Panama Real Estate Market 2020 COVID update: Partial Opening of Construction and Real Estate

As of August 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic is still clearly present in most countries, Panama is no exception. The government continues to take actions to control as much as they can of the virus outbreak, with quarantine measures, dividing the country’s economy into working sectors and working out solutions to increase their ICU capacity.

By the middle of August, Panama has reported a total of 80.655 cases of Coronavirus, which 26.798 (33.2%) are active cases and 53.857 (66.8%) are clinically recovered, currently averaging around 1000 cases daily. The government previously announced a reopening plan dividing the economy in blocks; however, this partial reopening was only done 2 out of the 6 of them.

More than 2 months after opening the 2nd economic block, the government has recently announced that from Monday 17th, while still maintaining the quarantine measures, they will allow to open barber shops, car distributors and all kinds of retail businesses, this last one only through e-commerce transactions and only pick up at the store, without allowing customers to enter the shops, and of course, all these businesses like others already opened, have to follow biosecurity measures previously stated by Panama’s Ministry of Health.

The Minister of Health also announced the reopening of public and private construction projects which already had significant progress prior to the pandemic. At the present, there are a total of 84 public and private construction projects approved to continue.

The government also announced that starting from August 24th, real estate companies and wholesale commerce businesses can start operations.

In August 14th, Tocumen International Airport restarted activities after almost 5 months of being inactive, with a set of protocols and procedures prepared for connecting flights which they call Controlled Operations Center (Centro de Operaciones Controladas in Spanish). Copa Airlines, Panama’s flag carrier aviation company, announced that they are restarting operations by opening flights to about 10 destinations, including New York, Miami, Santiago de Chile, Sao Paulo, and others.

Current real estate situation in Panama

While the real estate and construction sector has suffered slowdowns and development of new projects have stopped since the start of the pandemic, these announcements by the government are very good news and it can be considered the first step to re-boost the real estate sector.

The slowdown of the sector in the country has not entirely stopped the real estate market, there are a lot of properties listed for renting in the city and in the beach towns as well. There is a growing listing of real estate properties for sale and several of them in discounted prices.

Real estate developers have not fully stopped operations, they are still pushing through the sales of new potential projects in the city, in the beach and in the west area of Panama.

Companies and professionals working in the real estate sector have recognized upfront the challenges that comes with the pandemic, the quarantine measures and the economic slowdown, and they are taking action in find ways to adapt to the new normal, reinventing the way they work and relying on technology. During the weekend of August 14 to 16, Real Estate company Gogetit has launched what is called the first 3D Virtual Real Estate fair in Panama, which is a 3D platform, comprising more than 60 real estate projects, that allows you to visit stands of developers, contact them and see what they have to offer, as well as banks and other related companies.

Real estate classifieds company Encuentra24 is also finding ways to boost residential sales by creating their own virtual fairs and special promotions in their own platform, the recent one done was called “Secret Sale” or Flash Sale and it lasted 48 hours with special sale prices from few developers.

One of the most popular real estate fairs in Panama, Expo Habitat from CAPAC, will be also arranged as a virtual fair during middle of September, and they have announced they are fully supported by several bank institutions which will offer during the fair mortgage and credit solutions to attendees.
While it is uncertain how long the COVID-19 pandemic will last, the real estate market is being dynamic and the industry professionals are taking actions to keep offering product and services in the most efficient way.