Gross yield, net yield, and everything in between — with conservative assumptions and real operating costs.
When you evaluate a short-term rental investment, two numbers matter: gross yield and net yield. They're different, they're both real, and understanding the difference is what separates an informed decision from an unpleasant year-end surprise.
In Panama City, operating short-term rentals in a residential building without an ATP permit can bring fines of up to $50,000 under Law 80 of 2012. Generation Tower operates under a licensed condo-hotel regime — registered paper, not a verbal assurance. Combined with its Costa del Este location minutes from the corporate corridor and hospital cluster, the guest profile is the corporate traveler whose company pays the bill.
We built this on deliberately conservative assumptions, not the brochure's best-case scenario: $145/night average daily rate, 62% occupancy (226 nights booked), for gross income of $32,770 a year.
That net figure already absorbs management (20%), HOA fees, booking-platform commissions, local rental tax and reserves — this is the number that actually lands in your account, not the one on the sales sheet. Add a conservative 4–5% in annual capital appreciation on top of that yield, and the total return approaches 8.5% a year — in dollars, with no currency risk, and fully licensed to operate.
3.5% net yield sounds modest until you remember it's in dollars, on a licensed asset, with appreciation stacked on top. Compare it to what a treasury bond pays back home, and the math starts making a different kind of sense.
Active, in hand, verifiable at the registry — not a verbal assurance from whoever's selling the unit.
Reserve fund health and the full co-ownership regulation, since a licensed permit doesn't fix a poorly run building.
Which units are actually left, and who's been running the STR program so far.
Ask us for the personalized model built around your own numbers, not the base case above.
This post walks through gross vs. net yield with real operating costs and scenario ranges for a licensed STR unit in Costa del Este — see the full model rather than a single headline number.
Yes — it's a licensed condo-hotel with an active ATP permit; see our project page for full specs.