El Cocal

About El Cocal:

El Cocal covers 7.2 km² on the southern side of Las Tablas. Its northern edge, around Residencial La Arboleda, is less than 2 km from the city centre. The road to Peña Blanca runs through it, a short paved road links La Gallinaza with La Tiza, and another runs out from the village to Llano Afuera and Loma Bonita. Some of the larger parcels face the main road from Las Tablas to Tonosí. Day-to-day needs are met in town: the hospital, banks, supermarkets and secondary schools are all in Las Tablas.

In 2010 nearly half the population lived in the village of El Cocal itself. The rest were spread across La Gallinaza, Llano Afuera, Llano Grande (also called Miraflores), Residencial La Arboleda, the barriadas San Pablo and San Antonio, and the hamlet of El Guayabo. Growth since then has come from families who work in Las Tablas and want more room than the city’s barriadas give them. The Ministry of Public Works patched the internal streets in December 2024 and laid another 80 tonnes of asphalt on them in June 2026, for residents, school traffic, transport operators and local producers alike.

A cocal is a stand of coconut palms, but today’s El Cocal is mostly houses, yards and pasture, with two low hills and a quebrada running through it. Farming hangs on at a small scale, and a few dozen holdings in the corregimiento still grow juice oranges. The Templo San Pablo Apóstol belongs to the Santa Librada parish of Las Tablas, and El Cocal shares its patronal fiesta for San Pablo with neighbouring El Pedregoso. On the road to El Carate, in La Gallinaza, the Centro Recreativo Santa Librada runs a public pool, and Escuela Antonio González serves the village’s children.

Water is the one service to ask about first. A failure in the line leaving the pumping station once cut supply to both El Cocal and El Carate, the water utility has issued notices of irregular supply for Pájaro Verde, Charco Trapiche, Llano Afuera and the main street during repair works, and pupils at Escuela Antonio González have asked publicly for a fix to the shortages. A reserve tank is worth having here. Buyers are mostly Santeño families, along with Panamanians from the capital who want a house for carnival and holidays a few minutes away from the crowds around the park.

Houses in El Cocal:

Resale stock is mainly single-storey family homes with two or three bedrooms, a front porch and a fenced yard. The difference from the city is land. A house on the road toward La Tiza, for example, has about 190 m² built on a lot of more than 1,000 m², with terraces front and back, and in La Gallinaza there are two-storey houses on lots of around 850 m². Anyone comparing houses for sale in El Cocal with homes in the barriadas of central Las Tablas will usually find a bigger plot for a few extra minutes on the road. Look at the water tank, the pump and the condition of the street in front before you agree a price.

Land and Lots in El Cocal:

Land here comes in two sizes. Along the village streets and side roads there are house lots, while the edges of the corregimiento still hold parcels big enough to subdivide: four plots of 7,500 m² each with power at the road, a lot of about 1.7 hectares on the Peña Blanca road with 62 metres of frontage among large homes, and a flat tract of about two hectares facing the Tonosí road. Three adjoining lots have also been offered together with a working jardín de baile, a reminder that some land here already earns a living. If you are looking at lots near Las Tablas to build on, ask the water utility whether the lot can be connected before you count on it.

New Developments in El Cocal:

Brisas del Cocal, at Llano Afuera, is the corregimiento’s main new project. It is a residential subdivision with asphalt streets and buried storm drainage, on lots starting at about 250 m², and the plans include a clubhouse with a pool, a restaurant and a basketball court. The house models have two or three bedrooms, an indoor laundry and a covered garage, with the larger models taking two cars. The project sells in phases and was in pre-sale through 2025 and 2026, so a buyer today is paying for a house that has yet to be finished.

Rentals in El Cocal:

Long-term rentals are small houses, often two bedrooms and one bathroom with a reserve tank, let to people who work in Las Tablas, on the usual terms of the first month plus one month’s deposit. Larger houses are also let to families and groups for carnival and other fiestas, when being ten minutes from Parque Porras rather than on it is part of the appeal. Furnished rooms and small houses for short stays exist too, but they are a sideline to the monthly market.

FAQ:

• The seller says the lot was “given by the municipality”. Is it titled?

  Check carefully, because in El Cocal that is a real possibility. In 1980 the State handed a large block of national land in the corregimiento to the Municipality of Las Tablas, and the municipal council has been adjudicating lots from it to the families occupying them ever since, with approvals as recent as 2023. If the adjudication has not been signed and registered, what is for sale is occupancy, not ownership. Ask for the adjudication resolution and confirm in the Registro Público that the finca is registered in the seller’s name.

• Is the water supply reliable?

  Not always. Repairs and failures on the line from the pumping station have left El Cocal, Llano Afuera and nearby sectors with interrupted or irregular supply more than once. Ask the neighbours how often the taps run dry, and treat a reserve tank and a working pump as part of the house.

• How far is El Cocal from the centre of Las Tablas?

  Five to ten minutes by car to Parque Porras, depending on which part of the corregimiento you are in. Residencial La Arboleda, on the northern edge, is the closest; Llano Afuera, Loma Bonita and La Gallinaza are a little further out.

• What should I check before reserving a house at Brisas del Cocal?

  Ask to see the approved subdivision plan and the construction permit, and find out which phase your lot is in and when that phase is due for delivery. Get in writing whether the clubhouse and pool are part of your phase or a later one, and how water and power will reach your street. Reservation money should be covered by a signed promise-of-sale contract.

• Can a foreigner buy a house in El Cocal?

  Yes. Foreigners can own titled property in Panama on the same terms as nationals, and the special limits for land near the borders and on islands do not apply here. The same rule about municipal lots applies to everyone, though: make sure what you are buying is a registered finca.