Thread: Looking for helpful suggestions

My company is interested in building a small scale condo development in Panama. I will be touring the country in May for a month.

I plan on staying:
- one week in Panama City and visiting Coronado, Sora, and Altos Del Maria areas.
- one week in Chitre and visiting Los Tablos, Pedasi, etc.
- one week in David and visiting Boquette, Volcan, and several surrounding beach areas.

I would like to meet with a lawyer, real estate agent, and builder/developer in each region. Any suggestions or referrals will be appreciated.

I am interested in any information regarding locations and contacts that could be useful.

Thank you.

Andrew

Suggestion: First, find one of each in Panama City whom you can trust, then use him or her to make connections for the other cities. (And if you find the right lawyer, s/he can make *all* the connections.)

Suggestion #2: Ask this same question on the Yahoo! Groups -- lots more ex-pats there who have actually worked with lawyers/agents/etc. here.

Look on the Caribbean Coast in Costa Arriba, it is probably the best place to invest in Panama.

YouTube - Panama Colon Highway - Autopista Panama Colon
Here is the new freeway that is done in 6 weeks.

Best,
eyeonpanama.com

Originally Posted by Dremani

My company is interested in building a small scale condo development in Panama. I will be touring the country in May for a month.

I plan on staying:
- one week in Panama City and visiting Coronado, Sora, and Altos Del Maria areas.
- one week in Chitre and visiting Los Tablos, Pedasi, etc.
- one week in David and visiting Boquette, Volcan, and several surrounding beach areas.

I would like to meet with a lawyer, real estate agent, and builder/developer in each region. Any suggestions or referrals will be appreciated.

I am interested in any information regarding locations and contacts that could be useful.

Thank you.

Andrew

Thanks for both of your responses.
I have posted some questions on Yahoo Groups and have received an abundance of useful information.

Have you not read anything in this thread?

http://www.panamaforum.com/real-esta...eap-again.html (Real Estate in Panama City Will Soon Be Cheap Again)

(You may be interested in my Pedasi Feast or Famine thread also)

You want to develop real estate in Panama NOW? REALLY?

With all due respect, why don't you just give me the money. I don't normally solicite my business in this forum, but I hate to see a train wreck coming and not try to stop it. I'm a gold wholesaler in Los Angeles, Ca. I'll put your money into gold for you and you'll probably double your money in a year or two rather than lose half your money by executing the worst market timing for a development deal in Panamanian history.

I have read those threads, however they are mainly focused on Panama CITY, which I am not. The one on Pedasi has steered my focus away from this region, but I must investigate it for myself. I do understand the nature of Panama's real estate market currently, and my experience leads me to believe that there is more development required now in regions other than Panama City. My investors and customers dictate where I develop, and there money is going towards developing in Panama, which I will not argue against. There is absolutely no reason to wait to develop if I already have investors wanting to build now. There is still very cheap land available, which will not get much cheaper. Labour also will not get any cheaper. Material costs may or may not be cheaper, however costs are extremely reasonable right now from my offshore suppliers.

I am not concerns with opinions on the market. I am interested on helpful and positive suggestions on which locations I may want to look into, that otherwise I may overlook, such as the suggestion made by Forbes25.

I do appreciate the negative viewpoints on developing in Panama, but I have experienced more negativity in North American cities that I have been able to develop extremely successful projects. The negativity on Panama actually makes me more confident to go there now. If you believe that there is no opportunity to successful develop in Panama right now, you are mistaken.

But, I would be interested to hear your suggestion on where the best markets are globally for investment and development?

Also, I require higher returns than gold is capable of achieving.

Dremani,

I would be very interested to hear about your developments. I mentioned I own a gold wholesale business in Los Angeles, however, I didn't mention that real estate has been my family's business for the past 50 years. All investment markets are cyclical and most analysts across the board would suggest that now is NOT the time be making real estate investments for many economic reasons. Also, remember that as economic conditions change past performance cannot reflect future performance.

I think you underestimate gold given the current golbal economic conditions. The Fed was recently authorized to print over 3 trillion dollars of new money out of thin air which will create inflation and possibly hyperinflation which will reveal itself months down the road from now. This of course is good for gold and bad for the US Dollar. Go back and review gold charts from the 70's when we had similar economic conditions and you'll see that gold rose 800% in 4 years. So far Gold is only up 300% this decade.

I would be glad to discuss my plans for development with you. But it will have to wait until the beginning of June, once they are more finalized, and I am able to actually visit and tour the entire country.

Gold is just simply not for me as I have a short time frame for investment and if I were to tell my investors to give me money for gold they would get a good laugh. The average return for my past projects in 15X - 20X the initial investment, and this is what my investors are expecting to see.