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SUMMARY
Yes. It is a good time to buy property in Panama now, especially for a cash buyer choosing a well-managed Panama City resale and planning to hold it for several years.
The strongest part of the market is not Panama housing as a whole. National developer sales fell sharply in 2025, while better-located Panama City property kept seeing stronger sales, rising rents and tighter inventory.
Supply is becoming more important than demand headlines. Developer inventory is down, completed inventory is down, and resale listings have fallen by roughly 30% to almost 60% in several of the neighborhoods foreign buyers watch most closely.
Rental income is doing more of the work now. Panama City gross residential yields average roughly 7.6%, and the more interesting opportunities often sit in 10-to-20-year-old buildings where purchase prices have fallen much more than rents.
New construction is the easiest place to overpay. In some neighborhoods, pre-construction prices are 50% to 95% above nearby resales, even though the rental premium tenants pay for a newer unit is nowhere near that large.
Foreign demand is real, but it is concentrated. The unusually strong $300,000-to-$400,000 new-condo bracket lines up closely with Panama’s $300,000 Qualified Investor residency threshold, which helps explain why some price bands are much healthier than the domestic mass market.
Tourism strengthens the broader case without making every short-term rental attractive. Panama’s visitor numbers are growing quickly, but occupancy varies enough across provinces that a high nightly rate can still hide a mediocre investment.
Financing remains one of the weak spots. Local mortgage-dependent buyers are dealing with cautious banks, a changed preferential-interest system and sluggish mortgage-credit growth, so cash buyers are operating in a very different market from many Panamanian households.
Panama’s dollar-based property market and economic growth around 4% give the investment case a solid base, but they do not justify expecting the old construction-boom returns. Future performance is likely to depend much more on the building, neighborhood and entry price.
The clearest opportunity is therefore selective rather than broad: buy a good resale at a meaningful discount to comparable new construction, make sure the rent works before assuming appreciation, and avoid buildings where weak finances or large future repairs can wipe out the apparent bargain.
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Is Panama’s property market actually getting stronger right now?
Yes. Panama City’s property market is getting stronger today, even though the broader Panamanian housing market still looks weak in some national statistics.
That apparent contradiction is one of the most important things to understand before buying.
Convivienda, Panama’s main housing-developer association, recorded 4,020 home sales in 2025, down 34.4% from the previous year. The value of those sales fell 29% to about $446 million. Look only at those numbers and Panama appears to be going through a serious property slowdown.
Panama City tells a different story. Data from Galería Inmobiliaria reported by Panama Equity showed 620 new or under-construction properties sold in May 2026 for about $196.7 million. The dollar value of sales was 27.8% higher than one year earlier. Developers had about 15,499 units available, 11% fewer than a year before, while completed inventory was down roughly 8%.
The latest rental data points in the same direction. Encuentra24 listings analyzed by Global Property Guide showed Panama City apartment asking rents at about $14.70 per square meter in June 2026, up 13.5% over twelve months.
What we are seeing today is a split market. Lower-priced housing, where Panamanian families often depend on local mortgage financing, remains weak. Better-located Panama City property aimed at wealthier local buyers, foreigners and investors is considerably healthier.
| Panama property measure | Latest reading | Change | What we see |
|---|---|---|---|
| Convivienda home sales | 4,020 | -34.4% in 2025 | Weak mass-market demand |
| Panama City new-project sales | $196.7M in one month | +27.8% YoY | Stronger higher-end demand |
| Developer inventory | 15,499 units | -11% YoY | Supply is tightening |
| Completed inventory | — | -8% YoY | Fewer ready units available |
| Panama City apartment asking rents | $14.70/m² | +13.5% YoY | Rental market remains firm |
Are Panama property prices actually going up now?
Yes. Panama property prices are rising again, but the gains are heavily concentrated in newer buildings and stronger Panama City neighborhoods.
There is no single official house-price index that perfectly captures Panama, so we have to combine several datasets.
