El Chorrillo

About El Chorrillo:

El Chorrillo is one of the four barrios Panama City was divided into in 1915, together with San Felipe, Santa Ana and Calidonia. It sits on the bay at the foot of Cerro Ancón, and Avenida de los Mártires, the old Avenida 4 de Julio, marks its edge with Ancón along the line where the Canal Zone once began. Since 2014 the Cinta Costera 3 has run along its shore: the Avenida de los Poetas carries traffic past the barrio and joins Avenida Balboa over the marine viaduct that loops around the Casco Antiguo. The nearest Metro stop is 5 de Mayo on Line 1, just over the line in Calidonia, and city buses run between El Chorrillo and the 5 de Mayo stop.

The name comes from El Chorro, a stream off the slopes of Cerro Ancón that supplied the city with water before the Miraflores treatment plant was built. The first residents were Antillean workers who came to build the Canal, and the blocks between Calles 25 and 27 Oeste were laid out in lots and filled with wooden tenement houses. Once the Canal was finished the barrio stopped growing, and many of those houses aged into condemned buildings. The state answered with multifamiliares, most of all in the 1970s, when the ten towers at Barraza and the Patio Pinel blocks beside the Amador cemetery went up. In December 1989 the fighting around the military headquarters here destroyed at least 2,200 homes, most of them wooden, and the rebuilding that followed added 2,176 apartments in lower blocks, turned the old headquarters site into parks and housing and redrew several streets.

Football is the local passion. El Chorrillo is home to two first-division clubs, Plaza Amador and Chorrillo FC, and the 5,500-seat Estadio Maracaná on the Cinta Costera 3 reopened in April 2014 with a derby between them. Roberto Durán grew up in these streets, and the Antillean roots still show in the fried fish sold on street corners and at the Sabores de El Chorrillo food stalls on the waterfront. The Cinta Costera 3 gave the barrio a park along the water, with a skatepark, a beach volleyball court and the Paseo de los Guayacanes. Inland, the Amador cemetery, the foreigners’ cemetery and the Chinese cemetery hold more than a century of the city’s history.

El Chorrillo had 22,632 residents in 2000, 18,302 in 2010 and 16,335 in 2023, packed into one of the smallest corregimientos in the capital. Much of that housing has been repaired in recent years: a state programme renewed roofs, balconies, stairways, wiring and water pipes on 92 multifamiliares in two phases and then on eight more at Barraza in 2022. The housing ministry is also pulling down condemned caserones and building on their sites. Villa Olga in Barraza replaced two of them with 150 two-bedroom apartments of 48 square metres, and the second stage of Ave Fénix, 151 apartments in four five-level buildings, went out to tender in 2026. The market is a local one, made up of families who have lived here for generations and tenants who want to walk to work in the old city.

Apartments for Sale in El Chorrillo:

The resale market is almost entirely apartments in public-built blocks, either the 1970s towers at Barraza or the four- and five-storey buildings put up after 1990. Units are compact, and the two-bedroom layout of the newer state buildings, at 48 square metres, is a fair guide to what to expect. With apartments for sale in El Chorrillo, the building matters more than the unit: ask whether it was part of the recent roof, wiring and plumbing works, and walk the stairs and common areas yourself. Find out whether the building is incorporated under propiedad horizontal, whether the junta de propietarios meets, and what the cuota de mantenimiento pays for, because upkeep in these blocks depends on the owners. Never assume a parking space or storage unit comes with the apartment; if one is offered, check whether it has its own finca or is only assigned.

Apartments for Rent in El Chorrillo:

Long-term rentals are mostly two-bedroom apartments in the multifamiliares, Barraza included, let at rents well below the old city next door. Tenants come for the location: the Casco Antiguo, the Avenida Central shops and the Cinta Costera are all on foot, and the bus to 5 de Mayo connects with the Metro. Upper floors stay drier, because several streets in Barraza and the lower part of the barrio flood in heavy rain and ground-floor units take the water. Before you pay a deposit, make sure the person renting the unit holds its title, since some ministry-built apartments are let to their occupants at social rents rather than owned by them.

FAQ:

• A listing says “Casco Viejo, El Chorrillo”. Which is it?

  Check the address on the title, not the ad. The Casco Viejo name gets stretched, and units in San Felipe or Santa Ana often turn up advertised under El Chorrillo. San Felipe falls under heritage rules and sells at very different prices, so the corregimiento recorded for the finca at the Registro Público is what you should compare.

• Does El Chorrillo flood?

  Parts of it do. When it rains hard, streets in Barraza and the lower blocks fill with water and some ground floors are affected. Ask the neighbours how the building fared in the last storm, prefer an upper floor, and check that the drains around the entrance are clear.

• What should I check before buying an apartment in a multifamiliar here?

  Start with ownership: confirm at the Registro Público that the seller holds the title, that there are no liens, and whether the unit was originally assigned by the housing ministry with conditions on resale. Then confirm who lives in it, because a family paying the ministry a social rent is not an owner and cannot sell. Finally, look at the building: roof, wiring, water supply and whether a functioning junta de propietarios collects the cuota.

• Can I apply for one of the ministry’s new apartments?

  Only through the ministry, not on the open market. Villa Olga and Ave Fénix were built for families from condemned houses and shelters in El Chorrillo, and for earlier projects in the area current residents had priority, followed by people with no home or land of their own. If you think you qualify, the application goes through the housing ministry, not through a seller.

• Can a foreigner buy property in El Chorrillo?

  Yes. Foreign buyers have the same ownership rights as Panamanians, in their own name or through a company, and the title is registered at the Registro Público. The resale conditions of a former public unit and the rules of the building’s PH apply to every owner alike.