Greetings expats community.
The cost of any building depends on two main things.:
1. The size of the project: This is a fixed cost because it depends on the amount of building materials that are going to be needed. The bigger the house, the more materials you will need such as blocks, cement bags, rebar, beams, etc and the respective transportation to the site.
2. Finishes: Finishes such as floor tiles, ceiling, plumbing fixtures and so on, are things that depends on what the client wants and style of home that he is looking for. There are a lot of esthetic solutions and a whole range of prices depending on what and where do you buy. This is were you can balance the property cost and save some money.
To give you an approximate number, the price per square footage is going to be around 90 USD for a very nice finished house. Taking that as a starting point you can measure more or less how much money you can afford to have your dreamed house.
The price of building materials and finishes do increase from time to time but this is a pretty updated price from Jan. 2018.
I hope that I have answered your dou|bts.
Wish you a good day and all the best moving to Boquete!.
Architect Rommel H. Troetsch