Summary
Mostly yes: buyers have the upper hand in Panama City today. Across the city, real sale prices close ~11% under asking and a typical apartment takes ~7 months to sell; Bella Vista gives buyers the most room, ~21%, while Costa del Este is still a seller's market, with prices up 8% in a year.
The city splits once you look neighborhood by neighborhood. Casco Viejo, Avenida Balboa, Punta Pacifica, Marbella, Bella Vista and Punta Paitilla favor buyers, Santa Maria and Costa del Este favor sellers, and the other 11 neighborhoods are balanced.
Most of the leverage sits in older districts full of resale flats. Punta Pacifica closes ~20% under asking and Punta Paitilla ~16%, and in both, as in Bella Vista, a flat takes ~9 months to sell.
The wider market explains why. Residential sales in Panama fell in the first half of 2026, according to ACOBIR figures reported by TVN. New-home sales had already fallen about 40% in 2025, and new mortgage lending shrank this year.
Foreign buyers push the other way. The same ACOBIR figures show purchases by foreigners up 17.7% over the same months. That helps the districts they know best hold their prices.
That is why asking prices barely move while deals close lower: sellers leave ambitious prices online and give ground only when a serious offer arrives.
New homes follow their own rules. Developers list at US$3,600-4,600 per square meter in the best districts, rarely cut those prices and offer payment plans instead, so the bargaining room of a resale tower often disappears in a new project.
Our Panama City buyer's-market table by neighborhood
This table gives our verdict for each of the 19 Panama City neighborhoods we track, with the figures behind it: asking price, real sale price, room to negotiate, price change and time to sell.
It also shows why the city cannot be reduced to one verdict, with clear buyer's markets, balanced neighborhoods and two places where sellers still have the upper hand.
If you want real answers from the field about a specific home or street, ask a pro in Panama City for free.
| Neighborhood |
Verdict our short answer |
Asking Price per sq ft iNeighborhood asking medians (PPG, Vaca Group, lakilé), small samples blended. |
Real Sale Price per sq ft iRegistry closings (Brax/lakilé) where published; otherwise asking × (1 − city gap ~11%), adjusted. |
Room to Negotiate real price below askingi(asking − real sale price) ÷ asking; city: PPG $1,948 vs MLS $1,726. |
Price Change last 12 months, resaleiDistrict MLS change softened for small samples, then adjusted by neighborhood demand; areas without data stay near the city (−2%). |
Time to Sell typical apartment iCity ~7 months; faster where prices rise and closings sit near asking, slower where the asking gap is wide. |
Why what drives the verdict here |
Data confidence iHigh: direct data for this neighborhood. Medium: one strong source, or several pointing the same way, with our own estimate. Low: few signals, an order of magnitude. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panama CityChecked Nov 2026 | Yes | 181 | 160 | ~11% | −2% | ~7 mo | Sales slowed, apartments take about 7 months to sell, and real prices close about 11% under asking. Only Costa del Este and Santa Maria still favor sellers. | High |
| Santa Maria | Seller's market | 297 | 274 | ~8% | +4% | ~5 mo | Real sale prices here rose about 4% in a year and close only ~8% under asking. Homes sell in about 5 months, faster than anywhere else in the city. | High |
| Casco Viejo | Yes | 358 | 311 | ~13% | −3% | ~9 mo | Real sales close about 13% under asking here, and homes take about 9 months to sell. Prices slipped this year, so offer low. Most buyers want a restored flat they can rent to tourists. | Medium |
| Amador | Balanced | 251 | 218 | ~13% | — | — | Real sales close about 13% under asking. Prices are roughly flat: causeway towers with sea views, but few resale homes. Most new supply here is towers sold off‑plan. | Medium |
