NEIGHBORHOOD INTELLIGENCE · COSTA DEL ESTE · 2026
Costa del Este,
decoded.
The Costa del Este you see in listings is not the Costa del Este that actually sells.
480 apartments changed hands here in 2025: 242 between everyday owners, 238 developers selling off new stock. Look only at the resale market, where one family buys from another, and the typical seller asks $500,000 today. The typical buyer paid $375,000 over the last two years.
On paper that's a 33% gap. But those aren't the same apartment. The units being listed run larger than the ones that trade. Compare like with like, per square meter, and sellers ask about 12% above what buyers pay: $2,357/m² against $2,108/m². Signal 1 maps where that gap is real and where it's just a bigger unit, building by building.
Which buildings hold their asking price? Which stretch it? Which barely move at all, because the families inside them aren't leaving?
If you're thinking about CdE, your first apartment or your third, start here before anywhere else.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Who actually lives here.
Costa del Este is Panama City's master-planned district: a reclaimed-land grid of wide boulevards, parks, and a four-kilometer waterfront, laid out in the 1990s east of the old city over a capped former landfill. The people who live here skew affluent, international, and family-first: multinational executives and professionals, a large North American and European expat community, and Panamanian families drawn by the schools and the space. Unlike the oceanfront trophy towers to the west, this is a neighborhood people settle into, not just invest in.
By day it's a corporate hub, Copa Airlines' headquarters and a cluster of multinational offices anchor the Business Park, and by night it resolves back into one of the city's safest, most orderly residential areas. It's engineered rather than organic: daily life runs between gated towers, the Town Center mall, the schools, and the boardwalk, with the Corredor Sur at the edge for everything else. Newer and lower-slung than vertical Punta Pacífica, it trades trophy-tower prestige for planned, livable space.
- Hospital
- Pacífica Salud – Hospital Costa del Este, a full hospital with 24/7 emergency care, opened inside the Town Center complex in 2022, run by the same Johns Hopkins-affiliated network as Hospital Punta Pacífica. The most complex surgery still routes to the flagship in Punta Pacífica, a short drive west.
- Schools
- Real schools sit inside the district: Boston School International (IB, bilingual) and Academia Interamericana (pre-K through 12) on the core grid, The Casco School's primary campus in Green Bay, and early-years schools like Bamboo Kids Academy and El Jardín de la Cuadra on Avenida La Rotonda. Two names often tagged "Costa del Este", King's College and the Metropolitan School, actually sit in Clayton and Panamá Norte, a drive away.
- Shopping & daily life
- Town Center Costa del Este (the district's mall, right inside the grid) is its everyday shopping and social hub.
- Getting around
- Car-first and planned for it: a grid of wide streets with the Corredor Sur tollway at the edge, roughly 15 minutes to the banking district and 20–25 to Tocumen airport. No metro station, and peak-hour traffic on the corridor is the trade-off.
The 60-second read
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Costa del Este, at a glance
Composition, scale, pipeline.
Before the three signals, the lay of the land: who built CdE and what's selling.
Composition
Completed residential buildings, by class
Heavy in luxury and upper-mid; thin at the ultra-luxury end. The mix reflects a neighborhood designed for high-income residence.
Tallest towers
Top 5 by floor count, completed
| # | Building | Developer | Floors | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vitri | F&F Properties | 74 | 2012 |
| 2 | P.H. Ocean Two | F&F Properties | 73 | 2010 |
| 3 | P.H. Pearl at the Sea | Habitats Realty | 70 | 2012 |
| 4 | Paramount | Urban Development Group | 62 | 2012 |
| 5 | Country Club Torre 100 | Desarrollo Bahía | 55 | 2014 |
Four of the five rise above 60 floors, and the two tallest are both F&F Properties. The skyline that defines CdE went up in a tight window: 2010 to 2014.
Quarterly transactions, 2024 Q1 → 2026 Q2
Two kinds of sale, stacked: resales between owners + developers selling brand-new units
Total volume climbed through 2024–25, but the developer share climbed with it. By our classification, more than half of 25Q4 sales were developers moving new units (25Q3 ran about even), though one large project can swing a quarter. The resale line, owners selling to owners, held steady between 44 and 65 every quarter. That's the market that matters most to a buyer, and it barely wavered.
