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Is Airbnb Still Worth It in Panama City?

Is Airbnb in Panama City still a good investment today?

Airbnb in Panama City can still be a good investment today, but we would only buy when the property is legally suited to short stays and the numbers beat an unusually strong long-term rental alternative.

Panama City still has real short-term demand. Airbtics put occupancy at roughly 68% during 2025, while newer AirDNA data for the broader Panama Province market is around 69%. Both datasets also point to annual revenue of roughly $21,000 per active listing.

Tourism has strengthened rather than faded. Panama received just over 3 million international visitors in 2025, according to the Panama Tourism Authority, up 8.2% from the previous year. More recently, visitor arrivals jumped another 17.4% during the first six months of 2026.

Yet the investment case is less straightforward than those figures suggest. Panama City restricts ordinary residential stays shorter than 45 days unless the accommodation operates under the appropriate legal framework. At the same time, current conventional rental yields across Panama City average about 7.6%, with one-bedroom apartments around 8.4%.

Airbnb therefore has to do more than generate decent revenue. It needs to produce enough extra return to justify higher management costs, more operating work and the legal constraints around short stays.

Rental strategy	What currently works	Main drawback	Our view
Legally authorized short-term Airbnb	Strong tourism and ~69% market occupancy	Limited suitable stock	Attractive selectively
Furnished 45+ day rentals	Good fit for relocations and remote workers	Lower nightly pricing	Strong option
Traditional long-term rental	Current gross yields around 7%–8%	Less revenue upside	Very competitive
Ordinary condo used for nightly Airbnb without clear authorization	Potentially high gross revenue	Legal exposure	Avoid

Why is Panama City Airbnb harder to judge now?

Panama City Airbnb is harder to judge now because demand is growing fast, but Airbnb supply and long-term rents are getting stronger too.

The demand picture looks good. The Panama Tourism Authority counted 3,004,266 international visitors in 2025, 8.2% more than in 2024. Tourism receipts reached B/.6.58 billion, an increase of 9.7%.

The latest tourism numbers are even stronger. During the first half of 2026, Panama received 1,755,998 international visitors, up 17.4% year over year. Tourism income increased 14.7% to about $3.79 billion.

Panama City Airbnb supply has been growing much faster too. Airbtics estimated that active listings increased 36.8% during 2025. Revenue per listing rose only 15.6% over the same period.

Demand is absorbing new apartments for now, but owners are sharing that growing market with a much larger group of competitors.

There is another complication. Some visible Airbnb listings operate under circumstances that a buyer cannot automatically reproduce in another residential building. That makes citywide Airbnb statistics useful for judging demand, but much less reliable when underwriting one specific condo.

Is tourism growing fast enough to support more Panama City Airbnbs?

Panama tourism is currently growing fast enough to keep Panama City accommodation demand healthy, even with significantly more short-term rentals entering the market.

Panama had 3.00 million international visitors in 2025. That was already above the roughly 2.78 million recorded in 2024 and well above the 2.51 million recorded in 2023.

The latest six-month numbers show a further acceleration rather than a slowdown. International arrivals increased 17.4% to almost 1.76 million, according to preliminary figures released by the Panama Tourism Authority. Tourism income rose 14.7% over the same period.

Tocumen International Airport reinforces the Panama City angle. About 2.24 million visitors entered Panama through Tocumen in 2025, up 10% from a year earlier. That is close to three quarters of all international visitors entering the country.

Hotels are filling too. The Tourism Authority recently estimated hotel occupancy at around 59.3%, after nationwide hotel occupancy averaged roughly 56.6% in 2025.

Taken together, those figures make it hard to argue that Panama City Airbnb demand is surviving only because travelers are moving out of hotels. Both accommodation channels are benefiting from a larger visitor base.

Indicator	2024 or previous period	Latest comparable figure	Change
International visitors	~2.78M	3.00M in 2025	+8.2%
First-half visitors	~1.50M implied prior-year level	1.76M	+17.4%
2025 tourism receipts	Prior-year base	B/.6.58B	+9.7%
First-half tourism receipts	Prior-year base	$3.79B	+14.7%
Visitors entering via Tocumen	~2.04M	2.24M	+10%
Recent monitored hotel occupancy	—	~59.3%	Healthy

Is Panama City getting too crowded with Airbnbs?

Panama City is not showing the usual signs of Airbnb oversupply yet, although listing growth is now fast enough to make average properties much easier to replace.

Airbtics estimated a 36.8% increase in active Panama City listings during 2025, equal to roughly 705 additional properties.