| Costa del Este | Seller's market | 223 | 200 | ~10% | +8% | ~5 mo | Real sale prices here rose about 8% in a year and close only ~10% under asking. Homes sell in about 5 months, faster than anywhere else in the city. | High |
| Avenida Balboa | Yes | 223 | 190 | ~15% | −5% | ~9 mo | Real sales close about 15% under asking here, and homes take about 9 months to sell. Prices slipped this year, so offer low. Dozens of towers from the 2000s keep plenty of flats on sale. | Medium |
| Punta Pacifica | Yes | 218 | 175 | ~20% | +2% | ~9 mo | Real sales close about 20% under asking here, and homes take about 9 months to sell. Plenty of stock, so offer low. Many owners bought to rent and are now selling. | High |
| Clayton | Balanced | 195 | 175 | ~10% | Flat | ~6 mo | Real sales close about 10% under asking and homes sell in about 6 months. Prices are roughly flat: green former US base, low‑rise flats and houses. | Medium |
| Coco del Mar | Balanced | 186 | 165 | ~11% | +2% | ~7 mo | Real sales close about 11% under asking and homes sell in about 7 months. Prices are roughly flat: quiet seaside streets near Punta Pacifica. | Medium |
| El Cangrejo | Balanced | 186 | 165 | ~11% | −3% | ~6 mo | Real sales close about 11% under asking and homes sell in about 6 months. Prices are roughly flat: walkable, central and the expat favorite. Renters line up here, which keeps landlords busy. | High |
| Marbella | Yes | 190 | 163 | ~15% | −5% | ~8 mo | Real sales close about 15% under asking here, and homes take about 8 months to sell. Prices slipped this year, so offer low. Lots of stock, and many owners trying to sell at once. | Medium |
| Obarrio | Balanced | 181 | 162 | ~11% | −5% | ~7 mo | Real sales close about 11% under asking and homes sell in about 7 months. The banking district, with compact flats. Office workers keep small flats rented all year. | Medium |
| Albrook | Balanced | 177 | 158 | ~11% | −1% | ~6 mo | Real sales close about 11% under asking and homes sell in about 6 months. Prices are roughly flat: mid‑priced flats near the mall and bus terminal. | Medium |
| San Francisco | Balanced | 172 | 156 | ~9% | +3% | ~7 mo | Real sales close about 9% under asking and homes sell in about 7 months. Prices are roughly flat: a big mixed area of old and new towers. Old towers here are big and cheap; new ones are not. | Medium |
| Bella Vista | Yes | 195 | 153 | ~21% | −8% | ~9 mo | Real sales close about 21% under asking here, and homes take about 9 months to sell. Prices slipped this year, so offer low. Many older towers are for sale, so sellers compete. | High |
| Punta Paitilla | Yes | 177 | 149 | ~16% | −6% | ~9 mo | Real sales close about 16% under asking here, and homes take about 9 months to sell. Prices slipped this year, so offer low. Big older flats with sea views, often needing work. | Medium |
| El Carmen | Balanced | 163 | 144 | ~11% | −4% | ~7 mo | Real sales close about 11% under asking and homes sell in about 7 months. A small central area of older buildings on Vía España. Few foreigners look here, so prices stay local. | Medium |
| Betania | Balanced | 156 | 139 | ~11% | −2% | ~6 mo | Real sales close about 11% under asking and homes sell in about 6 months. Prices are roughly flat: a local middle‑class area of houses and low towers. | Medium |
| El Dorado | Balanced | 158 | 139 | ~12% | −2% | ~6 mo | Real sales close about 12% under asking and homes sell in about 6 months. Prices are roughly flat: a local area around the El Dorado mall. Buyers here are mostly local families, not investors. | Medium |
| Panama Viejo | Balanced | 153 | 135 | ~12% | −2% | ~7 mo | Real sales close about 12% under asking and homes sell in about 7 months. Prices are roughly flat: a cheaper local area near the old ruins. | Medium |
New homes are a different market: developers list at $3,600-4,600/m² in the best districts and rarely cut list prices; they offer payment plans instead. Mortgage rates are about 6.5%.
