Planning to rent an apartment? Here some key points you should consider

While you still do not have your own property, the solution that you have is to rent an apartment. Looking for the perfect property for renting can be a difficult task, especially if you try to reach a balance between your lifestyle and a fair budget.

The interesting thing about renting apartments in Panama City, is the great amount of buildings and alternatives that you can find, especially in the metropolitan area. The variety that exists can go from old or totally new buildings, building quality,amenities offered in the social area, the view of your apartment and its balcony, the location and closeness to main roads, traffic noise, etc.

This and many other factors help determine which is the perfect place that can adapt to youyou’re your family’s preferences and daily needs.

Here below we present some key points and tips to take in consideration while you are looking to rent in Panama:

Requirements and initial cost

It is important to mention that it is usual for the landlord or property administrator to ask for requirements to the person interested in renting the apartment, the most common requirements asked are the ID (local Cedula or Passport), show proof of income with a work letter or social security card (called Ficha in Spanish), as well as one or few bank references.

dditionally, as a requirement you have the initial cost to rent out which generally includes a deposit equal to 1 month of rent, plus the first month rent fee.

Location

Investigating and informing yourself a little bit about the most convenient areas of the city can help you out to land faster on your desired apartment. The ideal location of the desired apartment should adapt to your needs, to your work or even, if you have a family, the job of your couple or the closeness of schools for your children, it is also important to find a property with ease of access to roads and city corridors.

Lanlord’s goods

During your apartment search in Panama City, you will realize that it is very common to see two kind of properties offered, those that are fully furnished and those that only includes white goods (Refrigerators, ACs, Washer and Dryer, etc.). the price substantially changes if a property already includes all this furniture in comparation to another one which has not.

During contract signing process, usually is included an annex which lists the inventory of all the goods that belong to the landlords, which he or she normally compromise to deliver them to you in good conditions, this list is of importance if you are interested to know all what it is included in the apartment, and if you wish to negotiate to include any other additional element of your interest.

In some rare and not frequent occasions, there are offers of properties for renting listed without white goods, and these generally have a much lower rent fee than others.

Utilities costs

It is common that while renting an apartment, the landlord will be in charge of paying the HOA fee (maintenance fee of the building), and in some cases they also pay the monthly fee of water and garbage collection. The lessee is responsible for the payment of electricity bills, internet, cable and other hired services.

The variation of the utilities costs mainly depends of the electricity consumption, whereas we explained before, it depends of your lifestyle. If you use on daily basis the air conditioners, we recommend to check in the apartments if the have installed inverter ACs, which saves a significant amount of energy and hence it brings a lower electricity fee at the end of the month.

Pet policy

If you have pets or you are planning to have one, it is suggested to include a pet policy from the landlord in the lease contract. This might seem like a small detail, but it is very important, it is good to chat upfront with the landlord from the beginning if you are planning to have pets, also to check with him which kind of pets are allowed or if there is any other requirement or limitation regarding this matter.

If you are interested in looking for an apartment for rent in Panama, contact us through our contact page or directly through our phones: + 507 6679-8717 and 6877-4788.