Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Panama City
SUMMARY
Are property prices in Panama City likely to rise? Yes. Panama City prices are more likely to rise than fall over the next few years, but the strongest case is in scarce, rentable resale apartments rather than the whole city.
The current market is already moving higher in several important neighborhoods. Bella Vista, San Francisco, Juan Díaz and Ancón all showed strong year-over-year asking-price gains, while Betania was almost flat and Casco Viejo moved lower.
The most important support is supply. Developer inventory is around a nine-year low, while published resale inventory has fallen by roughly 30% to almost 60% across several neighborhoods that investors actually target.
Rents are helping prices rather than fighting them. Apartment asking rents rose about 13.5% year over year, and citywide gross rental yields still sit around the 7% to 8% range for many common apartment types.
The resale market also has an unusual advantage over new construction. In Punta Pacifica, San Francisco and El Cangrejo, preconstruction pricing can sit roughly 58% to 95% above resale pricing, which gives good existing apartments room to reprice without needing to catch new-build prices completely.
The main restraint is credit. New residential mortgage lending fell almost 20% in the first five months of 2026, so the market is unlikely to turn into a broad debt-fueled boom even if prices keep climbing.
The 2025 collapse in new-home sales looks more like a financing and policy shock than a classic property crash. Sales rebounded sharply in early 2026, while rents and prices in much of Panama City never showed the kind of collapse normally associated with a broken housing market.
The strongest neighborhoods are not simply the ones with the biggest recent price gains. San Francisco, Bella Vista and Costa del Este stand out because pricing, shrinking inventory, rental demand and replacement-cost gaps line up reasonably well at the same time.
Scarcity on its own is not enough. Casco Viejo is the clearest warning: resale inventory dropped dramatically, yet asking prices still fell, which suggests buyers will walk away when the starting valuation is already too aggressive.
Our base case is moderate citywide appreciation rather than another 10% to 15% annual surge. Low-to-mid single-digit annual growth looks easier to sustain, with selected resale buildings doing better when rent, scarcity and replacement cost all support the purchase price.
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Are property prices in Panama City likely to rise?
Are Panama City property prices rising right now?
Yes. Panama City property prices are already rising across several major neighborhoods, although the increase is still very uneven from one part of the city to another.
The broadest comparable measure we found is the Real Estate Survey of Latin America from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella and Zonaprop. It put Panama City's average asking price at $1,881 per square meter in September 2025, up 6.81% from a year earlier and 4.27% in six months.
Newer Encuentra24 listing data shows that the recovery continued into 2026. By June, apartment asking prices were up 11.95% year over year in Bella Vista, 9.13% in San Francisco, 9.08% in Juan Díaz and 18.52% in Ancón. Betania was barely moving at +1.61%, while Casco Viejo was down 5.12%.
A buyer in Bella Vista is facing a very different market from someone looking in Casco Viejo. The citywide direction is positive, but location is already deciding who actually gets the appreciation.
| Panama City area | Apartment asking price | YoY change | Current reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ancón | $2,422/m² | +18.52% | Rising very quickly |
| Bella Vista | $2,353/m² | +11.95% | Strong appreciation |
| San Francisco | $2,329/m² | +9.13% | Strong appreciation |
| Juan Díaz | $2,846/m² | +9.08% | Strong appreciation |
| Betania | $1,724/m² | +1.61% | Almost flat |
| Casco Viejo / San Felipe | $3,998/m² | -5.12% | Prices falling despite premium positioning |
Why isn't the answer as simple as "Panama City prices are going up"?
Because Panama City currently has enough scarcity to push good properties higher, while many local buyers are having a harder time financing a purchase.
Those two forces are happening at the same time.
On the supply side, Panama Equity's 2026 market review, using Galería Inmobiliaria data, counted 16,311 developer units available across presales, projects under construction and recently completed buildings. That was the lowest inventory the firm had recorded in nine years.
Resale listings have also dropped sharply in several of the neighborhoods investors actually target. Published inventory fell by roughly 30% on Avenida Balboa, 38% in San Francisco, 40% in Costa del Este, 52% in Santa Maria and nearly 60% in Casco Viejo over 12 months.
Buyers relying on mortgages are facing the opposite pressure. New residential mortgage lending fell 19.9% during the first five months of 2026, from $722.7 million to $578.5 million, according to figures from Panama's banking regulator reported by La Prensa. Preferential mortgages were hit even harder earlier in the year.