The latest Encuentra24 analysis gives a good picture of the gap between neighborhoods. Apartment asking prices reached about $2,353 per square meter in Bella Vista, up almost 12% year over year. San Francisco was around $2,329, up 9.1%. Ancón was close to $2,422 after an 18.5% increase.
Casco Viejo went the other way, with asking prices around $3,998 per square meter and a 5.1% annual decline. Betania barely moved, rising about 1.6%.
New construction has been moving faster. Panama Equity’s early-2026 market review, using Galería Inmobiliaria data, found that new-construction prices had risen more than 15% over twelve months.
Older resale buildings frequently lag far behind. In El Cangrejo, Panama Equity compared roughly 25 properties and found newer amenity-heavy developments around $2,760 per square meter, buildings roughly 10 to 20 years old near $1,800, and older basic properties around $1,524.
That creates an 81% price gap inside the same neighborhood.
So yes, Panama City prices are moving up these days. Buyers just need to be careful with the word “market.” A new apartment in Santa María and a 25-year-old apartment in an oversupplied tower can behave almost like two different assets.
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Are Panama City rents rising enough to make property worth buying?
Yes. Panama City rents are rising fast enough that rental income has become one of the better reasons to consider buying property now.
According to the latest Encuentra24 listing analysis, average asking rent for Panama City apartments reached about $14.70 per square meter, 13.5% higher than a year earlier. Houses rose at almost the same pace.
Global Property Guide’s latest calculations put the average gross residential yield in Panama City at 7.57%. One-bedroom apartments average about 8.43%, while two-bedroom apartments come in around 8.08% and three-bedroom units around 7.50%.
Those numbers are based on asking rents and asking purchase prices, so buyers should not mistake them for money in the bank. Global Property Guide estimates that net returns are commonly around 1.5 to 2 percentage points below gross yields once normal property costs are included.
The neighborhood data become even more useful. In El Cangrejo, a Panama Equity sample showed newer apartments around $2,760 per square meter renting for roughly $14.40 per square meter per month. Older but still reasonably modern buildings averaged about $1,800 to buy and $12.75 to rent.
Rent dropped only modestly while the purchase price fell dramatically.
That is why we currently find some 10-to-20-year-old buildings more interesting than shiny new projects. Tenants often pay a premium for newness, but nowhere near the premium developers are charging buyers.
| El Cangrejo property type | Approx. price | Approx. monthly rent/m² | Indicative gross yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newer, full amenities | $2,760/m² | $14.40 | 6.3% |
| 10–20 years old, decent amenities | $1,800/m² | $12.75 | 8.5% |
| Older, basic building | $1,524/m² | ~$10 | ~7.9% |
Is Panama City starting to run short of good property for sale?
Yes, in several popular neighborhoods. Panama City still has thousands of properties for sale, but good inventory is disappearing much faster than it was a few years ago.
Developer inventory stood at roughly 15,499 units in May 2026. That is still a substantial amount of property.
The direction is more interesting. Available developer inventory fell 11% in one year, while completed inventory declined by around 8%. Earlier in the year, Panama Equity put total developer inventory at 16,311 units, its lowest level in nine years of tracking the market.
Resales have tightened even more dramatically in some neighborhoods. Compared with a year earlier, advertised resale inventory was down 29.5% on Avenida Balboa, 40.2% in Costa del Este, 43.2% in El Cangrejo, 52.4% in Santa María and 59.4% in Casco Viejo.
New housing completions are also much lower than during Panama’s recent building peaks. Convivienda recorded 10,600 occupancy permits across the municipalities it follows in 2025. There were 17,729 in 2022.
That works out to roughly 40% fewer completed homes in three years.
