Panama Investment Opportunities

by

Roberto Bell

Introduction – Clients of our law firm frequently ask us what are the good opportunities for investment in Panama. This web page is probably a long time coming and here it is. Investments are rated by the number of stars *****, five is the best and one is the worst.

Real Estate Flipping * -This is buying a not yet completed condo or townhouse and selling it before it is completed. This gives you a gain (well you hope anyway) and the ROI (return on investment) is great since you only put up to 30% down. Many people we know are trying to sell their flip positions without success. Several large prominent real estate projects have failed to move forward to completion thus the speculators just tied up their capital for no gain and wasted their time and money. The clichs concerning panama real estate flipping would be as follows: If it was that good everyone would be doing it and If it is too good to be true it probably isn?t true.

Construction Raw Materials **** – Now you are talking about a good investment. There is still a tremendous amount of construction taking place in Panama and this is likely to continue for some years to come. All real estate construction materials are in short supply and prices are high. You can start with cement, go to marble, tile, etc and the preceding is all true. This is how one can make some serious money. Capital is required and one would import the raw materials required by the construction industry. We are a Panama Law Firm and we can assist clients strictly as your legal counsel, who wish to engage in such a business enterprise.

Construction Heavy Equipment **** – There is a shortage of all heavy construction equipment used in constructing high-rise residential buildings. It is all in short supply. You could import new or used equipment. You can rent it out by the day, week or month. You can also contract with developers over longer periods as well. The construction of the Panama Canal expansion has not even started yet and this should serve to increase the shortages.

Dump Trucks ***** – There is a serious shortage here. Some projects are severely backed up since they lack the trucks to haul away the dirt from the job site. These can be rented short or long term or supplied to developers on a long-term basis. You could supply, drivers, do the maintenance, have replacement trucks etc and make a fortune. You need not import new equipment; used equipment in serviceable condition would work fine. The developers are more interested in quick completion times than they are interested in extra truck expense costs.

Cement Mixer Trucks **** – Again another shortage, see above.

Expensive Horses *** – Panama has lot of them, many different breeds and at prices much below the North American market prices. This is simple for one in the business. Better yet set up a breeder facility in Panama taking advantage of low land cost and cheap labor and export the horses to the North American market at a tidy profit.

Customer Service Residential Businesses **** – Think of something all the foreigners moving into condos in Panama will want that is not already here and watch your cash register ring. The completed condos are about to occupy and more are completing monthly. This is an amazing market of high disposable income people, mostly without children in their home that are over 40. This one requires excellent marketing skills and is not for the me too businessperson. If you try competing against the locals in their business you will probably lose. You need to bring something new to the table and need to make sure it is not easily copied. Imagine the potential, all you need is the product that the people will want that no one else has in Panama. Of course our law firm can provide all the legal assistance you need.

Hard Money Lender*** – Want to loan money against houses, townhouses and condos this is the market. Imagine 30% to 40% down (60% to 70% LTV), 5 to 15 year mortgages at 3 points over bank rates which are currently in the mid sixes so you would be in the 9% + range. Strictly equity loans in first position giving you serious protection. Rates are currently not so exciting but servicing costs are low in Panama and you would run out of money before you ran out of mortgages.

Panama Web Hosting **** – There is a serious shortage of reliable web hosting companies, no shortage of bandwidth. Run in your lines to a secure facility. Have 24-hour camera surveillance of the site. Use swipe cards for all staff coming and going. Have 24-hour serious security. Promote it as such and you will have no shortage of customers.

Restaurants* – Forget this they come and go all the time. High failure rate, lots of competition.

Hotels *** – Shortage of real five star hotels. There are no real five stars using North American standards. What they call a five star here is at best a four star elsewhere. Good four-star hotels would also fare quite well since they are in short supply as well.

Alternative Health Care ***** – Big shortage, great demand. Come on down. Look into licensure first since that gets tricky.

Maids ***** – Panama currently has a serious shortage of maids. Think of a solution to this and clean up.

Please feel free to contact our law firm for any matter in which you require legal representation in Panama.

Smythe Bradley is an expat living in The Republic of Panama. He has published many articles on

offshore banking

in panama,

panama visas and residency

, as well as many other

expat issues

.

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Panama Investment Opportunities}