Liz's Blog

It’s an exciting time in Panama as we welcome our new President, Laurentino "Nito" Cortizo; elected May 5th to serve a five-year-term, beginning July 1, 2019. This will be Cortizo’s only term as president, since Panamanian law prohibits anyone from succeeding themselves. Cortizo is the seventh democratically elected president after the fall of dictator Manuel Noriega [...]

The other day I was enjoying dinner at one of my favorite Coronado restaurants, Luna Rossa, when I ran into a group of retired expats enjoying the great food and drinks. It was a group of about ten, who were seated at a communal table so I took the opportunity to ask them a few questions. [...]

There are some people who enter your life and leave you incredibly improved. For me, it was a visiting professor at university who took an interest in me and essentially changed my life. After more than two decades had passed, I recently received a text from him asking for a few “tips” on what to do [...]

Anyone who is familiar with large real estate construction projects, knows it takes time to go from pre-development to construction and then operation. There are a lot of moving parts, which is why I was a little surprised when I heard two very large and very different projects broke ground last month In Costa del Este. [...]

For months, Panama had been getting ready to welcome Pope Francis for World Youth Day 2019 (WYD). The conference, which will bring an estimated 500,000 visitors, opens on January 22 and ends six days later on January 27th. The Pope will be in Panama for almost the whole conference, arriving one day after the official start, [...]

Recently, I was at a party in the States and found myself making small talk with a wide variety of interesting people. Waiters moved seamlessly with small trays of appetizers and bottles of wine ready to pour, complete with small cloths draped perfectly over the non-dominate arm. Explaining I lived in Panama with an Aussie accent [...]

I have always enjoyed showing Casa Bonita to clients from around the world. They are beautiful homes which overlook the Panama Canal. I also never get tired of watching the boats queue up and wait their turn to move from one ocean to the other. The Canal is simply the most incredible engineering feat and a [...]

My job puts me in contact with some incredibly interesting people! I find that individuals who are looking to live—even part time—in another country are individuals with incredibly interesting back stories. I recently helped a client who works as an opera singer house-hunt in Panama. “I’ve been given incredible opportunities,” she began as we sat down [...]

I have quoted the prices for condominiums located in the towers of Royal Palm many times. While the prices are very attractive, many people still ask “What’s it really like to live in rural Panama?” Immediately the word rural jumps out and I wonder if Panama’s largest beach community should be considered rural. When talking to [...]

The other day I was traveling with clients when we crossed the Bridge of the Americas. There are three bridges which connect our bisected country, but the Americas is the most used. We were traveling east leaving Panama City on our way to view some property before they returned to Mexico. I’ve never grown tired of [...]

Purchasing a piece of property now takes 23% longer than it did in 2016. I wasn’t particularly surprised that it was taking people longer, but that it only takes people about 65 minutes to decide if a property is right for them, as opposed to the earlier 53 minutes. I should add, they found that people [...]