The best way to become a foreign resident of Panama today is through an investment in timber.
This is an investment not only in a Panama visa, but also in a hard asset. That is, it's an investment you can see and touch, even go to visit. With your visa, you also get a hectare of land planted with trees and titled in your name.
At least if you arrange your reforestation visa through United Nature, you do. With some other groups, your reforestation investment gains you a Panama resident's visa...but not a piece of titled land. You may be paid out from the production of the plantation, but you don't own a piece of it outright. With United Nature, you do.
Managed timber has beaten the stock market over the past 30 years, returning about 15% a year, while stocks, during the same period, have returned only, on average, about 11% annually. Furthermore, not only is timber a good way to beat the markets, it's also a great way to hedge them. Timber operates blissfully ignorant of things like NASDAQ, housing bubbles, and Wars on Terror. Meantime, the demand for this commodity continues to grow, while the supply, especially for certain kinds of timber, like teak, the world's most valuable hardwood, is limited.
The world's remaining natural teak forests are being logged at a rapid rate. Some predictions are that Burmese forests could be logged completely in the next few years, meaning the growing world demand would have to be fulfilled by teak plantation production. And, right now, there aren't a lot of teak plantations worldwide.
Meantime, United Nature's 14-year-old 3,000-hectare plantation in Panama's Darien region is thriving.
If you're considering residency in Panama, this is the most sensible way to arrange it. And, even if you're not, an investment in timber through United Nature is a solid part of any long-term profit plan.
