The Rise of the Panama Apartment Rental Industry

With a progression from the late 1990’s into early 2000, the Republic of Panama began to realize it’s potential for tourism and real estate as viable economically sustainable industries. Up until that point, Panama had relied, unswervingly albeit, on trade, banking and agriculture: but with the rush of a new century and timely changes in international investment and travel patterns, Panamanians found themselves sitting on a proverbial goldmine.

The first real thrust was the real estate boom which anchored itself in Panama City and the rural eco-town of Boquete. This boom came to be symbolized by radical changes in skylines, giant increases in building materials and labor, as well as a need to draw people to the isthmus.

Enter the resulting tourism roar, characterized by the nation’s tourism board (IPAT), spending millions of dollars throughout the world to promote Panama as a tropical vacation destination. This campaign saw TV commercials, magazine ads, and an overall buzz about a Panama, which so few people even knew.

The original goal in Panama, as was in similar destinations like Costa Rica and Mexico, was to use tourism to drive real estate sales. But with the investment sector already so well underway in 2007, tourists found themselves arriving in Panama to an oversupply of real estate and an undersupply of hotels, especially in the capital city.

The obvious way to cope with this imbalance was to utilize that which Panama City had plenty of (condominiums) and use them to fill the void (hotel rooms). As a result a number of property management companies arose, offering both short and long term stays to tourists in apartments.

Fully furnished apartments were welcomed warmly by tourists, who truthfully preferred living like a local as opposed to the generic hotel room they’d become accustomed to over the years.  Condo hotspots like Punta Pacifica, Avenida Balboa, El Cangrejo, and Casco Viejo (the old quarter) began to see clients flock to their product, offering maid service, cable TV, wireless internet, and full kitchens: all the luxuries of a hotel but more space and more privacy.

In 2008, a record number of new hotels were announced to fill the supposed void. But many tourists found themselves liking too much the lifestyle that an Panama apartments for rent provided. Further, businessmen and businesswomen in town for weeks to months at a time, decided to stick with the model of rental apartments, thus keeping the industry healthy and alive.

What the future will bring to Panama no one knows. But over the past decade, trends and voids have seemed to even themselves out impressively, allowing the now-booming tourism industry to do what it does best: show off a beautiful country.