Casa 8-23: Apartments in Casco Antiguo from $190,000

Casa 8-23 is an 11-unit apartment building on Calle 11 Oeste, at the eastern tip of Casco Antiguo — the area closest to the point of the peninsula, next to the Arco Chato and Plaza de Francia. It's developed by Dekel and commercially managed by Makaya, with an active social media presence under the phrase "Vive la vida Casco en Casa 823" ("Live the Casco life at Casa 823").

Units are spread across three levels (ground floor, floor 100, and floor 200), ranging from 50 to 74 sqm, almost all 1 or 2 bedrooms. The flat rate across the building is $3,800 per sqm. The most affordable unit is apartment 804 (50 sqm, 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, $190,000); the most expensive is 809 (74 sqm, 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, $281,200).

Three units share the exact same size and price (63 sqm, 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, $239,400 each), and two more repeat a size and price (59 sqm, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, $224,200 each) — a repeated-model pattern typical of a building designed around a few floor plan types.

Plaza de Francia, a few steps away, honors the French workers who took part in the initial 19th-century attempt to build the Panama Canal, and the Arco Chato — ruins of the Santo Domingo convent — is one of the neighborhood's most photographed sites. Las Bóvedas, the old stone bastion turned seaside promenade, is also a short walk away.

Casco Antiguo was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. It's one of Panama's urban real estate markets with the least new supply available, given how limited the stock of restorable buildings is within the protected historic perimeter.

Panama grants specific tax incentives for restoring buildings within the Casco Antiguo perimeter, under Decreto Ley N°9 of 1997 (amended by Ley N°4 of 2002): restored properties are exempt from property tax for 30 years from the completion of the restoration, and capital gains from selling the property are also exempt from income tax — one of the most aggressive heritage-restoration incentive regimes in the region.

Any intervention within the protected perimeter goes through the Office for the Restoration and Enhancement of Casco Antiguo, created in 2000, which applies a Manual of Standards and Procedures (Executive Decree 51 of 2004) to control façades, heights, and materials — which explains why the neighborhood keeps an architectural coherence that's rare in Panama City, and why the stock of restorable buildings is so limited.

Casa 8-23 is part of a five-building portfolio Dekel manages in Casco Antiguo together with Makaya — including Barlové, on Plaza Herrera, and the La Moderna, Casa Bandera, and St. Georges buildings — plus Andrómeda, Blue Venao, and SANA on Playa Venao.

Living in Casco Antiguo means cobblestone pedestrian streets, car traffic limited by heritage-zone rules, and a walkable scale few Panama City neighborhoods offer: markets, pharmacies, cafés, and public transit stops to the rest of the city are all a few blocks away, with no need to rely on a car day to day.

Makaya's pricing document for this portfolio is titled "Sales & Rents" — confirming that, beyond sales, Makaya also manages rentals for these units, though the specific rental program (like the guaranteed 5% that does exist at Barlové) isn't detailed in this consolidated sheet; worth confirming directly with the broker at the time of inquiry.

Managing several restored buildings as one portfolio, instead of raising a single large tower, is the standard development model in Casco Antiguo: the size of historic lots and the height restrictions within the protected perimeter mean almost every new project is, by definition, small-unit-count.

For context: Barlové, this portfolio's sister building on Plaza Herrera, prices its apartments between $402,000 and $550,800 — a comparable range to this building, giving a sense of current per-square-meter pricing across different spots in Casco Antiguo.

Prices here are quoted per unit, not negotiated per offer, so buyers comparing across Dekel's Casco Antiguo portfolio should weigh floor, orientation, and finish level alongside the raw price-per-square-meter figure before deciding.

Availability and pricing are subject to confirmation with Makaya at the time of inquiry — this sheet doesn't indicate which, if any, units are already sold or reserved.