Albrook

About Albrook:

Albrook is the old air base on the east side of Avenida Omar Torrijos Herrera, across the road from Diablo, where the Corredor Norte comes down into the city. There is no signed boundary. In everyday use the name covers the Albrook roundabout and the bus terminal, the mall, the airport, and the residential streets that spread away from all of that toward the forest of the Metropolitan Natural Park, Llanos de Curundú and Clayton. Agents stretch it further still, and a new house near Clayton may be sold as “Clayton/Albrook”, so read the address on the plano rather than the headline of the advert.

The site began in 1922 as the Balboa Fill Landing Field, on ground built up during the Canal works, and in 1924 it was renamed Albrook Field after First Lieutenant Frank P. Albrook, who died in an accident that September. The Air Corps Act of 1926 authorised a proper airfield on the Pacific side, the Army chose this one, and between 1930 and 1932 it finished the barracks and the married quarters: four field officers’ houses, 32 company officers’ quarters and 31 homes for non-commissioned officers. They all shared one look, with concrete stucco walls and tiled gable-on-hip roofs. The station passed to Panama in the late 1990s, and the airport, the mall and the terminal now take up much of the old base. That stucco-and-tile style is what agents mean when they call an Albrook house colonial.

Daily life runs on the transport links. The Gran Terminal Nacional de Transporte works around the clock with buses on more than twenty routes across the country, Metro Line 1 starts beside it and runs north to Villa Zaita, and the terminus of the Line 3 monorail to Panamá Oeste is being built here, though that line is not yet in service. Albrook Mall has more than 700 shops, three food courts, a cinema and a bowling alley, and the state broadcaster SERTV has its headquarters by the metro station. Step off the main roads and the tone changes. Colegio Saint Mary and the Russian Embassy share Calle San Petersburgo, and Instituto Atenea sits on Avenida Santos Jorge.

The price of that convenience is traffic. The Corredor Norte toll plaza at Albrook and the Albrook roundabout back up badly at rush hour, and the eastern interchange of the Fourth Bridge over the Canal is being built here to tie the bridge into the Corredor Norte, Avenida de la Amistad and Avenida Omar Torrijos Herrera, so expect works and diversions for some time. Buyers are mostly families and professionals who want a gated complex with green around it and the metro close by; tenants add people working at the airport, the mall, the embassies and Ciudad del Saber. Apartments in PH complexes make up most of what changes hands. On price, Albrook apartments sit below the Embassy Club towers in Clayton and well below the bay-front towers, while houses in its gated groups belong with Llanos de Curundú in the upper band for Ancón.

Apartments for sale in Albrook:

Three complexes cover most of what a buyer will look at here. Albrook Park has two-bedroom units of 78 to 90 m² and the lowest fees. PH Pine Hills, on Avenida Santos Jorge opposite Instituto Atenea, has three-bedroom apartments of around 160 m² with open balconies, while Embassy Village, a gated complex at the end of a cul-de-sac, adds three pools, a gym, a tennis court, a generator, a water reserve and round-the-clock security, with three-bedroom units of 143 to 226 m² looking out over the Metropolitan Natural Park. Among apartments for sale in Albrook, those two sit in the middle of the range and Albrook Park at the entry level. Every one of these buildings is a propiedad horizontal: you buy the unit plus a share of the common areas, you pay a monthly cuota de mantenimiento, and the PH reglamento sets the rules on letting, pets and short stays. Parking spaces and the depósito may be separately titled or simply assigned to the unit, so find out which before you compare prices.

Apartments for rent in Albrook:

Rentals run from furnished studios of about 50 m², let with water, power and internet included, through two- and three-bedroom units in Albrook Park, Pine Hills and Embassy Village, up to large three-bedroom apartments of 250 m². Leases are long-term. Tenants are people who commute by metro or fly often from Gelabert, staff of the embassies, schools and companies nearby, and families who want Saint Mary or Atenea within reach. What sells apartments for rent in Albrook is the connection: the metro, the bus terminal and the Corredor Norte are minutes away, which few other addresses in Ancón can offer. Before signing, ask which parking space comes with the unit, whether the building allows pets, and whether the cuota is in the rent or on top of it.

Houses in Albrook:

Houses come in two kinds. Stand-alone homes sit on lots from 400 m² up, many with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and parking for three cars; the bigger ones run to three levels, five bedrooms and nearly 900 m² built, and now and then a lot of more than 1,000 m² carrying two houses comes up. The other kind is the closed residential group, such as Villa di Firenze: 99 houses on five streets, with a pool, a playground, its own water treatment plant and 24-hour security, where owners pay a cuota as in any PH. Many of the newer houses for sale in Albrook borrow the stucco walls and tile roofs of the old base. Before you offer, confirm whether the house is its own finca or a unit inside a PH, and that every extension appears on approved plans.

New developments in Albrook:

The current project is Albrook 9, a closed group of nine single-family homes on the Clayton side, each with three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms and around 258 m². It is priced above an ordinary resale house in Albrook, and what it sells is privacy, nine homes behind one gate, and new finishes. The bigger changes are public ones: the Fourth Bridge interchange and the Line 3 terminus both land in Albrook, and both will reshape traffic and access once they open. If you buy off-plan, get the construction permit, the delivery date and the penalty for delay written into the promise-of-sale contract, and find out which bank holds your deposit.

Frequently asked questions:

• Where exactly does Albrook begin and end?

  There is no official line. Albrook is the old air base east of Avenida Omar Torrijos Herrera, with Diablo across the avenue, the Corredor Norte and the bus terminal on one side, and the Metropolitan Natural Park, Llanos de Curundú and Clayton on the others. Adverts use the name loosely, so place the property by its plano and finca number, and check that the corregimiento on the title reads Ancón.

• What does the PH fee cover, and how much is it here?

  The cuota pays for security, cleaning, gardens, the generator and the shared amenities, and it rises with the size of the unit and the number of pools and courts. In Albrook it runs from a little over US$100 a month for a two-bedroom in Albrook Park to nearer US$280 for a three-bedroom in Embassy Village. Ask for the PH’s recent accounts and for a paz y salvo showing the seller owes the administration nothing.

• Does parking come with the apartment?

  In the larger complexes a three-bedroom unit often comes with two covered spaces and a depósito; smaller units may have one space. Check in the Registro Público whether the spaces are fincas of their own or only assigned in the reglamento, because that changes what you are paying for and what you can sell later.

• How bad is the traffic, and what will the new works change?

  The Corredor Norte toll plaza and the Albrook roundabout are the bottlenecks, worst in the morning and late-afternoon peaks. The Fourth Bridge interchange and the Line 3 terminus are both under construction here, so there will be diversions first; once open, the monorail will link Albrook with Panamá Oeste and the bridge will add a new crossing of the Canal. Drive the route from the complex you are considering at 7 a.m. and at 5 p.m. before you decide.

• Can a foreigner buy, and what should the title search cover in a reverted area?

  Yes, with the same rights as a Panamanian. Albrook is reverted Canal land, so every property traces back to a sale by the State after the handover; your lawyer should follow the chain of transfers from that first sale and search the Registro Público for liens and marginal notes. For an apartment, also confirm that the PH regime is registered and that the unit is up to date with its cuotas.