Most active by listings
Top 6 by for-sale listings (posted in the last 45 days)
| Building | Listings | Med ask | $/m² |
|---|---|---|---|
| Country Club 200 / The Regent | 102 | $416K | $2,822 |
| PH Elevation | 70 | $435K | $2,175 |
| P.H Lumiere | 63 | $430K | $2,233 |
| Parkside | 51 | $320K | $3,088 |
| Sevilla Towers | 49 | $324K | $1,793 |
| Top Towers A | 47 | $305K | $2,097 |
Six buildings carry roughly a third of CdE's active listing inventory. The Regent alone holds 102 listings, more than any other building in the barrio.
SIGNAL 1 · PRICE DISCIPLINE
What they ask, what they pay
The spread, building by building
Per square meter, and matched on unit size, sellers ask about 12% over what actually closes, with a gap running from −7% to +42% building by building. Negotiate against each building's recent closings at that size, not the headline ask.
- Park View Residences-7%
- Costa del Este Pijao-4%
- Bali - Costa del Mar-4%
- ACQUA 1-4%
- Torre Zeus-1%
- Matisse0%
- Parkside+2%
- ALTAMAR DEL ESTE+3%
- ASIA - Costa del Mar+3%
- The Regent+4%
- Maui+4%
- Ocean Two+6%
- Park Lane COSTA DEL ESTE+6%
- Vitri+6%
- Regalia+7%
- Brisa Marina+7%
- ARIA+7%
- Sevilla Towers+7%
- Vertikal+8%
- Country Club Torre 100+8%
- Titanium Tower+9%
- Elevation+11%
- ACQUA II+11%
- Sol del Este+13%
- Paramount+14%
- Top Towers - Torre A+14%
- Costa View+17%
- Pearl at the Sea+17%
- Parque del Mar 1+17%
- Riverside+18%
- Mirador Costa del Este+18%
- Apartamentos Arcadia del Este Condo Suites+18%
- Latitude+19%
- Upper East Tower+20%
- Murano+21%
- Panama Bay Tower+21%
- Lumiere+23%
- Ten Tower+42%
See the full breakdown
Every apartment in Costa del Este has two prices. The one the seller asks: listed on the portals, pitched by the agents. And the one the buyer actually pays: registered quietly in the public registry, weeks or months later.
Most of the time, those two numbers sit close. When they don't, the gap tells you something: whether a building is priced against what comparable apartments recently sold for, or against a hopeful story. Whether the next buyer walks in from strength or from weakness.
We looked at every CdE building with data on both sides: at least four apartments listed, and at least three closings registered in the last two years. Thirty-eight buildings cleared that bar. We priced each side per square meter and then matched on size: within each building we compare only similarly sized units, on both sides. Dividing by area isn't enough on its own, a building that lists its large units and sells its small ones looks cheap per meter without being cheap. Read that way, the split is sharper and different than the raw prices suggest.
Where asks stretch above closings, per m²
| Bucket | Gap (per m²) | # | Buildings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stretched | Ask ≥20% above close | 5 | Upper East Tower, Murano, Panama Bay Tower, Lumiere, Ten Tower |
| Middle | Ask 10–20% above close | 12 | Elevation, Acqua II, Sol del Este, Paramount, Top Towers A, Costa View, Pearl at the Sea, Parque del Mar 1, Riverside, Mirador CdE, Arcadia Condo Suites, Latitude |
Where asks match or trail closings, per m²
| Bucket | Gap (per m²) | # | Buildings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disciplined | Ask within 10% of close | 15 | Parkside, Altamar del Este, PH ASIA, Country Club 200, Maui, Ocean Two, Park Lane, Vitri, Regalia, Brisa Marina, ARIA, Sevilla Towers, Vertikal, Country Club 100, Titanium Tower |
| Ask ≤ close | Ask at or below close | 6 | Park View Residences, Pijao, PH Bali, Acqua I, Torre Zeus, Matisse |
The pattern matters for two reasons, and the first is a warning about the number you'll see everywhere else.