So the supply picture is pretty clear now. Panama has plenty of property, but buyers have fewer choices among the buildings and neighborhoods attracting the most demand. That gives sellers more leverage where the property is genuinely scarce.
| Supply measure | Earlier reading | Latest reading | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Convivienda occupancy permits | 17,729 in 2022 | 10,600 in 2025 | About -40% |
| Developer inventory | Year-earlier level | 15,499 | -11% |
| Avenida Balboa resale inventory | Year-earlier level | — | -29.5% |
| Costa del Este resale inventory | Year-earlier level | — | -40.2% |
| El Cangrejo resale inventory | Year-earlier level | — | -43.2% |
| Santa María resale inventory | Year-earlier level | — | -52.4% |
| Casco Viejo resale inventory | Year-earlier level | — | -59.4% |
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If Panama home sales collapsed, why are some properties doing so well?
Panama’s 2025 home-sales collapse was mostly concentrated in mortgage-dependent housing, while the Panama City segments popular with investors and foreigners held up much better.
Convivienda members sold 7,687 homes in 2023, 6,126 in 2024 and only 4,020 in 2025. Sales almost halved in two years.
Around 81% of Convivienda’s 2025 sales involved homes priced at $120,000 or less. This part of the market depends heavily on domestic mortgage availability and Panama’s preferential-interest system.
That system changed substantially. Panama replaced its previous preferential mortgage framework, introduced new subsidy rules and went through implementation delays that complicated approvals. Banks also remained cautious.
Regular mortgage rates have not offered much relief. According to Panama’s banking regulator, the average rate on non-preferential housing loans was 6.23% in May 2026, virtually unchanged from 6.24% a year earlier.
Mortgage credit itself has been sluggish. Outstanding mortgage lending was around $21.4 billion in April and had declined slightly from the end of the previous year.
Meanwhile, the higher-priced Panama City market kept producing buyers. As seen above, new and under-construction property generated $196.7 million of sales in a single month, up almost 28% in dollar terms year over year.
One price range stands out. Sales between $300,000 and $400,000 have more than doubled in recent comparisons, helped by foreign demand and Panama’s $300,000 Qualified Investor residency threshold.
For buyers, the distinction is practical. Someone relying heavily on a local mortgage faces a much tougher market today than a cash buyer shopping for an investment apartment in central Panama City.
Is Panama’s economy strong enough to keep supporting property prices?
Yes. Panama’s economy is growing fast enough to support property demand, although we would not expect the explosive real-estate gains Panama saw during its old construction boom.
The country had a difficult 2024 after the closure of the Cobre Panamá mine. World Bank data show GDP growth falling to 2.7% that year after 7.2% in 2023.
Growth recovered to 4.4% in 2025.
For 2026, the latest IMF forecast is 3.8%, while the World Bank expects about 3.9%. That puts Panama well above several larger Latin American economies and provides a decent economic base for housing demand.
Panama also has an unusual advantage for foreign property investors: real estate is effectively priced in US dollars. Buyers avoid the kind of local-currency depreciation risk that can wipe out otherwise good property returns elsewhere in Latin America.
We would still keep expectations realistic. Panama grew at extraordinary rates during the canal-expansion, infrastructure and construction years. Current growth closer to 4% is much calmer.
For property buyers, that probably means fewer spectacular nationwide gains and more differences between good and bad buildings.
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Are foreign buyers actually moving Panama City property prices?
Yes. Foreign buyers are large enough to move certain Panama City price brackets, and the effect around $300,000 is particularly hard to ignore.
Panama’s Qualified Investor program grants permanent residency to eligible foreigners who make a qualifying investment with funds originating abroad and maintain it for at least five years.
For real estate, PROPANAMA currently lists the minimum qualifying investment at $300,000 for completed or under-construction property.
Now look at what has happened around that threshold.
Panama Equity’s latest market analysis identified the $300,000-to-$400,000 range as one of the strongest parts of the new-build market. In one recent year-over-year comparison, new-condo sales in that bracket jumped from 42 units to 104.
That is an increase of roughly 148%.
Residency clearly cannot explain every one of those purchases, but such a large increase immediately above the qualifying threshold is difficult to dismiss as coincidence.
Panama attracts other foreign buyers as well: retirees, regional entrepreneurs, families relocating from neighboring countries and investors who simply want a dollar-denominated asset.