How we got these numbers. We checked 40 sources and 70 signals: ACOBIR's MLS (real closed sales, H1 2026), Registro Público closings via Brax, asking prices from Panama Property Guide and Vaca Group, press and agents. Neighborhoods without their own closing data are derived from their district and the city gap.
Source: TheLatinvestor property database, November 2026.
Ask an agent who knows
Panama City, for free.
They know how much room sellers usually leave.
Message a proIs it a buyer's market in Panama City now?
Yes. Buyers in Panama City have the upper hand overall right now: real sales close ~11% under asking, resale prices are down 2% in a year, and a typical apartment takes ~7 months to sell.
The wider market points the same way. In October 2026, TVN reported ACOBIR figures putting residential sales in Panama at US$695 million in the first half of the year, down 13% on a year earlier.
La Prensa had already reported that new-home sales fell from 4,737 units in 2024 to 2,866 in 2025.
Those figures cover more than our resale neighborhoods, but they match what buyers see in Panama City: fewer deals, and more time to negotiate each one.
The city still has two clear exceptions. In Costa del Este, real sale prices rose 8% in a year and homes sell in ~5 months. In Santa Maria, prices rose 4%, sellers give only ~8% off asking, and homes sell just as fast.
The contrast with the resale-heavy districts is sharp. Bella Vista closes ~21% under asking and its prices fell 8% in a year, the steepest drop in our table.
Punta Pacifica closes ~20% under asking, and Avenida Balboa and Marbella ~15% each.
Buyers who treat Panama City as one market miss where the leverage sits.
The balanced middle is wide, too. In all, 11 neighborhoods, from El Cangrejo to Panama Viejo, give buyers some room without forcing sellers' hands.
For a buyer, that means the neighborhood matters more than the citywide verdict: the same offer that works in Bella Vista would be turned down in Costa del Este.
Are Panama City sellers cutting asking prices yet?
Not much. In Panama City, sellers are holding on to their asking prices, and buyers get the discount at the closing table instead.
Across the city, the typical asking price is US$181 per square foot and the real sale price US$160, the gap behind the room to negotiate in our table. That gap reaches its widest in Bella Vista and is only a little narrower in Punta Pacifica.
That is why listing portals still look expensive even when completed deals favor buyers.
Our asking prices, drawn from Panama Property Guide and Vaca Group listings, sit well above the closings that ACOBIR's MLS records. No asking-price index for Panama City showing a broad wave of cuts has been published as of now, so the adjustment is happening in closings, not in listings.
With fewer deals happening, a seller can leave a high price online for months and give ground only when a serious buyer appears.
Owners also have room to wait. Many Panama City flats are owned by investors or have been held for years, especially in the older high-rise districts, and the market has not produced the forced selling that would make every owner reset a listing.
The cut stays hidden until a deal closes.
Residents often ask why so many flats look empty while prices do not fall. Part of the answer is here: an empty flat with a stubborn asking price is not a cheap flat, it is an owner who has not yet met a buyer.
Costa del Este and Santa Maria show the other side. Costa del Este closes ~10% under asking and Santa Maria ~8%, both tighter than the city as a whole, because their sellers have seen prices rise and homes sell fast.
In most resale buildings, a buyer should read the asking price as the start of the conversation, not as a forecast of where the deal will close.
Where do buyers have the most negotiating power in Panama City?
In Bella Vista. Bella Vista gives buyers the strongest hand in Panama City today, with the widest gap between asking and real sale prices in our table and the steepest price drop.
Punta Pacifica is close behind on bargaining room, while Punta Paitilla offers ~16%, and Avenida Balboa and Marbella sit a little lower.
These are established central or waterfront districts full of resale flats, so a seller competes with other owners in the same building, in the next tower and in several nearby neighborhoods.
The age of the buildings adds pressure. Avenida Balboa has dozens of towers from the 2000s, Punta Paitilla has big older flats that often need work, and Bella Vista mixes buildings from very different decades.
A buyer comparing renovation costs, monthly fees and building condition can move on quickly when one owner will not negotiate.
