OK, besides my home town of Boquete here in the western highlands of Panama………………….
The next hot spot is emerging and the town is starting to take shape as a community like Boquete which is now shared by locals with a lively expat community. Pedasi is a place that I have mentioned often before and a place that I visit whenever I can. The next trip is to buy while prices are still cheap. Pedasi is located on the peninsula of Azuero that juts south into the Pacific Ocean and is similar to the Guanacaste region in Costa Rica. The biggest difference is that it is 20 to 100 times cheaper.
While I like to get out of the mountains and fish out of Boca Chica near my home, Pedasi has remote and exquisite stretches of beach with cinnamon and white sand. Surf breaks, horseback riding in the hills or down on the beach, fishing, diving and just plain good old hammock time spots found in only few places.
The town of Pedasi is still laid back and sleepy, just the way a lot of folks like it but that won’t last much longer as many new restaurants and shops are now opening and signal many more to come. Two of the major communities near town have come to life with power and infrastructure reaching all the way down to the beach a short distance away. Ocean view homes starting at $225,000 give way to some beachfront mansions that are being built. In both communities, the first phase lots have nearly sold out. Second phase pricing has increased by over 15% in the last year but you can still buy a great lot for under $100,000!
In town you can still buy a small tipico home for under $100,000 where it was half that price a few years ago. That is what happened in Boquete and the paralells bewteen our expat communit which is now in the thousands started like Pedasi where is still under 100. Many of those small homes are now shops and restaurants. There are also commercial investment opportunties as well for retail and hospitality as the visitor and foreign population grows.
We believe that Pedasi is at the tipping point not unlike what is described in Malcolm Gladwell’s book of that title. Gladwell defines a tipping point as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point”. There are the right forces at work to make things happen in Pedasi including the people in business there, their ambitions and their sales ability. There a number of spokesmen who are telling the government about the need for additional infrastructure, an expanded airport and the need for daily flights into Pedasi. This will all be realized in the near future and when it does, Pedasi will take off like a rocket and leave a lot of monday morning quarterback investors wishing that they had taken advantage of the present pricing.
As my wife said to me a few weeks ago while we sat in my friend’s hotel gardens at Casa de Campo, “Honey, we have to invest here…. do you hear me honey?” Yes dear, I hear you and we will.
Please let us know if you would also like to get in on the ground floor of opportunities that we have found in this lovely town. While there are a lot of professed experts in real estate out there, my partner who grew up in Pedasi and I can find you the right fit for your portfolio when you are ready. That said, I would not wait to long or it will just cost you more!
Ciao’