Las Lajas

About Las Lajas:

Las Lajas covers 13.3 km² of Chame district, cut in two by the Interamericana about 80 kilometres west of Panama City, or 75 minutes by car in normal traffic. Coronado takes the sea side. Near the Coronado exit are the San Fernando clinic and the Coronado International School, then the guard gate, beyond which the boulevard, the golf course and the beachfront run down to the sand. The inland side is a different place: the village of Las Lajas and the main street of Los Nísperos sit three minutes off the highway near the Coronado Mall, with roads climbing from there into the hills toward El Nancito. Buses out of the Albrook terminal stop on the highway, not inside the residential areas, so most residents drive.

Coronado began in 1941, when Roberto Eisenmann laid out a beach community at the end of what was then a dirt road three hours from the city. The golf community followed in 1970, the first condominiums, APRUCC, in 1972, and work on the 18-hole course in 1973; a 104-suite hotel opened in 1994, the same year as the equestrian club. The highway frontage has since filled with the services that make Coronado the supply town for this part of the coast: El Rey, Super 99, Riba Smith and a three-storey El Machetazo, hardware stores such as Novey and Do it Center, bank branches and a string of plazas including Las Pérgolas, Coronado Mall and Las Terrazas. The San Fernando clinic at the entrance has a laboratory, specialists and imaging, and the Coronado International School, opened in 2012, teaches through grade 12.

The corregimiento counted 2,531 residents in 2000, 3,431 in 2010 and 3,893 in 2023, which on its 13.3 km² makes it the most densely settled corregimiento in Chame. Those figures count the people who live here, not the many Coronado owners who come down only for weekends and holidays. Across the highway, the village of Las Lajas is a place of block-built houses, a primary school and small shops, and its residents work the land or travel to jobs in the larger towns nearby. For the public health centre, they go to Chame. Higher up, around El Nancito, there are farms at around 500 metres that look out over the ocean.

For decades Coronado was where Panama City families kept a weekend house, and many still do. Foreign retirees, mostly from the United States, Canada and Europe, settled here because the supermarket, the pharmacy and the clinic are minutes away rather than an hour, and the English-speaking community runs its own markets, clubs and weekly happy hours. Since the pandemic, more families and younger professionals have moved down from the city to live here year-round, helped by the international schools in and around Coronado. Investors buy condos to rent, either by the month to newcomers trying out beach life or by the night in buildings that allow it.

Apartments in Las Lajas:

Inside the Coronado gates, an apartment is either on the beach or on the golf course. On the sand stand Coronado Bay, a 24-floor tower with 190 apartments, a rooftop pool and the only helicopter pad on the beach; the three 24-floor Coronado Country Club towers, known locally as the pink towers, where the first two have two three-bedroom apartments per floor of about 205 m² including the balcony; and APRUCC, the low-rise complex from 1972, with duplexes and tennis courts around a shared pool. The Punta Prieta towers, built in the 1990s, look out over the Pacific from the point. On the course, Coronado Golf has about 160 one- and two-bedroom units and three pools, while El Alcázar, finished in 2009, spreads four wings with only four apartments per floor and is popular with full-time residents. Every one of these is under propiedad horizontal: you buy the unit plus a share of the common areas and pay a monthly cuota de mantenimiento. Ask for the reglamento and the latest budget, and check whether the parking space is titled with the apartment.

Houses in Las Lajas:

Most of the corregimiento’s houses are inside Coronado. Golf-course homes and the large lots of Alcázar Park, laid out around the course in 2009, are the most sought-after away from the water, while beachfront and ocean-view houses sit at the top of the market. Just outside the guard gate, the equestrian community has about 75 houses around the old stables, some backing onto a small lagoon, and along the boulevard, the first street to the left past the gate, compounds such as Brisas de Coronado share a pool and tennis courts. The usual format is a three- or four-bedroom house with a pool on a lot of around 1,000 m². Across the highway, Las Casas de Don Cristóbal is a gated hillside community of 27 acres, and the village has simpler block houses owned by local families. When you compare houses for sale in Coronado, ask what the community charges each month and what its rules allow before you look at finishes.

Land and Lots in Las Lajas:

Very few lots inside Coronado are still sold by the original developer, and most golf-course lots were built on long ago, so buying land there usually means a resale. The inland side is where land actually changes hands. Lots of 1,000 to 1,200 m² come up near the village and on the roads off the highway; further up the scale are flat parcels of around 4,700 m² with street frontage, tracts of 1.4 hectares a minute from the Interamericana and a 50-hectare property close to the highway. Around El Nancito, farms of nine or ten hectares at around 500 metres look down on the coast. Per square metre, the large tracts sell for less than the smaller parcels near the road. If you are after land for sale in Las Lajas up the hill, drive the access road in the wet season before you sign.

Rentals in Las Lajas:

Long-term renting is a big part of this market, because many newcomers rent before they buy. Furnished condos in the beach and golf towers and houses with pools inside the gates are let by the month or the year. Short stays concentrate in the beachfront towers, Coronado Bay above all, and in a few guesthouses and small hotels inside Coronado. If you are buying to rent, read the reglamento of the building or the community first, since each sets its own rules on short stays, guests and pets.

FAQ:

• Is Coronado part of Las Lajas?

  Yes. Coronado, its beach and the commercial strip along the highway are inside the corregimiento of Las Lajas, in Chame district, and that is the name you will see on registry records and municipal paperwork. Properties at the eastern end, toward Gorgona, can fall in Nueva Gorgona instead, so check the corregimiento on the finca’s registry entry rather than going by the name of the development.

• What should I check before buying in or around Coronado?

  Inside the gates, the documents that matter go beyond the title: get the community’s rules and building restrictions, find out what the monthly fees cover and whether a road-improvement levy is coming, and for a condo ask for the reglamento and recent assembly minutes. Up the hill the risks change: make sure the lot has legal access to a road, find out where its water comes from and see how the ground behaves in a heavy downpour. Either way, pull the finca’s entry at the Registro Público and compare the area on the approved survey plan with what you see on the ground.

• Is the water supply reliable?

  Mostly, but not always. Coronado and the surrounding communities drink from the Chame treatment plant, which draws on the Río Chame, and in one dry year IDAAN had to cut its output by a third and shut it down every afternoon until night. Condo towers keep storage tanks; with a house, check the tank’s capacity and whether it has its own pump.

• Can I rent my property out by the night?

  That depends on the building and the community. Coronado Bay has long been a favourite for short stays, but each PH and each gated community writes its own rules. Get them in writing before you count on nightly income.

• Can I live here full time with children or health needs?

  Yes, and that is why so many people do. The San Fernando clinic at the entrance to Coronado has a laboratory, specialist consultations and imaging, private clinics and pharmacies line the highway, and the main hospitals in Panama City are a little over an hour away. For schooling, the Coronado International School teaches through grade 12 just before the guard gate, and Panama Coast International School is a few minutes away in Nueva Gorgona.