investments I corporations I foundations I bank accounts I visas

IT IS THE MOMENT TO BUY!!!

During the last few years there has been a great increase in the Real Estate and the Banking businesses in Panama, directly related to the construction industry, where the construction of high rise buildings near the beaches and the coasts, in the center of Panama City, as well as in the interior of the country, stand out. In places like Boquete, in the Province of Chiriqui, or in Bocas del Toro, in the Province of the same name, and a lot of other nice places which have the potential for developing homes or buildings for residential tourism, and closed urbanizations or communities for retired persons.

Real Estate Properties in Panama, such as residences and apartaments of all kinds, low, medium, or high priced, have a significant roll as a motor of the national economy, generating an important and considerable sales movement of Real Estate Properties.

Investments or purchase of Real Estate Properties in Panama have spread all over the country, motivated, in first instance, for the attractiveness of the locations, the accessible prices, and the good development level of its infrastructures. These circumstances make Panama a perfect place for real estate investments and developments, either for construction or for purchasing new and luxurios home projects in a residential real estate development, in hotels, or in retiree’s residential communities.

On the other hand, the residential visa program for retirees or pensioners, known as the tourist pensioner visa or the retiree

pensioner visa, offer an excellent benefit package related with having their residence in Panama that all pensioners and retirees can enjoy.

Good weather, low cost of living, low crime rate, advantages related with taxes as a tax heaven, social and political stability are some of the benefits that Panama also offer foreign investors, including the facility of a banking center where the American Dollar is the currency the country has used and enjoyed over the past 100 years.

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HOW TO BUY IN PANAMA?

Panama’s legal system contemplates as a primary objetive, the security of all commercial transactions for the purchase of goods and services, particularly those related with real estate properties.

The purchase of real estate properties in Panama is similar to that followed in other countries, where the process is based in a Public Register system, requiring a title and its registration but having also the possibility of obtaining title insurance.

1. WRITTEN CONTRACT

Panama’s Civil Code orders for real estate purchase contracts to be in writing. This helps protect buyer’s interests, by establishing all necessaries clauses and conditions for executing the purchase in a clear and secured manner.

2. PUBLIC DEED

The Civil Code requires that all the real estate purchase contracts must be elevated to the category of Public Deed, meaning that the contract must be taken to an authorized Notary Public, who will transcribe and convert it into a Public Deed. The purchase contract will then be returned to the interested person for its registration, keeping the Notary a copy in their files, witnessing the act and evidencing the legality and the seriousness of the transfer.

3. REGISTER

In Panama, real estate property is established with its registration, that is to say, transfer of title to real estate property is completed through its recording in the Public Registry. That is, for perfecting the purchase agreement, not just the written contract transcribed in a public deed by an authorized notary is required, but that the contract be registered, as a means of transferring title to the property.

The recording in the Property Section of the Public Register allows for the required publicity and certainty of the act, making it valid against any third party.

4. PROPERTY OWNERSHIP: NATURAL PERSON OR JURIDIC PERSON

Natural persons can directly own real estate property, notwithstanding their nationality. However, it is highly recommended to use juridical persons, corporations or private interest foundations, for the purchase of real estate properties, in order to organize and protect those assets or your investments and to facilitate later title transferals over those real estate properties.

5. CREDIT FACILITIES

If a customer requires any type of financing, Panama’s banking center offers multiple solutions and credit facilities, based on the economical solvency and trust that customer generates, as well as fulfillment with all documentation requirements and criteria that the bank may ask for.

In our experience, these requirements do not represent an obstacle, as long as it is possible to verify the legitimacy of the origins of the funds, the good reputation of the client or interested person, and the payment capacity.

Clients can have access to all kinds of loans at convenient interest rates, guaranteed by the real estate property purchase based on a mortgage and antichresis contract involving a real estate destined to residential use, comercial use, or for resale, development, or other kind of investments.

6. PURCHASE OF POSSESSION RIGHTS

Possession rights are protected by national laws. They represent a right to use and enjoy the property but not the right to total ownership.

The purchase of real estate over which possession rights are held must also be in writing and requires certain legal proceedings for its due recognition on the part of the authorities.

Indeed, for its recognition, a series of proceedings allowing for their preliminary registration as possession rights and a later conversion into total ownership are required.

These proceedings include the surveying, inspection, requests, and registration, finally granting a protected right in favor of the holder.

7. PRELIMINARY CONTRACTS OR PROMISES

In some cases, in order to have one first opinion or preference over a real estate property that one wishes to acquire, the signature of a promise to purchase or sale contract is recommended, which, according to the Civil Code, must be in writing and be converted into a Public Deed and be registered in the Public Registry, at the Property Section.

Thus, your rights would be totally protected or assured, before executing any final purchase or sale contract.

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HOW TO RENT IN PANAMA

LEASE CONTRACTS ON URBAN REAL ESTATE OF RESIDENTIAL USE

Lease contracts in Panama require to be in writing and to be registered at the Directorate of Leases of the Ministry of Housing along with the consignment of the corresponding deposit. For this purpose, the Ministry of Housing has the proper forms available for the public to fill and complete.

Some people decide to celebrate oral lease contracts, while other people decide not to register the lease contracts or do not make the legal deposit. It is always advised to put in writing the lease contract and to comply with its registration and the consigment of the deposit, in order to guarantee the faithful fulfillment with the obligations derived from the contract. All lease contracts having a period of six years or more must be registered in the Public Registry.

As far as the contents of the contract, contracts for housing superior to USD 150.00 can be freely agreed between the parties, where the parties may establish the clauses and conditions they may find convenient, as long as they are not contrary to the Law.