Caribbean style home on a 3,000 m2 (3/4 of an acre) lot, offered at a very good value.

This beachfront property, located in the province of Bocas del Toro, sits on 2 levels. The ground floor consists of a self contained apartment complete with bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room. The separate ground level also has a annex to fit another bed. Currently it sleeps 5.

The 2nd level is the principal home and is made up of 2 bedrooms and study which could be converted to a 3rd bedroom, 2 bathrooms, open kitchen, living room and dining room as well as 2 decks overlooking the Caribbean Ocean.

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Panama City has been recently chosen as one of the top 5 places to retire abroad by International Living magazine. Each year, the company produces a list of the best places to retire abroad. Starting with 195 countries, International Living factors in safety, infrastructure, climate, culture, real estate and special benefits, like discounts for retirees. With the countries that score the highest, they add in first-hand reports from correspondents and contributors who live in these countries.

Panama City, Panama

Wish for a retirement haven that combines big-city feel with sandy beaches and warm winters -- but Miami Beach is too expensive?

Consider Panama. This transcontinental nation -- it connects North and South America -- combines affordable city and beachfront living and has topped International Living magazine's Global Retirement Index for six years in a row.

"Panama City was built by Americans while they were running the Panama Canal, so it has [good] infrastructure," says Kathleen Peddicord, the publisher and editor of International Living. "Its most developed parts look like Miami, with high-rises, malls, a shopping center."

The best part? Panama's pensionado program offers a slew of retiree perks if you can document a monthly income of at least $500 ($600 for a couple), according to International Living. (You can qualify as long as you're 18 years old and you can document receiving some form of government pension -- Social Security, for example -- or a private pension from a well-known international company. If you have a private pension from a smaller company that isn't verifiable, you need to be at least 50.)

Among the program's perks is import duty exemption for a new car every two years, as well as many attractive discounts: 50% off tickets to the movies, theater, concerts and sporting events; 30% off in-country bus, boat and train fares; 25% off restaurant bills; 50% off hotel stays Monday through Thursday and 30% off during the rest of the week, and so on. And should you want to dabble in real estate, you'll get a whole set of markdowns: from one percentage point less on mortgage rates to 25% off closing costs.

Pros: Cosmopolitan, yet affordable; close to the U.S.; great health-care system and a plethora of retiree discounts.

Cons: Panama City gets hot in the summer, so you may consider retreating to the surrounding mountains. International Living recommends the Chiriqui region. While many people in Panama City speak English, that's not the case in the rest of the country: If you don't speak Spanish (and aren't willing to learn), the language barrier could be a problem.

Panama is looking forward to the best GDP growth in Latin America for 2008, according to the Latin Business Chronicle.

Panama's Gross Domestic Product grew at a quarterly rate of 9.4%, making Panama one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America. Official calculations of the Direction of Statistics and Census (DEC) of the Contraloría indicate that the GDP, valued against benchmark 1996 prices, came in at $3.981 billion dollars, representing an increase of $340.5 million dollars in comparison to the first trimester of 2006. Sectors with the best growth that contributed to the GDP were banking and financial activities, housing construction, wholesale commerce, and the transportation of materials over ground.

The worst growth is predicted for Venezuela, which ironically is part of the reason Panama is forecast to do so well as thousands of Venezuelans look to invest in Panamanian housing and other business ventures. Foreign direct investment in Venezuela is also expected to drop, because of nervousness over the policies of President Chavez.

The Chronicle says that Panama will likely expand its GDP by 6.8 percent next year, which is higher than any other economy in Latin America. That follows four years of solid growth averaging 7.3 percent each year.

In contrast to Venezuela, where prices are expected to rise dramatically, Panama will have the second lowest inflation rate in Latin America in 2008 at only 2.4 percent.

By The Visitor Panama

Virgin Holidays, one of the biggest tour operators in the United Kingdom, has included Panama in its 2008 Caribbean brochure, released last week.

This is a "first" for Panama’s tourist industry and especially good news for Bern Hotels, the Royal Decameron and Playa Blanca which will accommodate Virgin guests, and Copa Airlines which will ferry the holidaymakers to Panama from Cuba after their direct flight on Virgin Atlantic Airline from London.

Virgin Atlantic recently began scheduled flights to Cuba, which for Panamanian residents, could be a waystop to Europe as an alternative to the USA or Madrid.

One of Virgin Holidays’ main selling points is their "taste of adventure" theme under the banner "Panama Experience + Panama Beach" which offers Colonial Panama City, Boat trip on the Panama Canal, Aerial tram through the rainforest, Unspoiled rainforest and ecological trips, local indigenous Indian Tribes, and Pacific Coast Beach.

The two-week holiday which costs between £1,299 ($2,595) and £1,899 ($3,795) per person double occupancy, depending on dates, begins with a three-day breakfast-only stay in Panama City at the Crowne Plaza, with city tours, trips to Miraflores, Colon and the Free Zone and shopping which, with the exchange rate now over $2 to the pound sterling, will be a bonanza for the Brits.

Days 4-7 will be spent at Gamboa Rainforest Resort on half-board to "discover the secrets of the upper rainforest canopy" and visit the orchid and plant nurseries, the butterfly house and an Embera Village. A boat trip on the Canal is also offered.

After all this adventure, the guests will spend their last week at the all-inclusive hotels Playa Blanca or Royal Decameron on the Pacific coast.

Costa Rica is also offered in the 280 page brochure and this represents Virgin’s first Latin American offering apart from Mexico which has long been a favorite.

Six more banks have applied to come to Panama, and are going through the licensing formalities, while another eight are waiting in the wings.

The banks come from France, Switzerland, Honduras and the Cayman Islands.

All of them wanting to initiate operations in the local market are attracted by the expansion of the Canal, and the booming Panamanian economy.

Panama's International Banking Center is the most modern and successful in Latin America, offering over 100 Banks from more than 32 countries around the world.

• Developer's Option to Change Price
• Guide to Real Estate in Panama