So the setup these days is a little odd: fewer properties competing for buyers, but fewer buyers able to borrow comfortably. That should favor scarce, desirable apartments much more than the average property across the whole city.
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A surprising number of units are priced at exactly the figure an investor visa asks for, which is not the same as being worth it. Where asking prices sit furthest from what places earn and resell for.
Did Panama's housing crash in sales during 2025 change the outlook?
Less than the headline suggests. New-home sales collapsed in 2025, but the market started recovering quickly enough in 2026 that we would be careful calling it a lasting demand collapse.
A 4S Real Estate report covered by La Prensa showed new-property sales across Panama falling from 4,737 units in 2024 to 2,866 in 2025, a decline of almost 40%.
That was a rough year, no question.
But 2025 was also messy for housing policy. The $10,000 Fondo Solidario housing subsidy disappeared, preferential-mortgage rules were being changed, financing became harder to secure and buyers spent part of the year waiting to see what the new rules would look like.
The first quarter of 2026 then produced 1,292 property sales. That equals about 45% of everything sold during the whole of 2025 in only three months.
We should not annualize those three months and pretend we have a reliable full-year forecast. Still, the rebound is too large to ignore.
There is another reason we do not read the 2025 collapse as a classic property bust: prices did not collapse with sales. Current listing prices, rents and developer prices are all above their previous levels in much of Panama City.
| Period | New properties sold | Change | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 4,737 | — | Strong year |
| 2025 | 2,866 | -39.5% | Financing and policy disruption |
| Q1 2026 | 1,292 | — | Sales rebounded sharply |
Is Panama City actually running short of apartments?
In several important Panama City neighborhoods, yes. Available resale inventory has fallen fast enough that buyers now have considerably fewer choices than they did a year ago.
The scale of the drop is more interesting than any one neighborhood.
Panama Equity's published figures show resale inventory down 29.5% on Avenida Balboa, 31% in Punta Pacifica, 38% in San Francisco, 40.2% in Costa del Este, 43.2% in El Cangrejo, 52.4% in Santa Maria and 59.4% in Casco Viejo.
Across those seven areas, the simple average decline is about 42%.
That is a large movement for one year, particularly because the neighborhoods are quite different. San Francisco is a large, mixed residential district. Santa Maria is high-end and master-planned. Casco Viejo is a small historic market. Costa del Este is newer and heavily corporate.
Seeing inventory contract across all of them suggests the shortage goes beyond one fashionable micro-market.
The developer side reinforces the same picture. Total developer inventory is now around a nine-year low, while new construction is being launched at much higher prices than existing stock.
If this continues, sellers of good resale apartments will have more room to hold their asking prices instead of cutting them to make a deal.
| Area | 12-month resale inventory change | Approx. resale price | Approx. preconstruction price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avenida Balboa | -29.5% | $2,400/m² | $3,300/m² |
| Punta Pacifica | -31.0% | $2,200/m² | $4,300/m² |
| San Francisco | -38.0% | $1,900/m² | $3,500/m² |
| Costa del Este | -40.2% | $2,500/m² | $3,800/m² |
| El Cangrejo | -43.2% | $1,770/m² | $2,800/m² |
| Santa Maria | -52.4% | $2,900/m² | $3,800/m² |
| Casco Viejo | -59.4% | $3,800/m² | $4,300/m² |
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Are new Panama City apartments getting too expensive?
In some neighborhoods, yes. New Panama City apartments have become expensive enough that well-kept resale properties are starting to look unusually cheap beside them.
Panama Equity reported new-construction prices rising by more than 15% over 12 months.
The absolute differences are striking. Punta Pacifica resale stock was being marketed around $2,200 per square meter against roughly $4,300 for preconstruction. San Francisco showed around $1,900 versus $3,500. El Cangrejo was close to $1,770 versus $2,800.
Those gaps work out to approximately 95%, 84% and 58%.
A new apartment should cost more. Buyers get a newer building, current layouts, better amenities, lower immediate maintenance risk and, sometimes, better energy efficiency or views.
The harder question is how much more buyers will keep paying.
Once a new unit costs nearly twice as much per square meter as a good existing apartment a few streets away, resale gets another source of support. Some buyers who originally wanted new construction will move toward existing buildings, particularly investors who care about yield.
