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What is happening with Panama City home prices? A recent report offers insight into the dramatic home price increases in the capital in recent years, something we’ve been reporting for months. In many cases, the data shows prices rising much faster than some analysts reported.

In the coastal areas of Panama City, including Punta Pacifica, home prices are up 24.8 per cent from 2007, according to data tracked by CBRE, the respected international property consultancy. The overall average price of an apartment in the coastal area, which includes Balboa Avenue, Punta Paitilla and Punta Pacifica, now stands at $ 2,915 per square meter, compared to $ 2,335 square meters in 2007.

The specific price points represent only an average, and don’t reflect the disparity from building to building. But they certainly provide an independent barometer of the performance of the market in the wake of the global real estate collapse. Property markets around the world were – and still are – reported price decreases, while Panama City was experiencing healthy price growth, the data confirms.

The CBRE numbers indicate the rise in prices has been consistent throughout the city. In the central areas of San Francisco and El Cangrejo, prices are up 28.1 per cent, hitting $2,400 a square meter. In the east of the city, which includes Costa del Este, the value of a home is now pegged at $ 2,650 a square meter, a 30.2 per cent jump from 2007. In the south of the city — Marbella, Bella Vista and San Francisco – prices are up 33.6 per cent, to $2,469 a square meter.

The numbers were reported by the Panama America Web site as part of a report focused on the affordability of housing for Panama citizens, a real issue in the country. In Panama City, prices have reached a point where 84 per cent of the working population cannot afford to buy a home in the city, according to the report.

But the CBRE data used in the report also offers investors and property professionals objective numbers on prices in Panama City, which are hard to find. It is notoriously difficult to uncover any reliable data and analysis in Panama; it’s simply a reality of the market.

When data trickles out from a consultancy like CBRE its puts muscle behind the growth story in Panama City. And it’s a great story, with prices going up in the last few years, despite the shaky international economy.

Duncan McGowan is president of Punta Pacifica Realty, a Panama real estate agency focused on Punta Pacifica, the exclusive neighborhood of 18 towers perched on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.