24 de Diciembre

About 24 de Diciembre:

24 de Diciembre covers about 80 square kilometres beyond Tocumen, which wraps around its western and southern sides from Cabuya to La Siesta. Pacora lies to the east past Los Lotes, and San Martín to the north-east. Avenida Domingo Díaz turns into the Panamericana as it crosses the corregimiento, and Metro Line 2 runs above it on a viaduct to its terminus at Nuevo Tocumen, where the line also keeps its yards and workshops. A two-kilometre extension east to Felipillo is planned, using a junction already built into that viaduct, but no date has been set. The road to Cerro Azul leaves the highway and climbs some 15 kilometres, from under 100 metres to more than 700.

Before it had a name of its own, this was farmland known as El Realengo. On 24 December 1978 a group of families led by Antonio Pinto moved onto the land and began dividing it into house lots, and the new community took the date as its name. Many of the first settlers came from the central provinces to find work in the city, and for years they walked long paths to fetch drinking water. As the barriadas multiplied, some four hundred community leaders drew a map of sectors and boundaries and gathered thousands of signatures to separate from Pacora, which Ley 13 of 6 February 2002 granted. Today the corregimiento takes in Barriada 24 de Diciembre, Rubén Darío Paredes, Santa María de los Ángeles, Vista Hermosa, Monte Rico, San Pedro, Pradera Azul, Nueva Esperanza, Felipillo, Nuevo Tocumen, Altos del Ángel, Los Cántaros and, up in the hills, Cerro Azul.

Most working residents commute west into the city each day, which is why the two stations here are so busy. Closer to home, Parque Industrial Las Américas in Felipillo holds a free zone and rows of galeras a short drive from Tocumen airport. Schools are everywhere, from the Centro Básico General 24 de Diciembre to the Instituto Profesional y Técnico Jeptha B. Duncan and the night school in Felipillo, and there is a Machetazo store close to Pradera Azul. The biggest change on the horizon is Botánika, a planned 316-hectare development in Nuevo Tocumen that sells serviced land to builders for housing laid out around parks, lakes and commercial areas, with the river corridors and gallery forest kept as green space.

The lowland part is flat to gently rolling and cut by creeks running south towards the bay; in June 2023 heavy rain pushed a river out of its bed in Nueva Esperanza el Bajo. Water supply is the other thing people watch, because when IDAAN works on the 24-inch main near Rubén Darío Paredes, taps go dry across Tocumen and 24 de Diciembre alike. Cerro Azul is another world. Cooler air is the whole reason people buy up there, and towards Cerro Jefe, the highest point in Panamá province, the forest above 800 metres turns to cloud forest with fog and strong wind. On the flat, buyers are mostly Panamanian families after a first house; in Cerro Azul they are city families wanting a weekend escape and full-time residents, North Americans and Europeans among them.

Houses in 24 de Diciembre:

On the flat, the house is the product. In older sectors such as Nuevo Tocumen you find rows of one-storey houses with two bedrooms and one bathroom on lots of 170 to 200 square metres, most of them fenced or extended over the years. Pradera Azul is the newer layer: gated communities under propiedad horizontal, such as PH Vallejo, PH Palermo and PH Monte Bello, with three-bedroom houses behind a guardhouse on lots of around 200 square metres. There you own your lot and house, but you also pay a monthly maintenance fee and live by the PH reglamento. Altos de Cerro Azul sells something else entirely: three- to five-bedroom mountain houses with terraces on lots of 1,000 to 2,000 square metres, some offered furnished. An older two-bedroom house in Nuevo Tocumen can cost a fraction of a new project home, so for any house for sale in 24 de Diciembre, compare what has been built with what is on the registered plan.

New Developments in 24 de Diciembre:

Two projects show where the flat part of the corregimiento is heading. PH Silvestre, one of the first residential projects inside Botánika in Nuevo Tocumen, sells two-storey houses of 144 square metres with three bedrooms, a study and two and a half bathrooms, with delivery expected in 2027. In Felipillo, across the road from Parque Industrial Las Américas, Residencial El Palmar is building 105 houses in two models, the single-storey Olivo and the two-storey Ceiba of about 124 square metres, each with its own minimum family income. Both are aimed at families buying with a mortgage. Ask the developer to confirm in writing whether your unit qualifies for the preferential interest rate before you plan around it.

Land and Lots in 24 de Diciembre:

Land comes in three forms. Altos de Cerro Azul was laid out in the 1980s on land that had been cleared, with serviced lots averaging around 2,000 square metres, and the flatter lots always cost more than those on steep ground, where building is harder. Resale lots of about 1,000 square metres change hands there, and parcels of several hectares in the surrounding hills do too. Down on the Panamericana, Botánika sells large serviced lots to developers, and in Felipillo industrial land of up to eight hectares is offered inside Parque Industrial Las Américas, about six kilometres from the airport. Anyone looking at lots in Cerro Azul should find out first what the park’s environmental rules allow them to clear and build.

Warehouses in 24 de Diciembre:

Parque Industrial Las Américas in Felipillo, with its free zone, is the corregimiento’s commercial property hub. Galeras of 500 square metres are let in grey-box condition, units of 1,000 square metres are sold, and the complex has round-the-clock security. The pitch is location: on the Panamericana, a few minutes from Tocumen airport. Check the power supply, the floor and the turning room for trucks before you sign.

Rentals in 24 de Diciembre:

Long-term rentals here mean houses. The typical one is a three-bedroom home inside a gated PH community in Pradera Azul, such as Palermo or Monte Bello, let to a family that works in the city and rides Line 2. In Altos de Cerro Azul, furnished mountain houses are rented by the month to people who want cooler air and can work from home over a fibre connection. Ask who pays the PH maintenance fee and how steady the water is before you sign the lease.

FAQ:

• Why do listings in Felipillo or Nuevo Tocumen say Pacora or Tocumen?

  Old habits. Until 2002 all of this was part of Pacora, and Nuevo Tocumen borrows its name from the neighbouring corregimiento, so projects such as Residencial El Palmar and Parque Industrial Las Américas are still marketed as Pacora. Ask for the finca number and check the corregimiento on the Registro Público record, because an older title may still show the pre-2002 division.

• Can I own a lot in Altos de Cerro Azul if it is inside a national park?

  Yes. The residential was set up under a 1986 agreement with the natural resources authority of the day after the land fell within Chagres National Park, created in 1984, and the Ministry of Environment recognises the owners’ property rights. What you can build is another matter: the park has its own environmental manual for owners, and construction permits and sanitary system plans go through it. Read it before you choose a lot.

• Is the road up to Cerro Azul reliable in the rainy season?

  Not always. Landslides have cut parts of the main road, the public works ministry has had to come back to repair them, and residents have pushed for a proper rebuild for years. Drive it yourself in October or November, not only in the dry season, before you commit to living at the top.

• Should I worry about flooding or water supply on the flat?

  Ask about both. A river burst its banks in Nueva Esperanza el Bajo in June 2023, so lots beside a creek deserve a close look after heavy rain. Supply cuts happen when the main near Rubén Darío Paredes is under repair, so check whether the house has a tank and pump.

• What should I check on a house in one of the older barriadas?

  The first sectors were lots handed out by the founding families in 1978, so make sure the house stands on a registered finca in the seller’s name, not on a possession right or an award letter that was never converted to title. Ask for a paz y salvo on property tax and utilities as well. Foreigners can buy on the same terms as Panamanians.