Presently, renting a house or apartment in the center of Panama City or its suburbs still remains an attractive and lucrative business, as we studied opinions of several experts.
Ultimately banks are very cautious with approving new mortgages to Panamanians and especially foreigners, this is also the reason why rent market has been seeing mild growth and more movement a few last years.
In various web portals one can see ads with photos and description with great variety of price and types of real estate.
- Apartments and houses rent starting at $600 up to $5,200 a month in central districts like Paitilla, Balboa Avenue, San Francisco and others.
- In the meantime, in provinces of Panama prices generally are between $500 and $1,300 per month.
- The northern parts of capital are the districts with lower prices and there we observe prices between $600 and $1,000 per month.
Experts generally agree that increasing rates generally go along with rising prices for new construction. For many Panamanians renting still remains somewhat of a temporary decision, while the majority of the population aims to become property owners. For many renting is an option because banks may not approve their mortgage, or they are hoping to move to a better location soon. However, sometimes one can simply have no interest to become owners of real estate.
CBRE Panama reports that Class A apartments (exclusive zones) rates decreased slightly to $ 14,95 per square meter by the end of 2016 and Class B (more economical areas) managed to maintain its rates by $ 10 per square meter.
The reports also says that there is growing interest in the rental market with slightly fewer options now on the market.
The experts agree that Panamanians traditionally try to buy their own place as soon as possible, but nevertheless there’re more and more people in Panama that due to several reasons prefer long-term rent instead of applying for a mortgage.
To sum it up, rent market in Panama recently gets a bit more activity as compared to last years and real estate remains an attractive and smart investment compared to many other options.