Credit is helping sellers less than before. La Prensa reported in July 2026 that new mortgage disbursements fell 19.9% between January and May. Mortgage rates around 6.5% keep borrowing costly, and fewer financed buyers make it harder for a crowded resale market to clear.
Cash buyers, meanwhile, can wait and compare several units at once.
In Punta Pacifica, many owners bought to rent and are now selling, which adds supply to an already deep market. Listing counts and price cuts by neighborhood have not been published by any portal or study as of now, so the clearest dated evidence remains the gap at closing.
Selling times tell the same story: these five districts are among the slowest to sell in our table.
Why are so many Panama City apartments still sitting on the market?
Because Panama City has plenty of apartments for sale and plenty of owners willing to wait. Buyers get choice and room to negotiate, but they are not facing a city full of desperate sellers.
The slowest neighborhoods make that plain. Avenida Balboa, Punta Pacifica, Bella Vista, Punta Paitilla and Casco Viejo each take ~9 months to sell in our data, the longest in our table.
Casco Viejo also closes well under asking, so time on the market turns into a discount even where prices trend differently from one district to the next.
Weaker financing slows things further. With new mortgage lending down this year, fewer buyers arrive with a loan approved, and more listings compete for each serious one, especially in buildings where several similar flats are for sale at once.
Foreign demand keeps the slowdown from turning into a sell-off. Foreign purchases rose even while total residential sales fell, according to ACOBIR's first-half figures.
International buyers matter most in the waterfront and historic districts, where owners can keep marketing to people who do not depend on local mortgages.
The result is the odd market buyers see today. Many flats stay visible for months, asking prices stay stubborn, and the real concession appears only when an owner finally accepts an offer.
The waits are shorter in the local middle-class areas, such as Betania and El Dorado, where buyers are mostly local families rather than investors.
A long listing gives the buyer leverage, but it does not mean every seller has to sell quickly. Many owners can rent the flat out while they wait, which removes the pressure that would otherwise force a price cut.
The table below shows the slowest districts next to the fastest, from the longest wait to the shortest.
| Neighborhood | Time to sell (typical apartment) | Price change (last 12 months, resale) | Our verdict (buyer's market?) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Punta Paitilla | ~9 months | −6% | Yes |
| Bella Vista | ~9 months | −8% | Yes |
| Avenida Balboa | ~9 months | −5% | Yes |
| Punta Pacifica | ~9 months | +2% | Yes |
| Casco Viejo | ~9 months | −3% | Yes |
| Marbella | ~8 months | −5% | Yes |
| Betania | ~6 months | −2% | Balanced |
| El Dorado | ~6 months | −2% | Balanced |
| Costa del Este | ~5 months | +8% | Seller's market |
| Santa Maria | ~5 months | +4% | Seller's market |
Ask an agent who knows
Panama City, for free.
They know what similar homes really sold for.
Message a pro
Are Costa del Este and Santa Maria still seller's markets in Panama City?
Yes. Costa del Este and Santa Maria are the two Panama City neighborhoods where sellers still have the clear advantage today.
Costa del Este has a real sale price of US$200 per square foot, closes ~10% under asking, rose 8% over the last 12 months and sells in ~5 months, the fastest in our table. Santa Maria, at US$274 per square foot, gives buyers the least room in our table, ~8%, after a 4% rise.
Both rest on ACOBIR's MLS closings for the first half of the year. No newer MLS or Registro Público figure for either district has been published as of now.
Higher-income and foreign demand concentrate in these two districts. Buyers looking for newer premium towers, gated communities and high-end amenities have fewer close substitutes than buyers looking at older central flats.
Costa del Este combines residential towers, offices, schools and new infrastructure in one planned district. Santa Maria offers gated golf-course living that is hard to find anywhere else in the city.
A buyer who wants those features faces a small pool of alternatives, and sellers know it.
