Panama: Investment Boom in Luxury Offices Continues
During the first six months of 2013, the Class A office market remained highly dynamic, mainly in the Banking area and Costa del Este.
A market study prepared by CBRE Offices Panama, recorded a total of 400,104 square meters under construction in the office market, of which 379,000 are Class A and luxury offices, while 20,685 are Class B and C offices
The average rental rates for Class A buildings fell, going from $24.41 per square meter per month to $23.29 for the first six months of this year. Rents for Class B office buildings also fell, to $15.64 from $17.23.
“CBRE notes that in the case of the remaining submarkets which still have high prices because of their prime locations, San Francisco continues to be the most expensive, with an average rental rate of $25.19 per square meter per month, followed by Reverted Areas ($ 23) and Costa del Este ($22.45) ” reports Capital.com.pa.
According to the former president of the Association of Realtors (Acobir) Ivan Carlucci, the economic boom experienced by the country, especially with the Canal expansion, installation of national corporate headquarters and the growth of the banking and financial sectors, has increased demand for the purchase and rental of offices.
Source: Capital.com.pa
Warehousing Boom in Panama
In the last four years $80 million has been invested in the installation or expansion of Micro-storage centers, together with recent growth in demand.
Prensa.com reports that “migration of pensioners, both in North America and Europe, and the arrival of more investors to Panama and the small sized apartments and offices, have created the need to build warehouses or Micro-storage centers for goods that are not in use or that people want to keep. “
According to Lourdes Castanet, Marketing Communications Manager at Grupo Galores, this type of service is in increasingly greater demand in the country because of the fact that increased costs in all industries have meant that residences, apartments and offices are being built smaller because of the higher costs per square meter. “There are some companies that find they have excess inventory and do not have the space to store merchandise or have “passive files” that until the time comes to use them or destroy must be kept,” he added.
In addition, there are other companies engaged in the same activity, but using smaller spaces to store jewelry, office goods or personal documents. The rental cost varies according to what you want to store, there are spaces ranging from $10 to $1,500 a month.
Source: Prensa.com