A strategic geographical position, an inter-oceanic canal, state-of-the-art business infrastructure, plentiful airlift, an international financial and shopping center, charming people and natural niceties strengthen the interest of investors in Panama’s real estate and hotel sectors

Men and women from all around the world visit Panama on a regular basis for a firsthand look at all the conveniences its business platform has to offer for the management of commercial operations in the Americas. The coming of this bevy of executives and impresarios is now coupled with the fact that the country is increasingly becoming a hot choice for international meetings and events in addition to its position as a conventional travel destination. This circumstance has favored the demand for spaces to set up corporate headquarters, commercial institutions, residential areas, vacationing locations and real estate investments that open up a window of opportunity for businesspeople who seek to capitalize on the tremendous need of new guestrooms for the local hotel sector. In figures, Panama counts today on 16,000 hotel rooms, but the goal is to have as many as 25,000 by the year 2010. The city boasts a white-heat growth pace. Not only more and more execs and businesspeople make the rounds in Panama these days, but also far more sunbathers, persons visiting historic sites and restaurants, let alone those who find out that Panama is a paradise for the perfect shopping binge. Tourism has no doubt become one of the world’s major industries and revenue makers, thus evolving as a top-tier economic powerhouse. A closer glance at the small Central American nation lays bare how much headway Panama has made over the past ten years, especially in the real estate and travel sectors. Within the general framework of the country’s new economic trends, an outstanding highlight is the real estate boom, marked by an increasingly larger number of foreigners who cash in on their visit to Panama to buy properties either for investment, resale, rent, leasing or timeshare, including hotels and condos. Within the biggest development cores of this ever-growing market, there are well-defined consumer groups, like foreigners looking for not-so-bustling destinations in countries that can provide high levels of personal security and all the necessary conveniences that today’s world demands. There are also businesspeople interested in setting up shop in the country and others that have pulled up stakes to settle down permanently through the purchase of a second home outside of their places of origin. Furthermore, Panama is blessed with an extraordinary natural and cultural heritage, a superb climate, a privileged geographical location, the use of the U.S. dollar since 1904 as a legal currency, high living standards at very affordable prices, social and political stability, a juridical safety net and, above all, its kindhearted people. The international promotion carried out jointly in this respect by the national government through the Panama Tourism Institute, the private sector and the Association of Real Estate Brokers and Promoters (ACOBIR is the Spanish acronym), chiefly in international fairs and conventions dealing with the issues of residential tourism and real estate business, is construed as a clear-cut confirmation that Panamanian authorities have given this matter a top-priority status. The successful implementation of this development source is expected to reap huge benefits for the national economy in the form of new jobs, more wealth, better living conditions for the Panamanian people and higher competitiveness. State-run and private institutions are working hand in hand on this particular effort, adding resources in a bid to further improve the Panama City infrastructure based on a painstaking urban layout that includes the capital’s transportation system and that would definitely give the country a much bigger edge, especially now that the nation is seen as the place where everybody wants to be.

The zones of San Francisco, Costa del Este, Punta Pacifica, Amador and Punta Paitilla boast tremendous building sprees, taking the lion’s share of Panama’s biggest real-estate projects.