That changes the negotiation completely. A strategy that works in Bella Vista or Punta Pacifica, opening far below asking and waiting, is likely to lose the flat in Santa Maria, where sellers concede little and homes move fast.
Families and companies also sign yearly leases in both districts, so owners who do not sell quickly can rent comfortably while they wait.
For a buyer set on either neighborhood, the room to negotiate is small: the gain comes from choosing the right building and unit, not from the discount.
Is Punta Pacifica a buyer's market even with prices going up?
Yes. Punta Pacifica still gives buyers strong leverage: real sale prices rose 2% in a year, but deals close ~20% under asking and a typical flat takes many months to sell.
That mix makes sense once the closing price is separated from the seller's opening price. Punta Pacifica has a dense cluster of upscale towers and many flats bought by investors.
A good flat can still close higher than last year while owners compete hard enough that buyers pay well under asking.
Many of those investors bought to rent and are now selling, which keeps the supply of resale flats deep.
Nearby alternatives make the competition tougher. Coco del Mar is balanced at a real sale price of US$165 per square foot with ~11% room to negotiate, and San Francisco is balanced at US$156 with ~9% room.
Buyers who want this side of the city can compare several neighborhoods without giving up the location.
Foreign demand keeps Punta Pacifica from weakening in a straight line. It is one of the high-rise districts overseas buyers know best, and foreign purchases rose 17.7% in the first half of 2026.
The tourism authority also reported international visitors up 18.9% from January to August 2026. That keeps a growing pool of potential foreign buyers coming through the city.
So Punta Pacifica can have rising closing prices and still favor buyers in each negotiation. The gap at closing and the long selling time say more about making an offer there today than the price change alone.
Is Bella Vista the easiest place in Panama City to negotiate a discount?
By our figures, yes. Bella Vista has the widest negotiating gap in Panama City, ~21%, real sale prices down 8% in a year and some of the longest selling times in the city.
Bella Vista gives buyers plenty to compare. It mixes older apartment buildings and towers from different decades, so flats that look alike on a map can differ sharply in renovation, building upkeep and monthly fees.
An owner selling an older unit competes with better-renovated flats nearby and with newer buildings just outside the neighborhood.
The national slowdown adds pressure. With residential sales down in the first half of 2026 and new mortgage lending weaker, fewer financed buyers leave sellers competing harder for each serious offer.
Many older towers are for sale at once, so sellers compete with each other inside the same few blocks.
Bella Vista also sits beside several alternatives. Marbella favors buyers too, with ~15% room and a real sale price of US$163 per square foot. Avenida Balboa, along the bay, is also a buyer's market at US$190 per square foot.
El Cangrejo, next door, is balanced at US$165 per square foot and sells faster, in ~6 months.
A buyer who can walk away from one flat in Bella Vista has three neighborhoods within a few minutes' walk to fall back on, which is the real source of the leverage.
Obarrio and El Carmen, a short walk away, are balanced rather than buyer's markets, so a buyer priced out of Bella Vista's best towers has no bargain waiting next door either.
The flip side is resale: a flat bought cheaply here will face the same competition when its owner sells.
The table below shows Bella Vista next to the five neighborhoods a buyer there can fall back on.
| Neighborhood | Asking price (per sq ft) | Real sale price (per sq ft) | Time to sell (typical apartment) | Our verdict (buyer's market?) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bella Vista | US$195 | US$153 | ~9 months | Yes |
| Avenida Balboa | US$223 | US$190 | ~9 months | Yes |
| Marbella | US$190 | US$163 | ~8 months | Yes |
| El Cangrejo | US$186 | US$165 | ~6 months | Balanced |
| Obarrio | US$181 | US$162 | ~7 months | Balanced |
| El Carmen | US$163 | US$144 | ~7 months | Balanced |
Do Panama City buyers get a better deal on resale than on new construction?
Usually, yes. In Panama City, a resale buyer negotiates with one owner, while developers defend their list price and sweeten the payment terms instead.