That could become one of the more interesting parts of the next stage of the Panama City market. Resale properties do not need developers to keep raising prices forever. They only need part of today's enormous new-build premium to close.
| Area | Resale | Preconstruction | New-build premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Punta Pacifica | $2,200/m² | $4,300/m² | ~95% |
| San Francisco | $1,900/m² | $3,500/m² | ~84% |
| El Cangrejo | $1,770/m² | $2,800/m² | ~58% |
| Costa del Este | $2,500/m² | $3,800/m² | ~52% |
| Avenida Balboa | $2,400/m² | $3,300/m² | ~38% |
| Santa Maria | $2,900/m² | $3,800/m² | ~31% |
Are Panama City rents rising fast enough to support higher property prices?
Yes. Panama City rents are currently rising faster than sale prices in much of the market, which gives the recent property-price increase much better support than appreciation alone would.
Encuentra24 data for June 2026 put the average apartment asking rent at $14.70 per square meter, up 13.5% in one year. House rents were up 13.2%.
That is a big move for rent.
It also changes what an investor can afford to pay. If an apartment that rented for $1,300 can now achieve something closer to $1,475, a buyer can justify a higher purchase price without accepting a worse yield.
Global Property Guide's April 2026 sample still showed an average gross rental yield of roughly 7.57% across Panama City. Studios and one-bedroom units averaged around 8.43%, two-bedroom units 8.08% and three-bedroom properties around 7.50%.
Those figures are before maintenance, condominium fees, vacancy, management and taxes, so a landlord will keep substantially less than the gross number.
Even after allowing for that, Panama City is still producing enough rental income to attract investors who care about cash flow today. That gives the market a firmer base than a city where investors accept 2% or 3% yields and depend almost entirely on future appreciation.
| Typical Panama City unit | Purchase price | Monthly rent | Gross yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio / 1 bedroom | $235,000 | $1,650 | 8.43% |
| 2 bedrooms | $245,000 | $1,650 | 8.08% |
| 3 bedrooms | $400,000 | $2,500 | 7.50% |
| 4+ bedrooms | $1.05M | $5,500 | 6.29% |
| Average | — | — | 7.57% |
The zones and projects in Panama City that are most overpriced
A surprising number of units are priced at exactly the figure an investor visa asks for, which is not the same as being worth it. Where asking prices sit furthest from what places earn and resell for.
Are high mortgage rates starting to hurt Panama City buyers?
Yes. Mortgage financing is one of the clearest weak spots in Panama's property market right now, and it puts a ceiling on how quickly mainstream Panama City prices can rise.
The residential mortgage reference rate moved up from 5.75% during 2020-2022 to around 6% in 2023 and above 6% afterward.
More useful than the headline rate is what borrowers are actually doing.
During the first five months of 2026, banks issued $578.5 million of new residential mortgages, according to Superintendency of Banks figures reported by La Prensa. A year earlier, the comparable figure was $722.7 million. That is a 19.9% drop.
Preferential mortgages weakened even more. During the first four months of 2026, banks granted $132 million of those subsidized housing loans, down from $200 million a year earlier, a fall of 34%.
Market-rate residential mortgages also declined, although by a much smaller 8%.
This is why we are much more confident about a scarce $250,000 resale apartment in a strong rental district than about assuming every locally oriented housing segment will jump 10% a year.
Panama City can keep getting more expensive while many Panamanian households struggle to buy. Cash buyers, investors, foreign residents and higher-income households are simply less sensitive to the same financing constraints.
Is Panama's economy strong enough to keep Panama City property prices moving up?
Yes, for moderate appreciation. Panama's economy is growing fast enough to support housing demand, but current growth does not justify assuming another giant real-estate boom.
The IMF estimated 2025 economic growth at 4.5% as Panama recovered from the impact of the Cobre Panamá mine closure. Its medium-term expectation is around 4% annual growth.
That is a solid backdrop for property.
More jobs, business activity and household income generally create more demand for housing, particularly in Panama City because the capital concentrates the country's corporate, banking, logistics and professional sectors.
There is a useful historical difference, though. The IMF expects medium-term growth to stay below Panama's pre-pandemic boom years because construction and construction-related foreign investment are unlikely to contribute as much as they once did.
For existing property owners, that may be healthy. Panama City's old problem was often too much construction. Years of apartment building eventually created enough inventory to keep resale values sluggish.
Around 4% economic growth combined with more restrained housing construction is a far friendlier setup for existing apartments than another uncontrolled tower-building cycle.
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Could developers flood Panama City with new apartments again?
Eventually they could, but Panama City does not currently look close to another major oversupply problem.
