By RICHARD HOLLEDGE
It is a 90-minute drive from Panama City to the burgeoning resort town of San Carlos where, at the end of a bumpy road, a set of gates suddenly swing open to reveal a small seaside villa with painted terra-cotta walls decorated with ship’s wheels and other nautical paraphernalia. The owner, John Bamber, modestly describes it as his beach house, but the villa is much larger than it first appears. There are actually two houses nestled on 12 acres, high above the garden paths that lead down to the Pacific Ocean. The villa is a shrine to maritime life — not surprising given that Mr. Bamber is the chief executive of the shipping firm Wilford& McKay, which handles 25 percent of the 16,000 ships that pass through the Panama Canal every year.
Following the global real estate downturn, prices in San Carlos and Panama City have fallen in recent months. "The flipping game is long gone over here," said Jesse Levin, the owner of Archer Group Investments, a real estate consulting firm in Panama. "There are 30,000 apartments for sale in the city with no one to buy them unless they are prepared to wait and play a long game"....