Our resale figures make the bargaining room visible. Across the city, real sales close well under asking, and in the buyer-heavy districts the gap is the widest in our table. An individual seller can simply accept a lower number when a serious buyer appears.
Developers work differently. They list at US$3,600-4,600 per square meter in the best districts and rarely cut those prices; they offer payment plans instead.
La Prensa reported 1,292 new homes sold in the first quarter of 2026 after the 2025 slump, as the sector tried to restart sales.
The government added support through the preferential-interest system, relief from the transfer tax on qualifying first homes and a down-payment subsidy for lower-priced housing.
Those measures let developers make a purchase easier without cutting the public price. A project can stretch the payment schedule, absorb part of a cost or lean on a subsidy while its published price stays intact.
A buyer can therefore walk into two buildings a few blocks apart and face very different negotiations. The resale owner may care most about closing after months on the market; the developer cares more about protecting the project's price history.
The useful comparison is the total cash paid and when, not the sticker price. A resale discount shows in the closing price; a developer's concession hides in the timing or structure of the payments.
Ask an agent who knows
Panama City, for free.
They see every week how prices and deals move.
Message a proHas the housing rebound ended the buyer's market in Panama City?
No. The rebound has lifted activity in parts of Panama's housing market, but buyers still hold the upper hand in the big Panama City resale districts.
The recovery is clearest in new homes. La Prensa reported 1,292 units sold in the first quarter of 2026: a partial rebound after 2,866 in 2025. Meanwhile the government added support for buyers during the year.
A 2026 YouTube market update even asked whether a new bull market was starting.
The wider sales picture stayed weaker. TVN's ACOBIR figures show residential sales down in the first half of 2026: sales of homes up to US$120,000 down 28.3% and pricier homes down 6.2%.
Whether the new-home rebound held in late 2026 is not yet known: no new-home sales figure for the second half of the year has been published as of now.
Our neighborhood figures still look buyer-friendly where resale stock is deepest. Avenida Balboa is down 5% in a year and Punta Paitilla 6%, and neither sells quickly.
A rebound can lift activity before it clears the stock already waiting for buyers, so stronger new-home sales do not shorten the selling time of an older flat in Bella Vista or Punta Paitilla.
Whether a new bull market is starting, our resale data says not yet: closing gaps and selling times have not narrowed in the districts with the most flats for sale.
The recovery also explains why prices are not falling everywhere. Costa del Este and Santa Maria are up, and San Francisco rose 3%.
The table below shows the outside indicators behind that mixed picture, with their period and source.
| Indicator | Period | Figure | Direction | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential sales | H1 2026 | US$695 million | Down 13% | ACOBIR via TVN |
| Homes up to US$120,000 | H1 2026 | Sales | Down 28.3% | ACOBIR via TVN |
| Homes above US$120,000 | H1 2026 | Sales | Down 6.2% | ACOBIR via TVN |
| Foreign purchases | H1 2026 | Purchases | Up 17.7% | ACOBIR via TVN |
| New-home sales | Q1 2026 | 1,292 units | Partial rebound | La Prensa |
| New mortgage loans | Jan-May 2026 | Disbursements | Down 19.9% | La Prensa |
| International visitors | Jan-Aug 2026 | Arrivals | Up 18.9% | Tourism authority |
Are foreign buyers keeping Panama City prices from falling further?
Yes, especially in the Panama City neighborhoods that overseas buyers already know well. Foreign demand is one of the clearest reasons prices have held up better than sales volumes in several premium areas.
La Estrella described the first half of 2026 as a market where weaker local demand sat alongside stronger international investment, with sales of social and middle-class housing down sharply by June.
Casco Viejo has the highest real sale price in our data, US$311 per square foot, even as it favors buyers, with real room to negotiate and a long wait to sell. Punta Pacifica's prices rose despite its wide negotiating gap, and Costa del Este remains a seller's market.
Each district draws a different buyer, but all three benefit from demand less tied to local salaries and local mortgage approval.