Revenue per active listing still rose from about B/.17,900 to B/.20,700, an increase of 15.6%. Occupancy remained around 68%.

If the market were already badly oversupplied, we would expect new listings to push per-property revenue or occupancy materially lower. That has not happened so far.

Still, supply expanded more than twice as fast as revenue per listing.

An investor entering now is competing in a market where accommodation demand continues to grow, but the number of owners trying to capture that demand is growing even faster.

Competition is particularly heavy in one-bedroom apartments. Recent AirDNA data shows one-bedroom properties making up most of the broader Panama Province short-term market.

These units remain attractive because they can serve couples, solo travelers and business guests. They are also the easiest investment product for developers and foreign buyers to add repeatedly.

We would be much more cautious now about paying a premium for a generic one-bedroom purely because similar units currently have strong Airbnb calendars.

Are Panama City Airbnb occupancy rates actually strong?

Panama City Airbnb occupancy is genuinely strong right now, with recent estimates consistently sitting around 68%–69%.

Airbtics measured roughly 68% occupancy in Panama City during 2025. AirDNA's more recent Panama Province figures are around 69%.

At 68% occupancy, a property available throughout the year would theoretically sell about 248 nights.

Combine that with Airbtics' average daily rate of roughly B/.82 and the result is close to B/.20,300 in annual revenue. That is very close to its separately reported market revenue of B/.20,712.

The numbers fit together reasonably well.

What we would not do is assume that a random residential condo can simply replicate those 248 booked nights through weekend stays.

Citywide Airbnb datasets can mix authorized short-stay properties, longer bookings and different accommodation structures. A property rented to five tenants for roughly 50 days each can show strong annual occupancy without operating anything like a vacation rental.

So the occupancy figure tells us something useful and fairly clear: furnished accommodation demand in Panama City remains strong. It does not settle what booking strategy a specific apartment can legally use.

Can you legally run a normal Airbnb in Panama City?

A normal two-night or one-week Airbnb is not automatically legal in an ordinary Panama City residential condo, and we would verify that point before looking seriously at any revenue projection.

Panama's tourism rules restrict accommodation in the District of Panama for periods shorter than 45 days when the property does not have the appropriate tourist-accommodation authorization.

In practical terms, the 45-day threshold separates many ordinary residential rentals from the kind of nightly Airbnb business investors usually have in mind.

The building itself can add another restriction. Panama's horizontal-property regime allows PH rules and owner decisions to affect how apartments are used.

That creates a big difference between seeing an Airbnb listing online and proving that another apartment can legally operate the same business.

A host may be operating in a building designed for short stays. Another property may have the necessary tourism authorization. Some listings may simply be taking regulatory risk.

We would want the legal status of the exact apartment and PH confirmed before assigning any value to nightly rental income.

A broker saying that “Airbnb is allowed in Panama” does not answer that question.

Can a 45-day minimum Airbnb still make good money in Panama City?

A 45-day minimum rental can still work well in Panama City, especially now that furnished mid-term demand comes from much more than tourists.

Panama City attracts corporate employees, people relocating to the country, remote workers, retirees trying out neighborhoods and families who need temporary accommodation before signing a permanent lease.

Those guests are naturally better suited to one- to three-month bookings than weekend stays.

The economics change, though.

A guest might happily pay $90 a night for four nights but will rarely pay $4,050 for a 45-day stay. Longer bookings usually require meaningful monthly discounts because the guest starts comparing Airbnb with furnished local apartments rather than hotels.

On the other hand, turnover drops dramatically.

Instead of managing perhaps dozens of arrivals per year, an owner may only have five or six. Cleaning coordination, check-ins, small repairs and gaps between very short reservations become much easier to manage.

For a foreign owner, that operational difference can be worth quite a lot.

We see 45-day-plus rentals as a real Panama City investment strategy these days, not as a weaker imitation of nightly Airbnb.

How much does the average Panama City Airbnb make now?

A typical active Panama City Airbnb currently appears to make around $20,000–$21,500 a year in gross booking revenue.

Airbtics estimated average annual Panama City revenue at about B/.20,712 during 2025, compared with roughly B/.17,918 one year earlier.

More recent AirDNA data for Panama Province is in almost the same range, at about $21,400 annually.

The agreement between the datasets is useful because short-term-rental analytics can vary depending on methodology and geographic boundaries.

At roughly $21,000 a year, an average active property generates about $1,750 a month before Airbnb fees, management, utilities, PH charges, maintenance and furniture replacement.

