Las Tablas Abajo

About Las Tablas Abajo:

The corregimiento covers 15.7 km² north-east of the city of Las Tablas, on the south-east side of the Azuero Peninsula, and its centre sits around 20 metres above sea level. The main way in is the road everyone calls the vía a Las Tablas Abajo, which leaves town and carries on to the shore at Playa Las Comadres, near the settlements of El Jobo and La Colorada. Calle Los Vargas, where one of the new residenciales is going up, is about five minutes from Parque Porras. Supermarkets, banks, the hospital and the buses to Panama City are all back in town. That short hop is why most people here live as if Las Tablas Abajo were just the edge of Las Tablas.

El Pausílipo is the landmark everyone gives directions by. Porras, three times president of Panama, used it as his country retreat, and Law 7 of 19 May 1994 declared the finca a national historic monument and set up the regional museum of Los Santos inside it. The house has adobe walls, a clay-tile roof and local timber, a rectangular plan with a porch on every side, two bedrooms and a meeting room where his desk is kept. It may be the best-preserved nineteenth-century country house in Panama. The name comes from a hill outside Naples.

Playa Las Comadres is the other reason people come out this way. The shore is covered with rocks, and two of them, standing side by side, gave the beach its name and the legend that the writer Sergio González Ruiz made famous. It is one of the most popular beaches near Las Tablas, and local families fill it at weekends. Playa El Uverito lies further along the coast and is reached by a different road through El Manantial. So a house in Las Tablas Abajo puts you within a short drive of both.

The corregimiento had 1,030 residents in 2010 and 2,170 in the 2023 census, which tells you how fast the residenciales have been filling up. In September 2026 the Ministry of Public Works resurfaced its internal streets, now largely residential, as part of its maintenance programme for the province. Buyers are mostly Santeño families who work in Las Tablas and want more land than a barriada lot gives them, Panamanians from the capital looking for a house near the beach and the carnival, and retirees who want quiet without giving up the town’s services. Lot size is usually what tips the decision.

Houses in Las Tablas Abajo:

The older stock is single-storey houses on large, fenced lots along the main road and its side streets: a three-bedroom house of about 180 m² on a lot of more than 800 m² is a fair picture of it, with room to extend. Smaller two-bedroom houses on lots of around 300 m² come up near the road to the beach and sell as homes or as weekend houses. At the top of the local market are the houses in Residencial Santa Katerina, with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a terrace and a pool. If you are comparing houses for sale in Las Tablas Abajo with the barriadas in town, expect more land for the money here, and a car to go with it.

New Developments in Las Tablas Abajo:

Residencial Luna Tableña, on Calle Los Vargas, is building two models with two or three bedrooms and two bathrooms on lots from 250 m²; the three-bedroom house has about 102 m² under roof, porcelain floors and three-metre gypsum ceilings. Residencial Vista La Colorada sells finished three-bedroom houses alongside lots where you can build your own, plus a commercial lot. Both are pitched at families who want a new house within minutes of Parque Porras. On a pre-sale, ask for the construction permit and confirm that the developer’s master finca has been segregated into individual lots in the Registro Público before you pay more than the deposit.

Land and Lots in Las Tablas Abajo:

Land here is sold mostly as residential lots of 250 to just over 1,000 m², either inside a residencial or with frontage on the paved road towards Las Comadres, with public transport passing nearby. A few parcels advertised as beachfront also come up around Las Comadres. With those, look hard at the papers: Panama’s beaches are public land, so the title has to stop where the shore begins.

Rentals in Las Tablas Abajo:

Most of the letting here follows the calendar of Las Tablas. Houses are let to groups for carnival, the Desfile de las Mil Polleras in January, the national holidays in November and New Year, and some three-bedroom houses on the vía Las Tablas Abajo are rented by the weekend for the beach the rest of the year. If you are renting long-term, agree in writing whether the house stays yours during carnival week, because that is when owners earn the most from it.

FAQ:

• How far is Las Tablas Abajo from the beach and from town?

  Both are a short drive. Parque Porras is about five minutes from the residenciales on Calle Los Vargas, and the paved road through the corregimiento ends at Playa Las Comadres. Las Comadres is a rocky beach, so visit at high and low tide before you decide it is the swimming beach you had in mind.

• What should I check before buying a lot near Las Comadres?

  Start with where the sea-side boundary falls. The beach is public, so a lot sold as “frente al mar” must have a registered title in the Registro Público whose survey plan stops short of the shore, not a possession right over the sand. If the seller inherited the land, make sure every heir signs and that the area on the plan matches the fence.

• Is it worth buying here for carnival?

  It can be. You are minutes from the Calle Arriba and Calle Abajo parades but sleep away from the noise of the park, and houses on the vía let well during carnival week. Treat that income as a bonus, not a plan, because it comes from only a few days a year.

• Can a foreigner buy property in Las Tablas Abajo?

  Yes. Titled property here can be bought by foreigners on the same terms as Panamanians. The constitutional limit on foreign ownership applies within ten kilometres of the national borders, not on the Azuero coast.

• Does El Pausílipo affect the neighbouring land?

  The monument is the two-hectare finca itself, which has been national heritage since 1976 and works as a museum. If a lot you are considering borders it, ask the municipality of Las Tablas which rules apply before you design anything.