Rent for property in Panama tends to be high in relation to the value of a property. Often, it will will be as high as 12% or even 15% of the sales price of the apartment or condo over a year. This is due to a shortage of places to let. However with the huge amount of building going on we would expect prices to fall, perticularly in the city, as 10s of thousands of new units get completed.

Renting in Panama City

Rentals in Panama City come in two flavors – furnished and unfurnished. In Panama City you can get a nice two bedroom unfurnished apartment in a decent neighborhood for about $1200. If you want to live in a high end neighborhood by the water it can get up to $2500 which would be very nice.

Penthouses in luxury skyrises with all the facilities, in Patilla or Bella Vista for instance can go as high as $3 or $4,000 a month. Any less than $800 for a one bedroom apartment and the area starts to get a bit rough.

Furnished units are harder to come by. Not only that but they will usually have furniture that shows wear and may not be so clean, even if you spend $1900 a month.

However, furniture in Panama is good and cheap. Like a comfortable king size bed for $500. You can easily furnish a 2 bedroom apt for $3000 assuming there are appliances which it probably will have. A brand new washer, dryer, stove and refrigerator will run about $1600 – $1700 delivered and set up. Dishes, lamps and stuff like that are really cheap too.

Check Encuentra24.com for a large listing of rental property
NB If you look on Craig’s List be very wary of anyone asking for money before you see the place. We came across a couple of scammers doing just that, for what looked like gorgeous properties at half the normal price! Don’t pay before you see somewhere and only when there is a contract to sign with a good lawyer.

Renting in Bocas del Toro

You can find both short term and long term property in Bocas town or on the surrounding islands. The prices range from $350 for a room and a bathroom to $500-1000 for a condo or from $600 to $2000 for a house on the water. Properties here are usually furnished.

Looking in the Bocas Breeze newspaper is a good place to find local places as opposed to holiday lets.

Renting in Boquete

When you are looking for a house in Boquete for more than a month, the best way to do it is to come, stay at a mid-range hotel for a couple of weeks and look for yourself, because this will be the only way to find something that you really want. If you plan to stay for only a month, you are better of staying at a Bed & Breakfast like el Oasis, at Isla Verde, Boquete Garden Inn or at Cabañas Sunny Hills.

Most of the time, real estate agents will not have a lot of options on their hands if you are not willing to spend more than $1,000 per month. If you are looking forward to spend less, around $300 – $800 per month, post on the following sites exactly what you are looking for and then you will get answers with specific houses or apartments that are available. Most people find their house driving around, because a lot of places aren’t posted on internet sites or with real estate agents.

Check out:

Noticias Bajareque Times: Boquete’s local bi-lingual newspaper published each month. Look for their classified ads section.

Boquete.org: a discusion forum in which users share information about living in Panama with special emphasis on the expatriate communities of Boquete and the rest of the province of Chiriqui.In their classified section, look for the title Real Property for Rent/Lease (Wanted and Offered) and post the specifications of what you are looking for.

Panama’s Craig’s list: the 7th most viewed English website in the world also has a section for Panama devoted to housing for sale and for rent, wanted and offered. We recommend posting your specific needs and you will receive specific answers.

Viviun: International Property Listings with upscale more expensive offerings.

Encuentra 24: just do a search for Boquete and then select what you are looking for (to buy, to rent, vacation rental, etc.) and it will normally deliver a good amount of results.

Panama is divided into nine provinces and three provincial-level indigenous regions.

The nine provinces are: Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, Cocle, Colon, Darien, Herrera, Los Santos, Panama and Veraguas.

The three areas for the Indians are Embera, Kuna Yala and Ngobe-Bugle.

The main places of interest either for living or for visiting are:

Bocas del Toro

Bocas Del Toro is both the fabulous region closest to Puerto Rico containing 9 main islands as well as the name of the town, otherwise called simply Bocas which is on the Island of Colon about half an hour by boat off the mainland at Almirante. For more go to

Bocas del Toro

For more about the islands like Carenero, Bastimentos, San Cristobal, Solarte etc. go to
Bocas Islands

Chiriqui

Chiriqui is the province where you will find David and Boquete as well as the Baru Volcano. There are both mountains and beaches here. For more go to
Chiriqui

and
Boquete

Boquete is where they grow the best coffee including the world famous Geisha coffee. For more on this go to
coffee

Pedasi

Pedasi can be found on the Azuero Peninsula at the tip of the Los Santos region. It is unspoiled, beautiful, wild and the mecca of fishermen as well as the hideaway home of Mick Jagger and Bruce Willis. For more go to
Pedasi

Darien

Darien is where you go for adventure and is home to some of the most virgin rainforest in the world. For more go to
Darien

