BRIEFS. real estate

Foreigners spend $162.5 million on mortgages

The number of mortgages granted to foreigners is galloping ahead. According to statistics from the the Cámara Panameña de la Construcción (Capac), foreigners took out 850 mortages in the first six months of 2007, 32 percent more than during the same period in 2006. Although these figures don’t give a complete picture of home buying by foreigners in Panama (many paid in full for the properties they acquired), they do suggest the impact they are having on the real estate market.

Those 850 mortgages represent only 6.8 percent of the total, but if you look at their dollar amount, they add up to around $162.5 million, which represents 31.4 percent of the total monetary value, said Michael Fernández, Capac's economic director.