real estate

Value of land debated

Residents in a poor neighborhood in an affluent area say they want a fair price for their land.

But some real estate experts say the price the residents are demanding is too high.

David Mesa/La Prensa

fisherman vs. investors: A group of residents in Boca La Caja, a fishing village between Punta Paitilla and Panama Viejo, are pushing for “fair and dignified” prices for their coveted seafront land.1069864

Camilo Mendoza sat at the base of the Corredor Sur, where fishermen from the Boca La Caja neighborhood launch their boats. Children splashed in murky water of the Bahía, returning to the shore covered in ash and grime.

Mendoza has been fishing this area for 60 years, and recalls that when he first arrived, the neighborhood was “all mosquitos and hills,” a memory he describes with affection.

Today, Boca La Caja’s hills are covered with humble cinder block houses separated only by labyrinthine alleys and narrow, crumbling sidewalks. The tropical sun either pounds down on the zinc roofs below or is blocked out completely by apartment towers going up all around. A luxury shopping mall and private hospital lie just a few meters from the neighborhood, a world apart that threatens to close in.

Mendoza senses that this neighborhood may not be around much longer, though he doesn’t know exactly why. “That’s our great unknown,” he said.

A zoning map on the web site of the Ministerio de Vivienda (Mivi) highlights the high-density community of Boca La Caja bearing the inscription “under special study.” When asked what Mivi’s plans are for the area, Mivi viceministro José Batista said that Boca La Caja represented a “special residential area” that had never carried a specific zoning. Theoretically, that would mean that the land could be easily rezoned to allow new apartment buildings to replace the beachfront neighborhood.

“But we’re not going to make that decision,” insisted the viceministro. “The neighborhood’s special status is being respected.” Any changes would be subject to the approval of the area’s residents, he added.

All the same, some people are beginning to snatch up property in Boca La Caja, and they’re getting it cheap. Nobody seems to know which lots have been sold or who the buyers are, but resident and neighborhood activist Rubén Gómez argued that these sales are weakening the opposition movement.

The “movement" is the organization of neighbors trying to sell their land at prices they consider fair. “We’re opposed to people putting a price on our land and our dignity. We want a fair price for the land, the house and the quality of life that we will lose,” explained Gómez.

But what the movement members are asking, around $6,000 per square meter, is far higher than the average price of land in neighboring areas.

Ivan Carlucci, former president of the Asociación Panameña de Corredores de Bienes Raíces and real estate broker for Natasha Investments, said that the lot where Los Faros de Panamá were built in Paitilla cost $500 per square meter.

And some of the most-coveted land in the capital, found on Avenida Balboa, is just now reaching prices upwards of $4,000 per square meter.

“Those who may be buying [in Boca La Caja] do so at a risk,” stressed Carlucci, because they are doing so with the knowledge that the area hasn’t yet been rezoned to permit high-density residences.

Carlucci argued that the prices being asked by residents of the old fishing village are simply unrealistic. Though any property bordering the sea may attract prospective investors, Boca La Caja is a diamond in the rough, he said, and a true connoisseur will not pay for it as though it were a polished gem.