Strong listings can obviously make more. Some local managers market properties producing $3,000 or more per month.

We would treat those as examples of what a good property can achieve rather than as a normal underwriting assumption.

If a deal only looks attractive at $35,000 of annual Airbnb revenue while the current market sits closer to $21,000, the buyer is effectively betting on above-average execution from day one.

Metric	Recent market level	What it means
Annual Airbnb revenue	~$20K–$21.5K	About $1.7K–$1.8K monthly gross
Occupancy	~68%–69%	Strong
Average daily rate	Roughly $82–$92	Moderate rather than luxury pricing
2025 revenue growth	+15.6%	Listings still earned more despite competition
2025 supply growth	+36.8%	Competition grew much faster

What purchase price still makes Panama City Airbnb attractive?

Panama City Airbnb starts looking much less interesting once an average-revenue property costs much more than about $200,000–$225,000.

Using $21,000 in annual gross revenue gives us a useful way to see the problem.

A $150,000 apartment would generate a 14.0% gross Airbnb revenue yield.

At $200,000, the figure is 10.5%.

At $250,000, it drops to 8.4%.

A $300,000 purchase produces only 7.0%.

That last number is difficult to get excited about in Panama City now because current conventional residential yields already average around 7.6%.

One-bedroom apartments across the city are even stronger, at about 8.4% gross according to Global Property Guide's latest dataset.

So an average $300,000 Airbnb would need either much higher revenue or some other reason to own the property. Otherwise, a landlord can potentially earn a similar gross return with a conventional tenant and much less operational work.

Purchase price	Gross revenue at $21K/year	Our read
$150,000	14.0%	Excellent if legally achievable
$175,000	12.0%	Strong
$200,000	10.5%	Attractive
$225,000	9.3%	Still interesting
$250,000	8.4%	Close to current 1BR long-term yields
$300,000	7.0%	Weak for average Airbnb revenue
$350,000	6.0%	Hard to justify for yield alone

Are Airbnb fees and management killing the return?

Airbnb fees and professional management can easily remove the small return advantage of a mediocre Panama City short-term rental.

This has become more relevant lately because Airbnb changed its fee structure for hosts in Panama.

Airbnb's current guidance says hosts in Panama are moving from the old split-fee structure toward a single host-paid service fee of 15.5%. Under Airbnb's own example, a property priced at $115 to the guest leaves the host with roughly $97 after the service fee.

Hosts can adjust their advertised rates, but guests still judge the final price against hotels, Booking.com and other apartments.

Professional short-term management adds another major expense. Local operators commonly charge around 15%–25% of revenue, depending on what the service includes.

Then there is electricity, internet, PH fees, repairs, furniture replacement and supplies.

A long-term landlord faces costs too, but usually less frequent turnover and lower management fees.

For that reason, we would not bother with a Panama City Airbnb that only beats the expected long-term gross yield by one percentage point.

There just is not enough margin for error.

Is long-term renting actually better than Airbnb in Panama City now?

For many ordinary Panama City apartments, long-term renting is currently good enough that Airbnb has to outperform by a lot before we would choose it.

Global Property Guide's latest Panama City data puts the average gross residential yield at 7.57%.

The numbers are particularly strong for smaller apartments. A typical citywide studio or one-bedroom is listed around $235,000 and rents for roughly $1,650 a month, producing an 8.43% gross yield.

A typical two-bedroom comes in around $245,000 with the same $1,650 median monthly rent, equal to an 8.08% yield.

Several individual neighborhoods also look good.

A San Francisco one-bedroom at around $205,000 with $1,300 rent produces roughly 7.6%. Current data for Bella Vista puts a typical smaller apartment around $170,000 with $1,350 rent, or roughly 9.5% gross. El Cangrejo comes out around 8.5% for the same unit category.

Those are asking-price calculations rather than guaranteed investor returns, and Global Property Guide estimates that actual net yields are often 1.5–2 percentage points lower after expenses.

Airbnb returns fall after expenses too.

This is why the Panama City decision is different from a city where long-term landlords earn 3% or 4%. Here, simply putting a tenant in a well-bought apartment can already produce a respectable yield.

Panama City example	Purchase price	Monthly rent	Gross long-term yield
Citywide studio / 1BR	~$235K	~$1,650	8.43%
Citywide 2BR	~$245K	~$1,650	8.08%
San Francisco 1BR	~$205K	~$1,300	7.61%
Bella Vista 1BR	~$170K	~$1,350	9.53%
El Cangrejo 1BR	~$170K	~$1,200	8.47%
Coco del Mar 1BR	~$210K	~$1,500	8.57%

Which Panama City apartments make the most sense for Airbnb?