Tourism keeps feeding that audience. Panama received 3,004,266 international visitors in 2025, according to the tourism authority, and Casco Viejo, Punta Pacifica and Avenida Balboa are among the parts of the city those visitors see most.
Foreign demand is still selective. Bella Vista fell 8% in a year, and Marbella and Avenida Balboa 5% each, so overseas buyers are not absorbing every older flat at the price sellers want.
The neighborhoods where foreigners buy most are also where sellers price most ambitiously, which is why the gap between asking and closing stays wide in Punta Pacifica even as prices rise.
For a buyer, foreign demand is a reason to expect less room in the districts it favors, not a reason to pay the asking price anywhere.
Is Casco Viejo a buyer's market even though it is Panama City's priciest neighborhood?
Yes. Casco Viejo has the highest asking and real sale prices in our Panama City data, yet buyers still get ~13% room to negotiate and a typical property sits on the market for months.
Casco Viejo is expensive because its historic buildings are scarce and unusual, but that does not make every listing easy to sell. Restored flats, unrestored buildings and properties suited to tourist rentals differ sharply in condition and legal use.
Buyers have reason to be choosy even where the neighborhood carries a premium.
Tourism supports sellers. Casco Viejo is the city's most visited tourist district, and most buyers there want a restored flat they can rent to tourists, so well-restored properties in the right building draw buyers from well beyond the local market.
The selling time still shows that buyers can wait. Casco Viejo is among the slowest neighborhoods in our table, and its prices slipped 3% this year, so it can stay expensive while giving a buyer time to compare and negotiate.
The useful question is whether a specific building and renovation justify the premium within Casco Viejo itself. The neighborhood's high prices do not remove the bargaining room visible in completed sales.
That makes the choice of property unusually important here. Two flats on nearby streets can attract very different buyers once restoration quality and permitted use come into play, even inside the same expensive historic district.
A flat with a tourism permit for its building, a careful restoration and a terrace will hold its value; one without those can sit on the market well past the neighborhood's typical selling time.
Could Panama City turn back into a seller's market soon?
Not citywide yet. Panama City has enough demand to keep the market from looking weak everywhere, but seller strength is still limited to Costa del Este and Santa Maria.
Foreign demand is the clearest support, with purchases by foreigners rising in the first half of the year. Tourism keeps growing too. Both give the districts foreigners know a deeper pool of buyers.
Housing policy helps too. The preferential-interest regime was stabilized for this year, and the government added transfer-tax relief and a down-payment subsidy for qualifying new homes. MIVIOT, the housing ministry, said those measures aim to restart construction and home buying.
But the buyer-heavy districts have not tightened. Bella Vista and Punta Pacifica still have the widest gaps at closing, Punta Paitilla, Avenida Balboa and Marbella are not far behind, and all five are among the slowest to sell in our table.
The balanced neighborhoods sit between those extremes. El Cangrejo gives buyers modest room and sells in ~6 months, San Francisco closes ~9% under asking, and Clayton ~10% with a similar selling time.
If those middle neighborhoods start selling faster and their gaps narrow, the balance will be shifting.
INEC's quarterly building census for Panama and San Miguelito still shows construction under way. More new supply would keep buyers well served; faster sales of both new and resale homes would push bargaining power back toward sellers.
Interest rates matter as well. With mortgages around 6.5%, local buyers who need a loan stay cautious, and a cut in rates would bring them back faster than any tax measure.
For now, Panama City looks like a selective recovery inside a market that still favors buyers in most resale neighborhoods.
So, is it a buyer's market in Panama City now?
Yes. Panama City is a buyer's market overall today: across the city, real sales close well under asking, resale prices slipped 2% in a year, and a typical apartment takes months to sell.
The strongest buyer's markets are Bella Vista, Punta Pacifica, Punta Paitilla, Avenida Balboa, Marbella and Casco Viejo. Bella Vista has the widest negotiating gap and the steepest drop in prices; Punta Pacifica gives buyers almost as much room even with prices rising.
