, are filled with Blue and Black Marlin, Wahoo, Sailfish, Red Snapper and many other species. The project is a couple of minutes from the popular resorts of Contadora Island and not very definately not Pi�as Bay, one of the world's top sports fishing venues.

Something of regular, scheduled flights, that may soon include Isla Viveros, provides an easy access to and from Panama City (15-20 minutes).

Author:

Kenneth J. Jones

- General Manager -

Focus Publications (Int.), S.A.

Panama, R.P.