For Panama City Airbnb today, we would start with smaller central apartments bought at sensible prices rather than automatically chasing luxury waterfront condos.

One-bedroom apartments have the broadest guest pool. They can work for couples, solo travelers, business visitors, relocating employees and medium-term tenants.

That flexibility is useful because the owner does not depend entirely on leisure tourism.

Price matters just as much as guest demand.

Take two apartments earning the current market-level $21,000.

A $180,000 unit gives a gross Airbnb revenue yield of 11.7%.

A $320,000 apartment making exactly the same revenue gives 6.6%.

The expensive property therefore needs a much stronger nightly rate, occupancy level or resale story simply to catch up.

That pushes us toward neighborhoods where central location and purchase price can still work together, including parts of San Francisco, Bella Vista, El Cangrejo and Obarrio.

The exact building matters more than the neighborhood label, especially because Airbnb rules can vary dramatically from one PH to another.

A cheaper apartment in the wrong building is still a bad Airbnb investment.

Are expensive Panama City condos worth buying for Airbnb?

Expensive Panama City condos are harder to justify for Airbnb because higher nightly rates often fail to compensate for the much larger purchase price.

Current long-term market data makes the trade-off easy to see.

Global Property Guide estimates a typical two-bedroom around Pacific Point at roughly $470,000 with about $2,500 in monthly long-term rent. That produces a gross yield of around 6.4%.

A three-bedroom there can cost around $690,000 and rent for roughly $4,500, which brings the gross yield back toward 7.8%.

Santa María is similarly expensive, with typical two-bedroom pricing around $484,000 and a gross long-term yield near 6.1%.

A premium Airbnb can beat those numbers if the unit has an exceptional view, design, terrace or proven booking history.

But the property has to earn that premium.

Even $30,000 of annual Airbnb revenue on a $400,000 apartment is only a 7.5% gross revenue yield before short-term operating costs.

A $190,000 apartment producing $21,000 gives more than 11%.

For buyers primarily interested in rental income, we currently find the second equation much easier to defend.

Premium towers make more sense when rental income is only one part of the reason for buying.

Does Panama City Airbnb depend too much on one tourist season?

Panama City Airbnb is seasonal, but it does not depend on one short tourist season to keep properties occupied.

The city's demand comes from several groups at once: leisure travelers, business visitors, corporate relocations, conferences, people moving to Panama and longer-stay international residents.

That makes Panama City different from a pure beach destination where annual returns can depend heavily on a few winter months.

The current occupancy numbers support this. Airbnb occupancy around the high-60% range and hotel occupancy close to 60% would be difficult to sustain if most accommodation demand disappeared for half the year.

Panama City's position as the country's business center also gives furnished apartments a useful fallback when leisure demand softens.

A 60-day corporate or relocation booking can cover two months of the calendar without relying on peak-season tourists.

For investors, that makes flexible apartments more attractive than properties designed around one narrow guest profile.

Who is actually renting Panama City Airbnbs?

Panama City Airbnb guests are mostly international, but the market goes well beyond people visiting the canal for a few days.

Airbtics estimates that roughly 88% of Panama City short-term-rental guests come from abroad, with the United States representing the largest origin market.

Panama City also has a large corporate and relocation economy.

The city is the country's banking, business and logistics center, while Tocumen connects it with a huge number of destinations across the Americas.

That creates demand from executives on temporary assignments, people exploring residency, remote workers, consultants and families moving into the country.

The recent rise in local asking rents supports the idea that accommodation pressure is not coming solely from tourists. Research cited by Global Property Guide shows Panama City asking rent per square meter rising 13.5% year over year by mid-2026.

That mix helps explain why 45-day-plus furnished rentals can work alongside conventional Airbnb demand.

A centrally located one-bedroom does not need every guest to be a vacationer.

Could Panama City crack down harder on Airbnb?

Panama City could enforce its short-term rental rules more aggressively, so we would not buy a property whose return depends on authorities continuing to overlook questionable nightly rentals.

The 45-day restriction has existed for years, while Airbnb inventory has continued to expand.

That mismatch can tempt buyers to assume the rule has effectively disappeared.

It has not.

The legal framework still gives authorities a basis to act, and building administrations can create their own problems for hosts through PH rules.

Hotels also compete against short-term apartments while operating under a more formal tourism and tax framework, so pressure for enforcement has an obvious commercial constituency.