The raw-dollar gap and the per-meter gap disagree, and that's the point. On listed prices the neighborhood looks like it asks 33% above what it closes: $500,000 against $375,000. Per square meter, matched on unit size, the real gap is 12%. The difference isn't a technicality. Those are two different apartments. Anchor to the dollar gap and you negotiate against a number that isn't there.
Matching on size changes the verdict for specific buildings. Lumiere has 62 apartments listed, but only 18 resemble in size what the building actually sells (about 114 m²); measured against those, it asks 23% above its recent closings. The Regent is the extreme case: 101 listings, 31 size-comparable, asking 4% above. Compare a building's whole inventory against its sales and both look like they're asking below market. They aren't.
Six buildings ask at or below their own recent closings per meter: Park View Residences (−7%), Bali and Pijao (−4% each), Acqua I (−4%), Torre Zeus (−1%) and Matisse, level with it. With both sides matched on size, this no longer explains away as unit mix: it's real asking discipline, or a short sample. Torre Zeus rests on three closings and Acqua I on five; Pijao on eighteen. Check the closing count before you decide how much weight to give it.
The far end narrows, but it doesn't disappear. Ten Tower asks 42% above its recent closings per meter, the widest spread in the neighborhood, on just four closings. Lumiere (+23%), Panama Bay Tower and Murano (+21%) and Upper East Tower (+20%) round out the group.
One building asks to be read twice. Arcadia del Este Condo Suites shows 214 closings, by far the most in the neighborhood, because the tower delivered in 2024 and is still clearing new stock: nearly all of those closings are developer first-sales, not resales between owners. Its +18% compares what owners ask today against the developer's list price, not against a resale market.
A CdE building with a 20%+ per-meter spread isn't a bad building. It's one where your offer starts at the recent comp for that size. Same apartment. Different opening move.
SIGNAL 2 · NEIGHBORHOOD ANATOMY
Which buildings move, which don't
The iceberg under the listings
Most CdE buildings barely trade, and that's usually stability. Where a building sits in these four quadrants tells you how many options you'll have getting in… and getting out.
See the full breakdown
Costa del Este has 71 residential buildings: 55 completed, 16 more rising. In any given year, most barely appear on any listing portal. That isn't dysfunction. Often it's the address working exactly as intended.
Pull back from the 2025 headline (480 trades, 242 secondary) and a different pattern shows up: some buildings transact constantly, some barely at all, and the averages hide both.
We cross-referenced three years of resales against what's for sale today, building by building, measuring both sides per 100 apartments. Otherwise big towers read as "active" for being big. The cut is the neighborhood's own pace: 12.3 resales and 9.3 units for sale per 100 apartments. On the inventory side we count units, not adverts: of CdE's 1,194 active listings only 520 are distinct apartments, because the same apartment gets posted by several brokers. Each of the 55 completed buildings sorts into one of four quadrants.
The four quadrants
| Quadrant | Resales /100 | For sale /100 | # | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flowing | High | High | 10 | Two-sided market. Sells often, and there's a choice. |
| Steady | Low | Low | 16 | Families staying. Low turnover and low inventory at once. |
| Lagging | Low | High | 13 | More inventory than its own sale rate absorbs. Units sit. |
| Tight | High | Low | 15 | Churn without oversupply. What lists moves, but little lists. |
The Steady quadrant is the largest: 16 buildings, nearly a third of the completed stock. The lowest-turnover, lowest-listing buildings in the neighborhood: Paseo del Mar, La Ribera, Green Bay, Park View Residences. You won't find a flip opportunity here. What you'll find is a building where the families who moved in aren't planning to leave, neighbors you'll see for years. Low turnover in one of Panama's most desirable residential areas usually signals stability, though the same quiet that keeps neighbors in place can mean your own exit takes time too.
