Methodology

Start with the limitation, because it shapes everything else. Panama has no public record of what properties actually sold for. Nobody publishing Panamanian price data has sold prices, including us.

So every figure we publish is an asking price. That is a statement about what sellers hope for, not about what buyers paid, and the gap between the two is real.

How the area figures are built

• We take the asking price per m² of every home for sale we can place in an area: the listings we publish and the wider set of homes that brokers list for sale in Panama, refreshed every week.
• Each building counts once. We take the median price per m² of its units for sale, then the median across buildings, so one tower with twenty units on the market cannot set an area's figure.
• A figure needs at least three buildings of the same property type with asking prices from the last 90 days. Below that a median is an anecdote, and we publish nothing for the area.
• Neighborhoods count toward the wider areas around them. Coco del Mar is part of San Francisco, which is part of Panama City.
• We record one reading a month, and every chart carries the month it was calculated. On the charts each point is the median of that month and the two before it, so one unusual month does not read as a trend.

Price estimates on a listing

A listing's estimate uses at least three homes of the same type for sale in the same building, or failing that the same area, within 25% of its size and one bedroom of it, asked within the last 90 days. It multiplies their median price per m² by the listing's area, and shows every home it used.

Rents and rental yield

Yield estimates use the median asking rent per m² of homes of the same type listed for rent in the area, from at least five rentals. Where a neighborhood has fewer, we use the nearest wider area that has enough. The estimate assumes one vacant month a year and subtracts the PH fee and property tax.

What this cannot tell you

It cannot tell you what a comparable property sold for, what you should offer, or whether an area is over-priced. It tells you what sellers in that area are asking, which is a useful starting point and not a valuation.

For a specific property the closest available substitute is an independent appraisal, which is why we treat it as a line item in the purchase rather than an optional extra.