YOU HAVE ABOUT 8 MONTHS LEFT TO FIND YOUR PIECE OF PARADISE!
April 17, 2008
Although there have been announcements and pronouncements about the exoneration being extended, it does not become law until it is published in the Gazette. That came out April 15, 2008. You now have until the first of July 2009 to get your building permit and the end of 2011 to get the occupancy permit. Anyone wishing to take advantage of this 20-year tax exoneration on new construction needs to act within the next 8-10 months.
Here is an average time line to go through the entire process. Time frame if you started today:
Come to Panama and find a home site-90 days-August 2008
Wait for the closing 60 days-October 2008
Hire and architect to design the home. Wait 4-6 months for the design. March 2009
Get the building permit-30 days-April 2009
Get quotes from builders to build your dream home. 60 days- June 2009
Select and contract the builder- July 2009
Wait 12-18 months for construction- February 2011
Acquire your occupancy permit. March 2011
If all goes smoothly you have about an 8-10 month window in order to start your search.
From the Gaceta Asamblea Nacional
Ley 21 de martes 15 de abril de 2008.
"Que reforma la Ley 6 de 2005, sobre Equidad Fiscal y dicta otra disposición".
http://www.gacetaoficial.gob.pa/pdfTemp/26020/9984.pdf
GDP: PANAMA BEST, MEXICO WORST
April 14, 2008
The Latin Business Chronicle has come out with the best and worst of Latin American GDP numbers and Panama has come out on top.
Panama and Peru are the stars of economic growth in Latin America, while Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador an Venezuela are the top losers.
By CHRONICLE Staff
Panama will continue to have Latin America's highest economic growth, while Mexico will have the lowest, according to a Latin Business Chronicle analysis of new data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Panama will see GDP growth of 7.7 percent this year and 7.2 percent next year. That's the highest rate in Latin America and follows Panama's growth of 11.2 percent last year, which also was the best in the region. In fact, it was also the best result in Panama's recent history, according to IMF data for the past 27 years.
Read the whole story at LBC..
IMMIGRATION PROCESS TO GO INTERNET?
12 March, 2008
If this turns out to be true it will be most welcome by foreigners and most unwelcome for the attorneys who handle the immigration process and the officials who get to pocket a "fee" for supposedly speeding up the process. For most people coming to Panama, or any foreign land, the immigration process is mired in secrecy and what known is complicated. You just want someone to lead you by the hand and get you through the process as quickly and painlessly as possible. The system outlined below will certainly streamline the process and take it out of the hands of go betweens who only add to the cost of entry. I would expect there will still be the need for attorneys in the initial pensionado, investor etc. visa applications so they will stay busy. I just wonder what they will do with all those people down at the immigration office if they have no papers to stamp and move from one pile to the other. Just another way that the internet can be used by government to make life easier. Good to see Panama taking advantage of it.
The change could mean an end to countless hours spent waiting in the Dirección de Migracion. The time when dealing with issues at the Dirección de migración meant a day of waiting around in an office may be at an end. The government is considering changing the way it processes applications for visas and other immigration-related paperwork. The change would mean that many of the procedures that foreigners are required to go through will soon be done over the Internet.
The Secretario de Innovación Gubernamental de la Presidencia Gaspar Tarté said that foreign nationals may soon be able to apply for documents such as visas, including multiple entry visas, and permanent or temporary residence without leaving their home or office.
Tarté said applicants will enter their data into the government's system and pay the appropriate fees using a credit card or other form of electronic payment.
The applicant then has to go to Migración only to satisfy security protocols and to pick up the documents when they are ready.
US WOES NOT FELT HERE
La Prensa - 10 March 2008
An economic recession in the United States will significantly affect the economic performance of Mexico and some of the countries of Central and South America that depend on U.S. consumers to buy their products.
That was the conclusion reached in a study published by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. According to the study, the recession will have the greatest impact on Mexico, Canada and Honduras.
In the case of Mexico, 77 percent of its exports last year went to the U.S, accounting for 21 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP.) The study estimated that a drop in exports to the U.S. could reduce Mexico's economic growth by as much as 4 percent.
In the case of Panama, the scenario is much less foreboding.
Exports to the U.S. from Panama account for only 1.7 percent of the country's GDP, so a reduction of imports would have a fractional impact on the country's economic growth, estimated at 0.3 or 0.4 percent.
In Central America, a U.S. recession would have the greatest impact on Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Exports to the U.S. amounted to 37 percent of the GDP of Honduras, 25.7 percent of Nicaragua's GDP and 17 percent of Costa Rica's. For those countries, a recession coupled with a drop in the American trade deficit could have a significant impact on their economic growth.
PANAMA BANKING SECTOR IN GOOD HEALTH
Panama, February 27, 2008
According to the superintendent of Banking in Panama, things are just fine.
Marianela Ramsbott Palacios marianelap@prensa.com .
The superintendent of banks, Olegario Barrelier, said yesterday that the portfolio of credits to the construction and mortgages enjoys good health, thanks to the fact that the banks are handling those portfolios in a conservative way. For example, they are not financed to promoters of real estate projects with values superior to $1400 dollars per square meter in the metropolitan area.
They leave from the premise of which the projects of area reduced (90 to 110 meters) with high cost (2 thousands to 4 thousand dollars per meter) are made generally to speculate. "Like policy, they are not financing purchase of apartments for investment", he said.
62% of the total amount of mortgages that were granted in 2007 belong to houses which they benefit from the preferential interest, that is to say, which they are worth 62 thousand 500 dollars or less. But if one is moderate by clients, the relation is still greater: 90% of the total. T
he banks that lead the mortgage business are General Bank and HSBC, with a quota of the market of 31% and 28%, respectively. As far as the commercial credits, one stands out that the dilatoriness of the loans to the wholesale trade lowered of 9% in 2006 to 6% in 2007 and the one of the retail commerce it fell from 4% to 3% in the same lapse.