There are tax differences too. Panama applies a 10% ITBMS rate to accommodation services, while longer residential leases can fall under a different treatment.

We cannot predict how aggressively enforcement will change.

We do not need to.

The safer investment is one that still works at 45 days or as a conventional rental if short-stay rules become harder to ignore.

What would make us buy a Panama City Airbnb today?

We would buy a Panama City Airbnb today when the exact property has clear short-stay permission, the purchase price leaves room for a double-digit gross revenue yield and the apartment still works as a normal rental.

Legal verification comes first.

We would want documentary confirmation that the particular apartment and PH can operate the booking strategy used in the financial model.

Then we would look at price.

With current market revenue around $21,000 annually, a property below roughly $200,000 gives much more room for management fees, platform costs and weaker years than one priced at $300,000.

An existing operating history makes the deal much stronger. Twelve months of actual bookings and payouts from the exact apartment tell us far more than a broker's projected nightly rate.

The fallback also needs to be good.

As seen above, Panama City one-bedroom long-term yields currently average roughly 8.4%. If an apartment would produce a respectable normal rent even after the Airbnb strategy disappears, regulation and competition become much less frightening.

Finally, we would want something guests can recognize in a crowded search page: a view, unusually good walkability, a real workspace, strong design, a balcony or a building with facilities people actually use.

What we check	Good sign	Bad sign
Short-stay legality	Written confirmation for exact property	“Other owners do it”
Purchase price	Average revenue still gives strong yield	Needs exceptional revenue
Actual Airbnb history	12 months of verified payouts	Broker projection
Long-term fallback	Around 7%–8%+ gross	Weak conventional rent
Property	Clearly differentiated	Generic investor condo
Management costs	Deal survives full-service fees	Only works if self-managed

What would make us walk away from a Panama City Airbnb?

We would walk away from a Panama City Airbnb when average market revenue cannot support the price or when the deal only works with questionable short stays.

A $300,000 apartment projected to earn $35,000 can look excellent on a sales spreadsheet.

But the current market average is closer to $21,000.

At $21,000, the same $300,000 property produces only a 7% gross revenue yield before Airbnb fees, management, utilities and other operating costs.

That is already below the current average gross yield for a normal Panama City apartment.

The economics become even weaker if the $35,000 projection assumes a nightly rental model that cannot be clearly verified under the building's rules.

We would also be wary of properties where the seller uses one spectacular comparable listing to justify revenue.

Panama City now has enough supply that an average apartment should be underwritten as an average apartment.

Paying for top-decile Airbnb performance before the property has demonstrated it is one of the easiest ways to turn a decent real-estate purchase into a poor investment.

So, is Airbnb still worth it in Panama City?

Yes, Airbnb is still worth it in Panama City, but the opportunity has narrowed to well-bought properties with clear legal permission or a strong 45-day-plus strategy.

Demand currently looks convincing.

Panama has just posted its strongest first-half visitor growth in years, with international arrivals up 17.4%. Airbnb occupancy remains around 68%–69%, and annual revenue per active listing has been hovering close to $21,000.

Competition is also getting harder.

Airbtics recorded 36.8% supply growth in 2025 versus 15.6% growth in revenue per listing. New apartments are still being absorbed, but owners can no longer assume tourism growth alone will protect mediocre listings.

The biggest obstacle remains the 45-day rule. A normal residential apartment should never be priced as though unrestricted nightly Airbnb income were guaranteed.

Long-term renting makes the choice even tougher. As pointed out above, Panama City's latest average gross residential yield is about 7.6%, while one-bedroom apartments average roughly 8.4%. Airbnb therefore needs to create a noticeable premium after its extra costs.

We would still buy the right Panama City Airbnb.

It would probably be a reasonably priced studio or one-bedroom, centrally located, legally suitable for its intended booking model, backed by real rental history and capable of earning a good conventional rent if the Airbnb strategy stops making sense.

For a generic $300,000 condo relying on optimistic nightly-rental projections, we would pass.

Fact-checked and reviewed by our local expert

✓✓✓

Shai Bar-Ziv

Founder, Panavanti

Shai Bar-Ziv is the founder of Panavanti, a boutique real-estate brokerage in Panama City specializing in investment properties: commercial plazas, office buildings, and high-yield residential in Costa del Este, the Banking District, and Casco Viejo. He works directly with foreign investors in English and Spanish, backed by a continuously updated dataset of Panama City listings with zone-level pricing.

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