The Lagging quadrant is the opposite story. Thirteen buildings carrying more inventory than their own sale rate absorbs. That doesn't automatically mean they're overpriced: Bali sits here and asks 4% below its own closings in Signal 1. It means there's a queue. Cross this quadrant against Signal 1's per-meter spread before reading one as the other.
Flowing and Tight are both healthy, in different ways. The ten Flowing buildings give you choice: several units to compare and real negotiation data. The fifteen Tight ones rarely have much listed, but what does sells fast. Both are viable ways in; the difference is just how many options you want on the table while you decide.
A building that trades often isn't worse than one that doesn't. High turnover in CdE often signals people circulating around great infrastructure. Low turnover often signals families who've quietly made home. Same neighborhood. Different communities inside.
SIGNAL 3 · YIELD
What CdE actually earns
The yield math, building by building
Long-term rentals yield 5.3% to 8.8% gross (median 6.7%): rented meter against purchased meter, and that's before costs. Where you land sets how much operating work you take on.
- Paramount · $15.978.8%
- Top Towers A · $14.818.4%
- Torre Zeus · $13.438.2%
- PH Asia · $17.658.1%
- Arcadia Condo Suites · $30.267.8%
- ARIA · $16.957.4%
- Maui · $15.557.3%
- Country Club 100 · $12.887.2%
- Elevation · $12.237%
- Parkside · $19.126.8%
- Riverside · $17.296.8%
- Vertikal · $11.056.7%
- Altamar del Este · $13.046.7%
- Pearl at the Sea · $12.256.6%
- Pijao · $11.506.6%
- Casa Bianca · $14.606.4%
- Ten Tower · $10.526.3%
- Brisa Marina · $11.986.3%
- Ocean Two · $13.046.3%
- Lumiere · $11.635.5%
- The Regent · $16.835.3%
- Lacosta Tower · $8.315.3%
- Panama Bay Tower · $9.155.3%
- Bali · $11.765.3%
See the full breakdown
The word "yield" gets thrown around casually in Panama real estate. The math behind it rarely gets shown. So here it is. Gross yield is one number: a full year of rent divided by what you paid for the apartment, as a percentage. Earn $24,000 a year on a $300,000 apartment and that's an 8% gross yield.
In Costa del Este asking rent runs from $8 to $30 per square meter per month depending on the building: nearly a fourfold spread, and the sale price per meter doesn't explain it on its own.
Two honest adjustments first. Those are asking rents, what landlords want. Signed leases usually land lower once a tenant negotiates, and we don't have a private database of signed rents the way the public registry hands us closed sale prices. So we trim asking rents by 10% to get closer to what's really paid, then compare meter against meter: the building's asking rent per m² against its own recent closing per m². Dividing an absolute rent by an absolute price is the size trap all over again, what rents in CdE is usually different product from what sells.
Twenty-four CdE buildings have at least three apartments listed for rent and at least three recent owner-to-owner closings, enough on both sides to trust the result. Those twenty-four are below. Buildings with thinner data aren't shown: a single odd unit can throw a one-building yield way off, and we'd rather publish fewer we stand behind than pad the list with ones we can't.