To learn more about the rain forest go to
rainforest

Panama City

Panama City or just Panama is it know locally is a wonderful busy capital city with great restaurants, an exciting night life and new skyrises going up on every corner. For more go to

Panama City

The Pearl Islands

The Pearl Islands are where the wealthy Panamanians from the City go to unwind. They are just a hop away by plane and are very beautiful. For more go to
Pearl Islands

The Region of Colon

Colon is a very historical area of Panama with the remains to be found in Portobelo and San Lorenzo. It is also the end of the Panama canal and where you will find the Gaton Lake and the Gaton Lock. For more go to
Colon

Islands and Beaches in Panama

Panama has thousands of islands and wonderful white sand palm fronted beaches. To find out where the best ones are go to
Panama Beaches & Islands

One of the Most Bio-diverse Places in Central America

Panama rainforest is one of the most researched tropical rainforests in the world. Currently, the forest covers around 58% of the total land area of Panama (Ref: UN Food and Agriculture Organization).

Rainforest is found not only on the mainland but also on Panamanian islands. One of them, Barro Colorado Island, was formed after its nearby area had been flooded for the construction of the canal. The island is almost completely forested and is probably the most famous part of Panama rainforest.

Currently, Barro Colorado Island, together with the five neighboring mainland peninsulas, forms the Barro Colorado Nature Monument.

Another Panamanian island worth mentioning is Coiba. It is located in the Pacific Ocean and is the biggest island in Central America. Around 75% of Coiba’s territory is covered by the rainforest a large tract of which is still in pristine condition.

Biodiversity

Panama is an extremely bio-diverse country. It hosts more than 9,915 known species of plants, 218 species of mammals, 302 species of birds, 242 species of reptiles and 182 species of amphibians. Really quite impressive!

Typical tropical animals such as sloths, jaguars , iguanas, poison dart frogs , armadillos, tapirs, harpy eagle (Panama’s national bird), to name just a few, call Panama rainforest their home.

Panama is also home to many endangered animals such as the Panamanian golden frog and the pygmy three-toed sloth which are now listed as critically endangered.

Deforestation of the Rainforest in Panama

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, Panama rainforest had lost much of its cover as well as biodiversity during the Panama Canal construction . We will probably never find out just how many plant and animal species disappeared as a result of it.

Like many other rainforests around the world, Panama rainforest is under constant pressure exerted by a whole host of agents, for the purposes of economic and social development. And this obviously leads to the country’s rainforest destruction.

Alongside the clearance of the rainforest for cash crops (such as bananas and coffee), timber logging operations and subsistence farming, the most important cause of deforestation in Panama since the 1960s has been cattle ranching that requires conversion of the forest into pasture lands.

There are also pressures of deforestation from very large development projects promoted by governments and companies which stand to significantly benefit from them. Among such projects is a plan to build a road connecting Panama and Colombia via the Darien rainforest, as well as a so called Plan Puebla Panama whose aim is to create a “development corridor” between Mexico and Panama with a host of roads, airports, dams as well as factories based on cheap labour. In order to protect its rainforests and their biodiversity from the ever present danger of destruction, the Panamanian government established a number of national parks in the country. Some of the most famous of them are Darien National Park, La Amistad National Park (which Panama shares with Costa Rica) and the Coiba National Park.

Panama’s National Rainforest Parks

 

Darien National Park is the largest park in Panama covering an area of 597,000 ha.

It is home to a wide array of plant and animal species: 2,490 species of plants, 169 species of mammals, 533 species of birds, 99 species of reptiles and 78 species of amphibians. Many of these species are endemic. Apart from that, the Darien Park also houses Choco and Cuna Indians.

La Amistad International Park is a transboundary protected area that is administered jointly by Costa Rica and Panama. The Panamanian part of the park covers an area of 207,000 ha. It was created to remove physical borders between the two countries to preserve the traditional migration of animals and humans (specifically, indigenous people).

La Amistad Park is home to one of the largest untouched tracts of rainforest in Central America. It contains numerous species of plants and animals, many of which are also endemic.

Coiba National Park is located on an island in the Pacific ocean covering an area of around 270,000 ha in total (terrestrial area – around 53,000 ha; marine area – around 217,000 ha.

The island contains 858 known species of plants and is rich in marine diversity (specifically, coral diversity. Thanks to their conservation value, these parks attract a lot of attention from international conservation organizations, such as the Nature Conservancy.

Ecotourism in Panama

Panama’s tropical rainforest is important for humanity both as a store of biodiversity and a regulator of global climate patterns. Ecotourism has been put forward as one of the most promising business propositions that can create employment and secure a financially sustainable future for the people living in and around Panama rainforest.