Tourism is widening that international funnel. Panama received just over 3 million international visitors in 2025, 8.2% more than the previous year. During the first six months of 2026, the Panama Tourism Authority recorded 1.756 million visitors, up another 17.4%.
Copa Airlines’ Panama Stopover program also brought in more than 132,000 visitors during the first half of 2026, 38% more than a year earlier.
We see foreign demand as a genuine price driver in selected Panama City segments rather than a marketing story invented by developers.
Does Panama’s tourism growth make short-term rentals a good investment?
Sometimes. Panama’s tourism numbers are excellent right now, but short-term-rental performance varies too much by location to justify buying on tourism growth alone.
The Panama Tourism Authority counted 3,004,266 international visitors in 2025, up 8.2%. Tourism receipts reached roughly $6.58 billion, almost 10% higher than the previous year.
The pace accelerated again during the first half of 2026, when international arrivals rose 17.4%.
That creates more potential guests. It does not guarantee a good Airbnb.
Recent AirDNA data compiled by Global Property Guide showed average occupancy around 68% in Panama province. Panama Oeste managed only around 43%, while Coclé was close to 38% despite commanding a much higher average nightly price.
Bocas del Toro sat around 51%, Los Santos near 43% and Colón roughly 37%.
A beach apartment earning $160 a night can still underperform a Panama City apartment earning $90 if too many nights remain empty.
For short-term rentals, we would put occupancy, building rules and exact micro-location ahead of Panama’s record visitor numbers.
| Area | Active short-term rentals | Approx. daily rate | Approx. occupancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panama | 3,625 | $90.50 | 68% |
| Panama Oeste | 1,701 | $130.80 | 43% |
| Chiriquí | 1,179 | $73.50 | 47% |
| Coclé | 866 | $160.40 | 38% |
| Bocas del Toro | 793 | $131.50 | 51% |
| Los Santos | 446 | $157.10 | 43% |
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Is new construction in Panama City overpriced now?
In several Panama City neighborhoods, yes. The premium for new construction has become so large that buyers should seriously compare every project with nearby resales before signing.
Panama Equity’s early-2026 comparison makes the gap obvious.
In El Cangrejo, average resale asking prices were around $1,770 per square meter compared with $2,800 for pre-construction. New units therefore cost about 58% more.
San Francisco showed roughly $1,900 versus $3,500, an 84% premium.
Punta Pacifica reached about $2,200 for resales and $4,300 for pre-construction. That is almost double.
The gaps were smaller in Santa María at around 31%, Avenida Balboa at 38% and Casco Viejo at just 13%.
There are sensible reasons to pay extra for new construction. Newer buildings usually have more modern layouts and amenities, buyers face fewer immediate renovation costs, and developers often allow staged payments during construction.
Foreign buyers also find pre-construction convenient because reservations, contracts and payments can frequently be handled remotely.
Convenience alone does not make a 95% premium attractive.
The rental numbers make that particularly clear. In El Cangrejo, newer properties in one sample generated an indicative gross yield around 6.3%, while decent 10-to-20-year-old buildings were closer to 8.5%.
For buyers focused on income, the current pricing gap often favors good resales.
| Neighborhood | Resale asking price/m² | Pre-construction price/m² | Approx. premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avenida Balboa | $2,400 | $3,300 | 38% |
| Casco Viejo | $3,800 | $4,300 | 13% |
| Costa del Este | $2,500 | $3,800 | 52% |
| El Cangrejo | $1,770 | $2,800 | 58% |
| Punta Pacifica | $2,200 | $4,300 | 95% |
| San Francisco | $1,900 | $3,500 | 84% |
| Santa María | $2,900 | $3,800 | 31% |
Where would we look for good-value Panama City property today?
For value, we would look first at well-managed resale buildings in El Cangrejo, San Francisco and selected parts of Punta Pacifica rather than automatically buying the newest project.
El Cangrejo shows why. Older but still competitive buildings can sell around $1,800 per square meter while newer developments approach $2,800. Rental prices are much closer together than purchase prices.