Gross yield, building by building
| Building | Rent (/m²/mo) | Closes at (/m²) | Gross yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paramount | $15.97 | $1,952 | 8.8% |
| Top Towers A | $14.81 | $1,898 | 8.4% |
| Torre Zeus | $13.43 | $1,775 | 8.2% |
| PH Asia | $17.65 | $2,347 | 8.1% |
| Arcadia Condo Suites | $30.26 | $4,184 | 7.8% |
| ARIA | $16.95 | $2,472 | 7.4% |
| Maui | $15.55 | $2,295 | 7.3% |
| Country Club 100 | $12.88 | $1,937 | 7.2% |
| Elevation | $12.23 | $1,887 | 7.0% |
| Parkside | $19.12 | $3,039 | 6.8% |
| Riverside | $17.29 | $2,749 | 6.8% |
| Vertikal | $11.05 | $1,782 | 6.7% |
| Altamar del Este | $13.04 | $2,108 | 6.7% |
| Pearl at the Sea | $12.25 | $2,015 | 6.6% |
| Pijao | $11.50 | $1,893 | 6.6% |
| Casa Bianca | $14.60 | $2,460 | 6.4% |
| Ten Tower | $10.52 | $1,811 | 6.3% |
| Brisa Marina | $11.98 | $2,043 | 6.3% |
| Ocean Two | $13.04 | $2,242 | 6.3% |
| Lumiere | $11.63 | $2,295 | 5.5% |
| The Regent | $16.83 | $3,456 | 5.3% |
| Lacosta Tower | $8.31 | $1,685 | 5.3% |
| Panama Bay Tower | $9.15 | $1,849 | 5.3% |
| Bali | $11.76 | $2,408 | 5.3% |
The baseline is 5.3–8.8% gross across twenty-four buildings. Median: 6.7%. That's before vacancy, management, property tax, and the monthly maintenance fee (cuota): which in CdE's amenity-heavy towers is a real drag, so net yield lands meaningfully below. For comparison: Panama City's equivalent long-term rental baseline runs 5–6% gross. CdE's premium, about a point at the median, reflects both rental demand in the area and the fact that many CdE buyers are buying family residences, which suppresses aggressive rent-seeking pricing.
The range matters as much as the median. Paramount at 8.8% and Top Towers A at 8.4% are the aggressive end: the higher you sit on this table, the more you're underwriting rental execution (finding tenants, managing well, keeping occupancy high). The Regent at 5.3% and Lumiere at 5.5% sit at the conservative end, and not for being cheap: the Regent closes at $3,456/m², among the highest in the neighborhood, and its rent doesn't follow that price. Where you land should match how much operational work you want to take on.
A note on medians. Throughout this section we report medians: the middle value, where half of units fall above and half below. We prefer median to average because a single $10,000 penthouse ask or a single $6M closing can pull an average badly in small datasets. And one product warning: Arcadia del Este Condo Suites tops the rent-per-meter table at $30.26/m² because its units are furnished suites licensed for short-term rental, don't read that against an annual lease.
These yields are long-term rentals only. Short-term rental income in Panama depends on the building's reglamento and on current regulation, two moving pieces this report doesn't simplify. If STR income is part of your thesis, verify with counsel before you buy.
Treat 5.3–8.8% as an indicative gross range: a defensible opening, not a net return. Whether a specific building earns it depends on the unit, the floor, the finish, the maintenance fee, and who manages it. That's the next layer down. This report is the layer above.
Beyond the headline
Four supporting reads: financing, holding periods, ownership shape, and seasonality.
Who's financing CdE
- Banco General34.6%
- Scotiabank14%
- Global Bank8.3%
- Banesco7.7%
- Mercantil7.6%
- BAC4.7%
- Caja de Ahorros4.5%
- Banistmo3.9%
See the full breakdown
Costa del Este has 737 registered mortgages since 2023. Banco General holds 35% of them, more than one in every three CdE buyers who financed went to the same bank. Add Scotiabank (14%) and Global Bank (8%), and the top three banks account for just over half the neighborhood's financing. Little of it sits outside the banks: co-ops, foundations and private lenders together come to 6%.
| Bank | Share |
|---|---|
| Banco General | 34.6% |
| Scotiabank | 14.0% |
| Global Bank | 8.3% |
| Banesco | 7.7% |
| Mercantil | 7.6% |
| BAC International | 4.7% |
| Caja de Ahorros | 4.5% |
| Banistmo | 3.9% |
For a buyer, that concentration cuts two useful ways. The banks that write the most CdE mortgages have seen the most CdE deals. They already know which buildings hold their value, which can smooth your approval. And if you're getting pre-qualified, you'll be knocking on the same doors that financed your neighbors.
