Living In Casco Viejo, Panama
At Home In Casco Viejo
Aug. 16, 2009
Panama City, Panama
PLUS: World's Six Most Affordable Overseas Retirement Havens...Top Retirement Living Option In Latin America...Paris' Le Marais...Buy For Nothing Down And No Interest On Nicaragua's Gorgeous Pacific Coast...
AND: Coming This Week: No Spin, No Color, No Promises--Three Insiders Speak Candidly About The State Of The Panama Property Market...
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Third Annual Global Real Estate Profits Summit
This is the best time in 10 years to be a buyer. Over two days in October, Lief Simon and 12 other international real estate investing pros are convening in Panama City to disuss where and how to position yourself for profit. You want to be in the room.
Details here.
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Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,
It wasn't an international move. Rather, we were relocating simply from one end of Panama City to the other. Still, we've been through moves in developing world countries before. We prepared ourselves for the worst.
We'd engaged the moving company to come the day before to pack our household contents in their entirety, so, Wednesday morning, we walked out the door and headed for the office hoping for the best but, as I said, fully expecting some less optimal outcome.
Wednesday night, Lief returned home before I did. He called to report, "There's not a fork, not a glass that's not been wrapped and put into a carton. And every stick of furniture is covered with plastic. They left the mattresses unwrapped and the television and DVD player connected. We'll need to go out for dinner. Then we can come back home and sit on the floor to watch a movie, I guess."
Thursday morning, at the appointed hour, five young and energetic Panamanians, under the direction of a very on-the-ball lady manager, burst into the apartment and set about loading their moving truck with our stuff. Across town, in Casco Viejo, the crew navigated our narrow lane, parked their truck, then off-loaded it just as energetically and cheerfully as they'd filled it up several hours earlier.
Several pieces couldn't be fit up the winding first-floor staircase. Our guys didn't skip a beat. They carried the guest room bed, the leather couch, and the antique armoire back out on to the street. Then, one by one, they hoisted each piece of furniture by rope from the sidewalk up over the first-floor balcony. Nine-year-old Jackson watched with delight.
Just as the skies opened and the rain came pouring down, the last cardboard box was carried inside. By now, it was dark. Our guys had been hauling and toting since 8:30 a.m., but, again, cheerfully, with no encouragement, they began unwrapping the plastic from around all the furniture, then standing by for instructions from me as to where to place each piece in each room.
It was nearly 9 p.m. when they finished. We've spent the couple of days since unpacking boxes (which the movers will return tomorrow morning to collect) and getting to know our new neighborhood.
Living next-door is an American from Arizona who's been in Casco Viejo for a year and who is preparing for the opening of his new microbrewery just around the corner. Two blocks away is a friendly, family-run restaurant that offers an Executive Lunch including salad, homemade bread, ceviche, an entrée of chicken, pork, or fish, and dessert for US$8.50.
On the corner of our street is the 16th-century La Merced church, where, this morning, the faithful gathered at 7, 9, and again at 11 to sing and celebrate. Two blocks away is the main Casco Viejo square, Plaza Cathedral, with another beautiful old church and a couple of museums, including the Panama Canal Museum.
On our small street, every building but one has been carefully restored. The one remaining renovation project is well under way. I watched the workmen exposing the interior stone and brick walls of the four-story structure from our balcony yesterday morning.
Behind us, new apartments and a swimming pool are being erected.
And all around, the good people of Casco Viejo are enjoying life in this World Heritage Site enclave with its brick-paved streets, centuries-old French- and Spanish-colonial structures, plazas, squares, and gardens. We couldn't be happier to join them.
Kathleen Peddicord
P.S. We were fully delighted with the work of the company we used for our move this week. It's the most professional and organized group we've worked with in a dozen years of moving around the world. They're called Metropolitan Movers, and I heartily recommend them. They handle logistics not only within Panama, but internationally from this country, as well. Reach them here: tel. 507-392-2731; e-mail mudanzas@metropolitanmovers.com.pa.
P.P.S. What else this week?
- "Developers around the world are getting creative," writes resident global real estate investing expert Lief Simon. "They are offering free furniture packages, free golf club memberships, reduced prices, and deferred payments. I heard of one development where you could buy a condo and get a lot free.
"Some are these offers are gimmicks to get your attention, but some add considerable value, and the payment offers being made in some cases constitute the best purchase terms I've ever seen...for example:
"Developer friend Mike Cobb has decided to make a limited number of lots at his Gran Pacifica oceanside community in Nicaragua available with payment terms that are hard to beat.
"Mike understands that liquidity is an issue for buyers right now. During the real estate boom in the United States, retirees and investors were taking out lines of credit on real estate assets back home and using those funds to buy retirement or second homes overseas or to speculate in the international property arena.
"Unfortunately for both buyers and developers, those days are gone, and, in a market like Nicaragua, there's no chance for local financing (OK, if you worked at it hard enough and had the right bank contacts, you might get a mortgage for a house in Nicaragua as a foreigner, but I guarantee that you wouldn't like the terms).
"Gran Pacifica's terms, on the other hand, for this limited release of golf lots, are straightforward and highly appealing. Buy a lot today and pay just 1% of the purchase price per month for 100 months. These lots are on the second hole on the under-construction Emerald course scheduled to open at the end of this year.
"Most every lot sold at Gran Pacifica comes with a build requirement, but, in this case, for these lots, the developer has decided to remove any build requirement to further entice investors. You're not obligated ever to build a house if you don't want to.
"The lots are priced at $69,900, meaning your cost is US$699 per month for 100 months. Be you an investor or a would-be retiree abroad, this offer is difficult to beat, especially as the US$69,900 price tag includes a golf club social membership.
"Gran Pacifica is able to make this offer because they have already paid for and installed their infrastructure. They don't need full payment up front to cover infrastructure costs, as many developers in this part of the world do.
"You are among the very first to hear of this special price and limited-time payment offer. Mike's group has set aside 27 lots to be sold under these terms. Of these, eight have been sold to Gran Pacifica insiders. Nineteen lots remain available and, again, are being offered now exclusively to Live and Invest Overseas readers.
"Once the golf course is complete at the end of this year, these lots will retail for US$119,000.
"As Mike explains, 'These lots are right on the tee box of the new course opening in December. This is the time to jump, while the grass is still growing, to take advantage of an unparalleled opportunity for ownership without long-term building commitment. Flip these in a few years for a profit or build a casita overlooking a delightful par 5...'"
Get in touch here for more information.
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