Developers respond to higher prices. If selling a new apartment at $3,500 or $4,000 per square meter becomes highly profitable, more projects will be proposed.
The timing is what protects the current market.
Large apartment developments take years to finance, approve, build and deliver. Today's low inventory cannot be replaced immediately.
There is also evidence that financing for construction remains restrained. New bank lending to Panama's construction sector fell 24.4% during the first five months of 2026, reaching roughly $631.5 million.
That makes a sudden supply explosion harder.
We would still watch building permits and project launches closely from here. The current shortage itself creates the incentive that could eventually solve the shortage. If approvals and construction financing start accelerating for several consecutive quarters, the outlook for 2028 or 2029 could look quite different.
For now, the available data still favors owners more than developers trying to flood the market with supply.
Are foreigners important enough to keep Panama City prices rising?
Yes, especially in Panama City's middle and upper-end neighborhoods. Foreign buyers widen the market beyond what local salaries and local mortgage approvals could support on their own.
Panama has several structural advantages for an international buyer. Property transactions are effectively dollar-based, foreigners can generally own titled real estate directly, and the country has residency routes linked to investment.
Panama City also attracts a type of foreign demand that goes well beyond retirees. The city is a regional banking and logistics center, hosts multinational operations, sits beside the Panama Canal and has one of Latin America's strongest international air hubs.
Tourism has also been growing quickly lately. Panama Tourism Authority figures showed 1.29 million international visitor arrivals during the first four months of 2026, up 16.4% from the same period a year earlier. Overnight tourists rose 18.2% to almost 955,000.
We would not turn those visitor numbers directly into a housing forecast. Most tourists never buy an apartment.
The relevant point is cumulative. Panama City has foreign residents, executives, investors, retirees, temporary workers and visitors feeding different parts of the housing market. That creates more ways for a well-located apartment to find either a tenant or a buyer.
This effect is strongest in places such as Costa del Este, Punta Pacifica, Avenida Balboa, San Francisco, Santa Maria and parts of Bella Vista.
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Which Panama City neighborhoods look strongest for price growth now?
San Francisco, Bella Vista and Costa del Este currently give us some of the clearest evidence for further Panama City property appreciation, while Santa Maria looks strong at a much higher price point.
San Francisco combines several things we want to see together. Apartment asking prices were up 9.13% year over year in June 2026. Published resale inventory had fallen 38%. Resale properties were also priced far below new construction, at roughly $1,900 per square meter versus $3,500.
Bella Vista looks strong for a different reason. Asking prices rose 11.95%, and smaller apartments can still produce attractive rental yields. The neighborhood also covers a broad central market instead of depending on one type of luxury buyer.
Costa del Este remains more expensive, but inventory dropped 40.2% and the district has deep corporate and expatriate demand. The roughly $2,500 resale price still sits well below new-development pricing around $3,800.
Santa Maria has even tighter stock, with published resale inventory down 52.4%. At close to $2,900 per square meter for resale properties, however, the buyer pool is naturally smaller.
Casco Viejo is a useful warning. Published resale inventory dropped almost 60%, yet Encuentra24 apartment asking prices were down 5.12% year over year. Scarcity alone clearly cannot rescue a price that buyers already consider aggressive.
| Area | Price / valuation evidence | Inventory evidence | Our current view |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | +9.13% YoY; large resale discount | -38% | Strong |
| Bella Vista | +11.95% YoY | Tight central stock | Strong |
| Costa del Este | Resale around $2,500/m² | -40.2% | Strong |
| Santa Maria | Premium resale around $2,900/m² | -52.4% | Strong, expensive |
| Avenida Balboa | Resale around $2,400/m² | -29.5% | Positive |
| Casco Viejo | -5.12% YoY | -59.4% | Much less convincing |
Can we trust Panama City asking prices?
We can trust Panama City asking-price data to show direction, but we should be careful using it to claim an exact percentage of realized appreciation.
This is one of the biggest limitations in the evidence.
The Di Tella-Zonaprop benchmark is built from advertised prices. Encuentra24 data is also based on listings. If an owner raises the advertised price from $250,000 to $275,000, we have observed a 10% increase in the asking price even if the final sale still closes at $255,000.
Panama does have registered transaction data, but there is no simple, comprehensive repeat-sales residential index covering Panama City in the way readers might expect from the United States or some European markets.
That is why we look for confirmation elsewhere.
Current rent increases are real enough to affect tenant budgets. Published inventories are falling. Developers are launching new projects at substantially higher prices. New-home sales recovered sharply in early 2026 after collapsing during 2025. Those pieces all point in broadly the same direction.