San Francisco offers an even larger resale discount. The recent comparison put resales around $1,900 per square meter against approximately $3,500 for pre-construction.
Punta Pacifica can also be interesting when older luxury buildings are discounted heavily against new towers. Buyers need to inspect building finances and maintenance carefully, but an older ocean-view apartment at roughly half the price per square meter of nearby new construction deserves attention.
Casco Viejo is a different bet. Resale inventory recently fell almost 60% year over year, while the new-build premium is relatively small. The historic district has physical supply constraints that tower neighborhoods simply do not have.
Santa María is more about scarcity and affluent demand. Resale prices are already high, around $2,900 per square meter in the Panama Equity comparison, while available resale inventory fell more than 50% over twelve months.
For rental yield, we like the middle of the market. For long-term scarcity, Casco Viejo and Santa María are more compelling. The best choice depends on whether the buyer wants cash flow or appreciation.
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Can foreigners safely buy property in Panama, and what taxes do they pay?
Yes. Foreigners can buy titled property in Panama with broadly the same ownership rights as Panamanians, and the tax burden is manageable compared with many international markets.
PROPANAMA explicitly states that foreign investors generally receive the same rights and obligations as domestic investors.
For an ordinary Panama City condominium, the bigger concern is therefore the property itself. A local lawyer should verify registered ownership, mortgages or liens, condominium debts, outstanding taxes and the purchase contract through the relevant public records.
Untitled land, possession rights, islands and some coastal properties require far more caution. Those purchases can involve concessions, shoreline restrictions or unclear ownership histories, and we would approach them very differently from a registered city apartment.
Panama’s annual property-tax rates are relatively straightforward. The DGI’s general schedule charges 0% on the first $30,000 of taxable value, 0.6% from $30,001 to $250,000, 0.8% from $250,001 to $500,000 and 1% above $500,000.
A property registered as a principal residence or family patrimony gets a more favorable treatment: 0% up to $120,000, 0.5% between $120,001 and $700,000 and 0.7% above that amount.
Panama’s general real-estate transfer-tax framework is still 2%, but there is now an important exception for some new housing. Law 546 introduced an ITBI exemption for qualifying first sales of new homes up to B/.120,000 and preferential treatment up to B/.200,000. Panama also has a separate 3% withholding linked to real-estate capital gains. Buyers should have their lawyer and accountant determine exactly how each tax applies rather than simply adding every percentage to the purchase price.
For condo investors, monthly building fees can hurt returns more than annual property tax. An apartment advertised at a 7% gross yield can quickly become a 5% net investment after maintenance, vacancy, management, repairs and other ownership costs.
What could make buying property in Panama now a bad decision?
Overpaying is the biggest risk in Panama property today, especially when buyers assume every building will benefit equally from the stronger market.
Some new developments are asking 50% to 95% more per square meter than nearby resale properties. Anyone paying that premium starts with a large hurdle before future appreciation produces a good return.
Liquidity comes next. Panama City may look busy, but it remains a relatively small property market. Large towers can contain several nearly identical apartments for sale at the same time. A seller who needs cash quickly may have to accept a meaningful discount.
Building quality can make that problem worse. Older Panama City towers sometimes face expensive elevator work, façade repairs, water-system problems or weak condominium finances. A cheap purchase price means little if owners receive large special assessments shortly afterward.
Local demand also deserves some respect. Convivienda sales almost halved between 2023 and 2025. Financing problems explain a lot of that decline, but they still show that the entire country is not experiencing the same boom as selected Panama City segments.
There is also little reason to assume Panama will return to its old double-digit growth years. The IMF currently expects GDP growth around 3.8%, while the World Bank is close to 3.9%. Those are healthy numbers, but buyers will probably need the right property rather than relying on the country to lift everything.
Our biggest concern today is selection risk. Panama can be a good market while a badly priced apartment in the wrong tower remains a bad purchase.
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So, is it a good time to buy property in Panama now?
Yes. We think it is a good time to buy property in Panama now, particularly for a cash buyer choosing a well-managed Panama City resale and planning to hold it for several years.
