Buying in Costa del Este, Panama: Prices, Towers and Schools

Even with resale prices that have not moved since 2024, new towers in Costa del Este now ask about 81% more per square meter than the apartments already standing there: $4,281 against $2,365.

Five projects are on sale there now, from $288,500 at Selvática to $1.27 million at Blau.

Three of them, Nogal, Aurum and Selvática, are by Empresas Bern. Madero is Grupo Valor's and Blau is Grupo Provivienda's. Nogal is closest to done, with keys scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.

Both figures come from TrueTrend, Panama Property Guide's price tracking. Resale is the median asking price in Encuentra24 listings archived by the Internet Archive, taken over the last three monthly readings to June 2026; new-build is the median of the developer price lists we track, as of September 2026. Neither is a closing price. Road and transit dates come from ENA, La Prensa and La Estrella de Panamá, retrieved October 6, 2026.

What Costa del Este is, and who it suits

Costa del Este is a planned district of towers, gated house streets, schools and corporate offices on Panama City's eastern waterfront, in the corregimiento of Juan Díaz.

“Costa del Este is one of the most exclusive locations in Panama. It's home to hundreds of multinational companies, parks, restaurants and shopping malls.”

Construction began in 1995 on filled mangrove and forest, to a 1996 master plan by the Miami firm Bermello, Ajamil & Partners, La Prensa reported in 2013. Herman Bern was among the original investors, and Empresas Bern builds three of the five towers on sale today.

It suits families with a car and children in private school, and buyers who want a new apartment and can wait for it. It does not suit anyone who depends on buses at night.

What it costs to buy

At $2,365 a square meter, a 120 m² resale apartment asks about $284,000. The same space in a new tower at $4,281 a square meter asks about $514,000.

Resale has gone sideways. TrueTrend put it at $2,381 in July 2024 and $2,365 in June 2026, never above $2,534 in between, while new-build list prices kept climbing.

What it costs each month is a different number. TrueCost, the site's mortgage calculator, puts it at the figures below with 20% down over 30 years at 7.5%, the average rate published by 3 banks as of September 13, 2026, plus property tax and insurance.

The foreign-buyer column adds the one-point FECI surcharge banks charge buyers without permanent residency. Neither column includes condo fees, which vary by building.

Property tax runs on the cadastral value under Ley 66 of 2017, the DGI's tables show. A home registered as your primary residence pays nothing up to $120,000 and 0.5% from there to $700,000; any other property pays 0.6% from $30,000, rising to 1% above $500,000.

Condo fees are set by each building's owners' association, so ask for the PH's current budget before you sign a promesa de compraventa. The mortgage calculator adds fees, insurance and property tax to the monthly payment.

Why new towers ask 81% more

The gap is the price of a long wait and a newer building. Two of the five projects, Selvática and Madero, are still in pre-construction with delivery in 2030, and Aurum and Blau deliver in 2029.

For foreign buyers there is a second reason. Under Decreto Ejecutivo No. 17 of September 16, 2026, the Qualified Investor visa still takes $300,000 in new construction but now requires $500,000 in resale.

In Costa del Este that splits the market. A visa buyer needs a $500,000 resale unit, or one of the new units priced at $300,000 or more, which covers every project here except Selvática's cheapest apartments at $288,500.

The same decree requires pre-construction buyers using the visa to protect their deposit with an escrow or a bank guarantee. Ask the developer which one it offers before you pay the first installment.

For a buyer who simply wants to live here, the math runs the other way: at today's medians, resale buys about 1.8 times the space for the same money, available now.

Which new tower fits which buyer

If you need keys soonest, Nogal is the only one of the five scheduled to deliver before 2029.

If entry price matters most, Selvática starts lowest at $288,500 but carries the highest price per square meter of the five and the longest wait. Aurum, from $348,600, is the cheapest way into a building already under construction.

If you want space, Madero and Blau are the large-unit projects, and both ask less per square meter than any Empresas Bern tower: Madero from $3,213 and Blau from $3,468.

What daily life is like

Schools are the main draw. Colegio San Agustín has run its Costa del Este campus since March 8, 2001, and The Casco School opened a British-model preschool and primary campus here in August 2022.

Healthcare is close too. Pacífica Salud opened its hospital in the district in February 2022, affiliated with Johns Hopkins Medicine International, and Town Center Costa del Este holds the supermarket, restaurants and medical offices most residents use.

You will need a car. A resident told La Prensa in 2013 that public transport after 7:30 p.m. was "nulo", nonexistent, and scarce at rush hour, and nothing has opened since to change that.

Heavy rain does reach the district, briefly. After the storm of August 13, 2025, the Ministerio de Gobierno counted two flooded streets in Costa del Este, passable later that day, while the serious damage, about 40 homes, was next door in Parque Lefevre.

Getting in and out, and what is changing

The Corredor Sur toll road is the fast way to the banking district and to Tocumen airport, and at rush hour it is the bottleneck. A car pays $0.50 at the Costa del Este plazas and $1.40 at Atlapa's main plaza, ENA's tariff table shows. A 2015 diplomatic post report put the commute from Costa del Este or Punta Pacífica at 45 minutes to an hour.

Relief has a date. The new Costa del Este and Hipódromo interchanges were 77% complete in September 2026 and are due February 28, 2027, cutting up to 17 minutes at peak hours, La Estrella de Panamá reported.

Behind them comes a larger job. ENA's roughly $300 million expansion adds lanes along 17 km, a 2.39 km marine viaduct from Atlapa to Costa del Este and electronic free-flow tolls, La Prensa reported in August 2026. No completion date has been announced, and ENA told SERTV it does not expect to raise the toll to pay for it.

Rail is further off. Metro Line 5, planned for 14.5 km from Calidonia through Calle 50 and Costa del Este to El Crisol, is still in its study phase with no construction date, Panamá América reported in September 2026. Do not price a future station into what you pay.

What residents complain about

Water pressure is the oldest complaint. "Todos los desarrollos nuevos han tenido problema de presión de agua," every new development has had water pressure problems, a resident told La Prensa in 2013. Ask any developer how the building stores and pumps water.

The mangrove still makes itself felt. In the rainy season "los mosquitos son insoportables," the mosquitoes are unbearable, resident Cecilia Arosemena told the same paper.

Some newcomers find it too orderly. An Expat.com poster in 2011 called it "sterile, and brand new," and recommended it to new arrivals for exactly that reason.

Who should buy here, and who should not

Buy here if you have school-age children and a car, if you want new construction for the investor visa, or if you can wait until 2029 or 2030 for a larger unit at $3,213 to $3,725 a square meter in Madero or Blau.

Look elsewhere if you want to walk to restaurants at night, live without a car, or need more space for your money today. For that, Costa del Este's resale listings at about $2,400 a square meter beat every new tower on the table above.

The new interchanges are due February 28, 2027, the same quarter Nogal is scheduled to hand over its first keys.