There are also newer analyses using formal property-transfer data that show how wide the actual transaction-price range can be. Nexo Living's work on recorded transfers, for example, finds premium buildings trading at roughly $2,100-$3,900 per square meter while expansion areas can sit closer to $400-$800.
So we would never say that every Panama City apartment has genuinely appreciated by the 9%, 12% or 18% shown in listing data. We are much more confident in the broader conclusion: buyers are facing higher prices in many important parts of the city, and the supporting market data makes that increase difficult to dismiss as sellers simply becoming more optimistic.
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Will Panama's new housing tax changes push prices higher?
They could help sales at the lower end of the new-build market, but Panama's newest housing-tax changes are unlikely to transform premium Panama City prices by themselves.
Earlier in 2026, buyers of new homes were being hit by changes to the property-transfer tax treatment at the same time that preferential mortgage lending was weakening. Industry groups openly blamed that combination for hurting housing demand.
The government has now reversed part of that damage.
Law 546 exempts the first $120,000 of the taxable base from the real-estate transfer tax on qualifying first sales of new homes, provided the sale falls within the law's timing rules after the occupancy permit. For qualifying sales above that level and up to $200,000, the law applies preferential rates to the amount above $120,000.
The policy is aimed mainly at making new housing easier to buy and helping restart residential construction.
For a buyer comparing lower-priced new developments, the savings can matter. For someone buying a $500,000 apartment in Santa Maria or Punta Pacifica, the tax change is much less important than financing costs, rent, building quality and the purchase price itself.
What interests us more is what the policy says about the current market. Panama's government is actively trying to restart housing activity because affordability and financing have become real constraints.
That supports our view that any coming price increase should remain uneven. Better-located stock can keep appreciating while the more mortgage-dependent part of the market still needs policy help to move.
Is Panama City still cheap compared with other Latin American cities?
Yes, on broad asking-price comparisons Panama City is still relatively inexpensive, although its best neighborhoods are already much closer to regional premium pricing.
The Di Tella-Zonaprop comparison put Panama City at $1,881 per square meter in September 2025.
Montevideo was $3,209, Mexico City $2,909, Monterrey $2,787, Guadalajara $2,717 and Buenos Aires $2,622. Panama ranked among the cheaper cities in the survey, alongside Córdoba, Rosario and Quito.
That gives Panama City some room to reprice higher without suddenly looking expensive at a regional level.
The citywide average hides an important detail, though. Prime Panama City is already considerably more expensive. Current asking prices approach $4,000 per square meter in Casco Viejo, while formal transfer data in premium buildings can reach similar levels.
So the argument that "Panama is cheap" works much better for good resale apartments around $1,800-$2,500 per square meter than for every luxury property being marketed at $4,000 or more.
International buyers will notice that difference too.
A $2,000-per-square-meter apartment in San Francisco with strong rent and shrinking inventory has a much clearer relative-value case than an already expensive trophy property whose owner is asking a price comparable with the most expensive Latin American capitals.
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What could actually make Panama City property prices fall?
Panama City property prices could fall if today's inventory shortage disappears while weak mortgage demand spreads into the segments currently supported by cash buyers, investors and foreigners.
The credit side deserves the most attention.
New residential mortgages are already down 19.9% during the first five months of 2026. Preferential lending dropped 34% during the first four months. Unemployment was reported at 10.4%, while labor informality was around 47.1%.
Those are weak numbers for locally driven home buying.
A second risk would come from supply. Developers are currently benefiting from tight inventory, and today's high new-build prices give them a reason to launch more projects. Several years of aggressive construction could eventually recreate Panama City's old oversupply problem.
The economy also matters. The IMF still sees roughly 4% medium-term growth, but it has flagged fiscal pressure, the risk of losing investment-grade status, global uncertainty and possible higher financing costs.
We would become much more bearish if three things started happening together: resale inventory stopped falling, rents flattened or declined, and transaction volumes remained weak even after housing-finance rules became clearer.
We do not see that combination today.
As seen above, rents are still rising quickly and inventory has contracted sharply across several major neighborhoods. That gives the current price recovery more room before the bearish case becomes dominant.
So are Panama City property prices likely to rise?
Yes. We think Panama City property prices are more likely to rise than fall over the next few years, with the best odds concentrated in scarce, rentable resale properties rather than across every apartment in the city.
The case has become stronger because several pieces now fit together.