Costa del Este and Santa Maria stop the answer from being universal. Both saw prices rise, both sell faster than anywhere else in the city, and both give buyers little room. A buyer faces much stronger sellers there than in the older resale districts.
The broader numbers explain why both stories hold at once. Residential sales fell in the first half of 2026 while foreign purchases rose, new-home sales dropped sharply in 2025 before a partial rebound early this year, and new mortgage lending was weaker.
That mix leaves many resale owners waiting for the right buyer instead of cutting their asking price. The closing price does the adjusting, and the gap between asking and real sale prices is the clearest evidence of the buyer's advantage.
New construction remains a separate negotiation. Developers use payment plans, tax measures and housing incentives to revive sales while protecting their list prices, so the leverage of an older resale tower may vanish in a new project next door.
Our figures are firmest where our confidence is high, as in Bella Vista, Punta Pacifica, El Cangrejo, Costa del Este and Santa Maria; for the other neighborhoods, they are estimates built from the district and the citywide gap.
What to watch: whether the new-home rebound held in the second half of the year, whether foreign purchases keep rising, and whether the balanced middle, from El Cangrejo to San Francisco, starts selling faster. If it does, sellers will be taking back control.
Where it differs is mostly about the age of the stock. The older the towers and the more flats for sale in the same few blocks, the more room a buyer has; the newer, gated or planned the district, the less. Price rises alone do not decide it, as Punta Pacifica shows.
For now, buyers still hold the better hand across much of Panama City, as long as they focus on the neighborhoods where competing listings and long selling times give them room to use it.
Our methodology
Our data runs through November 2026. For 19 Panama City neighborhoods and the city as a whole, we track asking prices, real sale prices, the gap between them, resale price changes over 12 months, typical selling times and our verdict on who holds the upper hand. Prices are in US dollars per square foot.
We checked 45 websites and 186 signals: ACOBIR's MLS for real closed sales in the first half of 2026, Registro Público closings via Brax, asking prices from Panama Property Guide and Vaca Group, plus press and agents. Neighborhoods without their own closing data are derived from their district and the citywide gap. Figures marked "~" are our estimates.
High confidence means strong sources agree or we have direct closing evidence. Medium means one strong source, or several pointing the same way, with our neighborhood estimate built from the Panama City figure and the evidence for that area. Cells we could not estimate well are left empty.
We keep square feet throughout, the unit of most of our sources, rather than build a second set of converted, rounded prices. The new-home list prices quoted per square meter are the developers' own unit.
Panama City has no single public feed giving every neighborhood's closing price, listing history and days on market. We combine real closings, MLS records, asking prices and repeated market observations, and when sources disagree we give the most weight to completed sales.
The obvious objection is that a neighborhood with rising prices can still be called a buyer's market. Our verdict weighs closing prices, room to negotiate and selling time together; Punta Pacifica is the clearest case, where prices rose while deals still close far under asking and flats take months to sell.
Key sources used for this analysis include ACOBIR 2026 primary and secondary real-estate market reports, including MLS secondary-market data, New-home sales fell sharply in 2025 and reached 1,292 units in the first quarter of 2026, ACOBIR figures for first-half 2026 residential sales and foreign purchases, First-half 2026 split between weaker local housing purchases and stronger foreign investment, New mortgage disbursements fell 19.9% between January and May 2026, MIVIOT explanation of the preferential-interest regime used in 2026, Law 481 terms governing preferential mortgage interest from January 2026, Regulation of the preferential-interest subsidy system, Housing incentives and construction-reactivation measures, Down-payment subsidy and tax relief intended to support new-home sales, Effect of the transfer tax on new-home demand before later relief, INEC first-quarter 2026 construction census for Panama, San Miguelito and other districts, Panama Tourism Authority report showing international visitors up 18.9% from January through August 2026, Panama Tourism Authority first-half 2026 visitor data and Panama Tourism Authority 2025 full-year visitor total.
Spotted an error? Tell us, we fix it within days.