If you are planning to move to Panama, probably your biggest concern is finding a place to live. Because of the great offer of rentals available in Panama, there are many factors to consider when choosing a property, in this post I bring you some basics steps to cover when renting a property in Panama.
Places to live in Panama
Panama has a wide range of choices, from mountain towns or beach communities to metropolitan living and even Caribbean paradise.
Panama City, check out this post about the best places to live in Panama City. You can expect to pay around $650 and upwards for a small apartment in the city and from around $1,200 and upwards for one with ocean view.
Boquete is famous for its mountain weather and scenic highlands, due to its cooler climate it is one of the top favorite destinations among expats. Expect to pay about $800 and upwards for a furnished property in downtown Boquete and from around $550 in neighboring areas.
Coronado, the biggest beach community, if you always dreamed about living by the beach but don’t want to miss on anything, this area may be the best for you. Coronado is only 2 hours away from the city and has an array of facilities such as a variety of supermarkets, dental clinics, drugstores, a cinema, private schools, a golf club, a hospital and more.
Pedasi, surfers paradise, is emerging beach-town four-and-a-half hours away from the city, this small community offers a wide range of water activities like fishing, surfing, and kite-surfing. Its people are very friendly and it is becoming quite popular among laid-back expats from different parts of the world.
Property Search
There are several real estate portals in Panama with tons of options, the most popular are Compreoalquile, Encuentra24, and OLX. Once you find the properties you like, you can see the advertiser’s number or leave your details to be contacted (expect to be contacted via WhatsApp since it is very common in Panama). There is another emerging platform to look for properties, MLS Acobir, Panama’s first MLS. Homes for sale or rent in the Facebook Marketplace have also become quite popular.
Another option is to find a real estate agent, either by recommendation of a friend, referred by your lawyer or by asking on a Facebook group. I recommend you interview a few of them, ask for license, their qualifications, experience and choose only one, because the agents share their listings, most of the time a single broker can find you the same options as any other. If you choose to work with more than one, make sure they don’t take you to visit the same properties.
A good real estate agent will help you narrow the options based on his knowledge and will also do for you the tedious process of setting up the showings, saving you time to focus on other tasks. A good broker knows the real value of the property you are viewing and the neighboring ones and uses this knowledge to help you negotiate a better price. The agent can also help you review the contract and keep you away from signing a bad rental agreement.
Real Estate Agents services are free for the buyer or tenant because our fees are paid by the property owner.
Average length of a rental agreement
The average length of a rental agreement is one year, but rentals can be as short as 45 days, although most landlords are leaning towards 12 or 6 months.
Why a minimum of 45 days? Law 80 of 2012, prohibits the rental and promotion of properties in the Panama district for less than 45 days to those who do not have a tourist accommodation license, this rule was established to protect the hotel industry.
Rental options
There are four types of rental options in Panama:
- Home Appliances or Unfurnished Rental: includes the home appliances consisting of the stove, fridge, oven, washer and dryer, additionally this rental includes a water heater, air conditioners, lamps and curtains. In some properties a dishwasher is also included.
- Furnished Rental: This type of rental includes everything mentioned in the unfurnished rental and additionally includes all the furniture a person needs to live comfortably. Some of these rentals include TVs, microwaves, kitchen and cleaning utensils, dishes, glasses and everything you need to move into your new home, we call these type of rentals “Fully furnished”.
- Semi-furnished, we use this term to describe rental properties that are missing a few pieces of furniture.
- Less often you will find some empty properties or properties including only air conditioning units, fans, and a water heater, we call this “Empty” rentals.
Essential rental agreement conditions
Regardless of the type of rental: unfurnished, furnished or empty, there are some basic conditions of the rental agreements in Panama:
Security Deposit: This refundable sum is usually one month’s worth of rent. This deposit is collected by the owner and it will be returned without interests at the end of the lease term if there are no outstanding debts or damages caused by the tenant that exceeds normal wear and tear.
Payable in advance: Tenants are required to pay rent in advance, being due on the first 5 days of each month, after that period the owner will charge a late payment fee of 10%, although this number can vary.
The standard rental term is a minimum of 1 year, renewable by agreement between the parties, although some owners may agree to rent for 6 months;
In the case of PH buildings or closed communities, the owner pays the maintenance or condominium fee, this fee normally includes gas and in some cases water, but the landlord is not responsible for electricity, cable, telephone services, etc.… If you want these services included in your rental, you will have to negotiate it with the landlord.
Requirements to rent
As a part of the tenant screening process, you will be requested to provide the following documentation to verify your ability to pay the rent and comply with terms of the rental agreement:
ID documents such as Panamanian ID or passport and residency card.
Employed:
Letter of employment.
Bank letter, sometimes not needed if your employment letter states your salary or you can provide copy stubs.
Some landlords will ask you to provide a reference letter from your previous landlord.
Self-employed:
Copy of the business license or “Aviso de Operaciones”
Bank statements and/or bank letter
Retired:
Pension statement OR
Bank statements
I am always happy to help you! If you have any doubts or questions, please feel free to contact me anytime.