Panama City asking prices have already moved higher. Rents were up 13.5% year over year in the latest Encuentra24 data. Developer inventory has dropped to roughly a nine-year low. Resale listings in major neighborhoods have fallen by around 30% to almost 60%. New construction costs substantially more than existing stock in places such as San Francisco and Punta Pacifica. Panama's economy is still expected to grow around 4% over the medium term.
Against that, mortgage demand is clearly weak. New residential lending fell almost 20% during the first five months of 2026, and subsidized mortgages have fallen even faster. That makes a broad, debt-fueled boom very hard to argue.
Our base case is moderate appreciation across Panama City, with much larger differences between neighborhoods and individual buildings than the citywide average will show.
We would be cautious about simply extrapolating the recent 10%-15% increases. Low-to-mid single-digit annual price growth looks much easier to sustain over several years. A few undersupplied neighborhoods can beat that, particularly if resale prices remain far below replacement cost.
San Francisco currently has one of the cleaner setups because prices, inventory, rents and the new-build/resale gap all point in the same direction. Bella Vista also looks convincing. Costa del Este should continue to benefit from scarce stock and deep international demand, although entry prices are higher. Santa Maria has powerful scarcity but less room for mistakes because buyers are already paying premium prices.
The biggest mistake would be treating "Panama City property" as one investment.
A good resale apartment bought around $2,000-$2,500 per square meter, in a neighborhood where inventory is disappearing and rent can still support the purchase price, has a credible path to further appreciation today. Paying almost $4,000 per square meter simply because a property sits in a prestigious district requires a much stronger case.
So our answer is yes, with real conviction but a clear limit. Panama City looks like a rising property market now. The strongest opportunities are where scarcity, rent and replacement cost all support the price at the same time.
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The pack also covers which buildings may legally take short stays, which fees to refuse, and what a seller hopes you will not check.
OUR METHODOLOGY
This analysis tests whether Panama City property prices are likely to rise by looking at the forces that are actually shaping residential prices now: asking-price direction, resale and developer inventory, rents and yields, mortgage activity, new-build versus resale pricing, economic conditions, international demand, housing policy and downside risk.
Because Panama does not have one comprehensive repeat-sales residential index for Panama City, we use asking-price data mainly to judge direction and relative movement rather than to claim an exact completed-sale appreciation rate. We cross-check those price series against inventory, rents, developer pricing, sales activity, credit conditions and recorded-market evidence where it is available.
We give the most weight to evidence closest to price formation. A rise in asking prices is more convincing when buyers also face less inventory, tenants are paying higher rents and replacement stock is being launched at materially higher prices. Weak mortgage lending is treated as a real constraint because it shows where the market still has resistance.
For neighborhood comparisons, we do not simply rank areas by the largest recent price increase. We favor neighborhoods where several indicators point in the same direction, especially price movement, falling resale inventory, rental support and the gap between resale and new-construction pricing.
The forward view is deliberately more conservative than the strongest recent annual increases. We do not extrapolate 10% to 15% appreciation mechanically. The conclusion of moderate appreciation reflects the combined weight of tight supply, rising rents, replacement-cost pressure and economic growth, offset by weaker mortgage demand and the possibility that developers eventually add more supply.
Key market sources include Universidad Torcuato Di Tella's RIAL residential-price benchmark, RIAL's methodology, Encuentra24's direct price and rent statistics, Panama Equity's Q1 2026 market report, and Panama Equity's 2026 Panama City market update.
For financing and housing activity, we use Superintendencia de Bancos de Panamá credit statistics, the regulator's 2026 residential mortgage reference-rate circular, La Prensa's report on the 2026 contraction in housing and construction lending, and La Prensa's coverage of the 4S Real Estate new-home sales study.
Housing-policy sources include the official preferential-mortgage law published in the Gaceta Oficial, Miviot's explanation of the preferential-interest regime, Miviot's Fondo Solidario update, and Law 546 in the Gaceta Oficial, which now governs the new ITBI exemption discussed above.
For the wider demand backdrop, we use the IMF's 2025 Article IV consultation, the IMF's current Panama country page, official tourism statistics from the Autoridad de Turismo de Panamá, INEC's labor-market survey, and PROPANAMA's official Qualified Investor program.
The zones and projects in Panama City that are most overpriced
A surprising number of units are priced at exactly the figure an investor visa asks for, which is not the same as being worth it. Where asking prices sit furthest from what places earn and resell for.
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