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Despite concerns of widespread defaults, only 11 buyers have walked away from their purchases in the Trump Ocean Club in Panama, the project’s longtime sales director says.

A total of 870 condos have been sold in the 70-story, 1004-unit tower, which is set to open within a year, according to Jack Studnicky, who now serves as a consultant for the International Sales Group, the master broker on the project. About 95 buyers have registered to resell their units, but there hasn’t been the run of defections some feared, he says.

The Trump Ocean Club is seen as a bellwether for the Panama City condo market, as well as the region. The project, which licenses Trump’s name, tried to set a new high-end price range for condos, at a time when dozens of planned tower projects never got off the drawing board.

In the wake of the downturn, the project continues to sell units, including 69 in 2009 alone, Studnicky says.

“In the beginning it was a lot of speculators,” Studnicky said. “In the last 18 months since the crisis all the people tend to be buying second homes or primary homes.”

Some industry experts predicted many of those speculators might walk away from their units, despite a minimum 30 percent deposit. In Jan. 2009, the Fitch Ratings service downgraded its rating on the project’s bonds, citing the potential for “higher than expected default rates for existing buyers.”

But it hasn’t happened. In a report to bondholders last September, developer Newland International Properties said only eight buyers had defaulted. And despite widespread price drops in the region, Newland said it was discounting units only about 13 percent, with an average two-bedroom unit selling for $683,000 or $4,452 per square meter.

Recent buyers have been evenly split between the United States, Europe and Latin America, primarily from Venezuela and Colombia, says Studnicky, a 35-year veteran of real estate sales (His website can be found here.) Road shows last year to the U.K., Dubai and South Africa helped boost sales.

“There wasn’t the same mood as in the U.S.,” he said.

If Trump Ocean Club opens without too many defections, it could be one of the more successful licensing deals for Trump, who reportedly earns as much as $5 million to put his name on a project. Licensing deals in Baja and Florida dragged the Trump name into the middle of foreclosures and lawsuits, with developers unable to make good on the Trumponian promises.  

In Panama, the developers of the Trump project launched sales before the downturn and sold $220 million in bonds to finance construction. Instead of waiting out the economy, they’ve been able to build the tower, helping to allay fears.

The project expects to begin closing on sales by the end of the year, says Studnicky, who has been regularly communicating with buyers to keep them informed of progress.

“Our buyers are pretty happy,” Studnicky said. “They saw what happened in Miami [where many towers were never built or remain empty]."