How long CdE owners hold
- Under 3 years32.2%
- 4–7 years43.8%
- 8+ years24%
See the full breakdown
Of the roughly 3,400 Costa del Este apartments bought new since 2013, only about 1 in 6 has come back to market, and since newer buyers haven't had as long to sell, that share will keep rising. When owners do resell, the typical gap is 4–5 years, and only a third sell within three years. This is life-cycle turnover (kids grown, job change, upgrade).
| Years to resale | Share of resales |
|---|---|
| Within 3 years | 32% |
| 4–7 years | 44% |
| 8+ years | 24% |
For an owner, that's a stability signal. Turnover is low, and when units change hands, they're not being flipped: they're life-cycle moves. The real risk in CdE isn't that you can't exit; it's that you'll likely want to stay longer than you planned.
Who owns CdE
- Park Lane CdE82.3%
- Matisse80%
- Park View Residences76.3%
- Acqua I75.9%
- Panama Bay Tower73%
See the full breakdown
In Panama, apartments are often held through a company (an S.A., an inversiones corporation, a fundación) instead of in a person's own name. It's a routine ownership and estate-planning move here. In Costa del Este, the pattern clusters in specific buildings.
| Building | Corporate-wrapper share |
|---|---|
| PH Park Lane CdE | 82.3% |
| PH Matisse | 80.0% |
| Park View Residences | 76.3% |
| Acqua I | 75.9% |
| Panama Bay Tower | 73.0% |
Why it matters: in buildings with high corporate-wrapper concentration, your comparable owners are holding entities, often long-term, professionally managed, priced to institutional yield targets. The negotiation ecosystem inside differs from the family-owned buildings. Same neighborhood, different ownership dynamics.
When CdE actually closes
See the full breakdown
Across four years of closings (2022–2025), Costa del Este doesn't close evenly: volume climbs through the year and December is by far the busiest month (more than double January, the slowest) with a bump in September. That's closing pace, not pricing: more deals don't mean better prices.
| Month | Closings |
|---|---|
| January | 86 |
| February | 130 |
| March | 134 |
| April | 136 |
| May | 149 |
| June | 141 |
| July | 143 |
| August | 145 |
| September | 171 |
| October | 158 |
| November | 152 |
| December | 205 |
For a buyer, this matters less as a bargain calendar and more as an antidote to "act now" pressure. December closes more deals, but not at better prices; there's no clear season where sellers dump or where asks inflate. Patience isn't penalized.
Buildings we track in Costa del Este
Every building on this list has its own free page: verified units, recorded sales, and the median price per m², straight from Panama's public registry.
- P.H. Alcala39 units · 445 recorded sales
- P.H. Pearl at the Sea187 units · 291 recorded sales
- PH Elevation130 units · 234 recorded sales
- Apartamentos Arcadia del Este Condo Suites227 units · 197 recorded sales
- P.H. Ocean Two103 units · 145 recorded sales
- Vitri90 units · 137 recorded sales
- P.H. Ten Tower100 units · 128 recorded sales
- PH Murano70 units · 126 recorded sales
- P.H. ACQUA II78 units · 120 recorded sales
- Torre Zeus58 units · 87 recorded sales
- Paramount106 units · 82 recorded sales
- P.H. ACQUA 186 units · 79 recorded sales
- P.H. Breeze50 units · 75 recorded sales
- ARIA76 units · 68 recorded sales
- Soho Tower39 units · 67 recorded sales
- P. H. Latitude39 units · 66 recorded sales
- PH Lacosta Tower33 units · 65 recorded sales
- P.H. Times Square Center152 units · 56 recorded sales
- PH Park Lane COSTA DEL ESTE78 units · 46 recorded sales
- P.H. Park View Residences80 units · 36 recorded sales
- P.h. Marea35 units · 35 recorded sales
- Casa Bianca33 units · 25 recorded sales
- P.H. Paseo Del Mar21 units · 22 recorded sales
Further reading
Two deep-dive essays on the data behind this report.
What Costa del Este asks, and what it closes.
Thirty-eight Costa del Este buildings clearing both ≥4 size-comparable active listings and ≥3 recent closings, with negotiation posture per building, priced per square meter.
Read →Costa del Este's quiet half.
Why most CdE buildings barely show up on listing portals, and what the split between busy and quiet buildings signals about who lives where.
Read →See every building in Costa del Este.
This report covers 55. Create a free account to browse them all: prices, sales history, and live listings, mapped.
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