Several pieces have fallen into place at the same time.
Good inventory has tightened. Developer supply is down 11% year over year, completed inventory is down about 8%, and resale listings have fallen by 30% to almost 60% in several of Panama City’s most popular neighborhoods.
Rents are doing real work for investors too. Panama City apartment asking rents recently rose 13.5% over twelve months, and current gross yields average roughly 7.6%. One- and two-bedroom apartments are above 8% in the latest Global Property Guide dataset.
International demand also looks healthier than it did a few years ago. Foreign visitors are growing at double-digit rates again, residency-related buying has helped the $300,000-to-$400,000 property bracket, and Panama’s economy returned to growth above 4% in 2025 before settling near 4% in current forecasts.
We would still resist the temptation to buy whatever developers are pushing hardest. New-construction premiums of 50%, 80% or even 95% over nearby resales leave very little room for mistakes.
The setup we like most today is fairly simple: a well-located resale apartment in a good Panama City building, bought at a clear discount to comparable new construction, with rent that already produces an acceptable return before assuming any future appreciation.
Buyers chasing Panama because they expect another giant property boom could easily be disappointed. Buyers who negotiate hard, inspect the building properly and plan to hold for five to ten years have a much stronger case.
Our final judgment is yes: Panama currently offers a good buying window, but the opportunity is in choosing the right property rather than betting blindly on the whole country.
OUR METHODOLOGY
This analysis tests whether it is a good time to buy property in Panama now by separating the broad national housing market from the Panama City segments that matter most to investors, foreign buyers and higher-income local buyers. We compare sales activity, price movements, rents, yields, inventory, mortgage conditions, economic growth, foreign demand, tourism, new-build pricing, resale value, ownership rules, taxes and the main risks that can undermine the investment case.
We did not treat Panama as one uniform property market. National developer data are used to understand the weakness in mortgage-dependent housing, while Panama City and neighborhood-level data are used where the question depends on investor-oriented property. That distinction is central to the conclusion because the two parts of the market are currently behaving very differently.
For housing supply and sales, we relied heavily on CONVIVIENDA’s results and projections and its 2026 report, which cover member sales, price bands and occupancy permits. For Panama City developer inventory, new-project sales, neighborhood resale inventory and resale-versus-preconstruction comparisons, we used Panama Equity’s Q1 2026 market report and its 2026 Panama City market update, both drawing on Galería Inmobiliaria and local market data.
Rents and yields are assessed using recent Encuentra24 asking-price and asking-rent data compiled by Global Property Guide. We treat those as market indicators rather than guaranteed investment returns. Gross yields are therefore used as a comparison tool, and we separately account for the fact that maintenance, vacancy, management, repairs and other ownership costs can pull net returns materially lower.
Mortgage conditions are checked against the Superintendencia de Bancos de Panamá’s 2026 statistical reports and credit-portfolio data. The change in the preferential mortgage system is based on Law 481 of 2025 and the subsequent 2026 regulation.
For the wider demand picture, we used the Panama Tourism Authority’s 2025 results, its first-half 2026 visitor data, and its Panama Stopover figures. Economic growth is anchored to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Foreign-buyer rules and the $300,000 Qualified Investor threshold are based on PROPANAMA’s Qualified Investor guidance and foreign-investment FAQ. We use the threshold as a plausible demand driver around the $300,000-to-$400,000 bracket, not as proof that every purchase in that range was residency-motivated.
Ownership and tax treatment are checked against official Panamanian sources, including the DGI, MEF, Law 66 of 2017 and the foreign-investment framework. The transfer-tax discussion also incorporates the recent Law 546 change announced by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which means the general 2% ITBI rule now has an important exception for qualifying first sales of new homes.
The final judgment comes from comparing those datasets rather than from any single headline. Falling inventory means more when rents are rising and selected sales are strengthening; high yields matter less if they come from weak buildings; and strong tourism numbers are not enough to rescue a short-term rental with poor occupancy or bad building rules. The conclusion reflects where the evidence overlaps, and where it does not.
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