Panama Real Estate Market 2026: Prices, Permits, Outlook

Panama issued permits for 26% more square meters of construction in the first quarter of 2026 than in the same quarter of 2025, according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo. That ends two straight years of decline, and it is the clearest official read anyone has on where this market is heading. If you have been waiting to see whether Panama's building cycle turned, it turned.

The rest is timing. A 2025 law removed the transfer-tax exemption on new homes, a bill approved by Cabinet on 30 July 2026 would bring a version of it back, and whether that bill passes before your closing is worth real money if you are buying new construction under $200,000. This guide walks through what the official numbers show, what the tax change means for your purchase, and where to go for prices on a specific building.

Key takeaways

• Permitted construction area grew 26% nationally in Q1 2026 versus Q1 2025, 412,207 m² against 326,956 m², after two straight years of decline. Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo, Edificaciones, área y valor de las construcciones, checked August 2026.
• Declared construction value grew faster still, B/.301.1 million against B/.220.9 million, up 36.3% year on year.
• The growth is broadest outside the capital. Arraiján, Aguadulce, David and Colón all more than doubled or came close, while Panamá district itself grew 9.8% off much the largest base.
• Since 1 January 2026, every first sale of a new home pays the full 2% ITBI. Ley 468, Gaceta Oficial No. 30264-A of 24 April 2025, repealed the exemption that had covered first sales of new construction.
• A partial exemption has been approved by Cabinet, not yet passed into law. The 30 July 2026 bill would exempt new homes up to $120,000 and apply reduced rates up to $200,000. It still needs the National Assembly.
• More than B/.11 billion in planned public infrastructure spending is what the construction industry expects to carry the sector through 2026, alongside projected 4% to 5% sector GDP growth. CAPAC, checked August 2026.

What the official numbers show

INEC runs a quarterly count of construction permits, built from permits granted by the Dirección de Obras y Construcciones of the Panama City municipality and the municipal engineering offices of Aguadulce, Arraiján, Colón, Chitré, David, La Chorrera and Santiago. It counts what district governments approved someone to build, which makes it a forward-looking measure: these are the units that will come to market over the next two to three years.

The January to March 2026 figures are strong. The country issued permits for 1,263 buildings covering 412,207 m², a planned value of B/.301.1 million, up 36.3% on the same quarter of 2025. Residential permits accounted for 1,187 buildings, 2,063 housing units and 252,707 m², a value of B/.175.5 million, up 10.0%. Non-residential permits, meaning offices, retail and industrial, grew far faster in value terms: 76 buildings, 159,500 m² and B/.125.6 million, up 104.8%. Panama City's own district, still the largest single share of the national total, recorded 398 buildings and 251,737 m², up 9.8% in area and 20.3% in declared value.

Read that chart as a map of where developers are placing bets. Arraiján, on the western side of the canal, is the standout at 324.7%. Aguadulce and David, the commercial hub of Chiriquí province and the service town for Boquete, both more than doubled. La Chorrera is the one district that shrank. Panamá district grew modestly in percentage terms while remaining, in absolute square meters, more than half the national total.

One scope note worth carrying: this report covers those eight districts, so it does not describe Coronado, which sits in Chame district, or Bocas del Toro, or the Azuero beach towns of Los Santos province. Growth in those markets shows up in project launches rather than in this particular table.

A more recent preliminary INEC release covering January through April 2026 shows the trend continuing, with permit value up 43.5% and planned area up 31.7% against the same four months of 2025.

The industry's own read, and the infrastructure behind it

CAPAC, the Cámara Panameña de la Construcción, is the construction industry's association rather than a government body, and its read on the same INEC data is deliberately measured. Its president called the 36.3% permit-value growth "una mejora parcial, pero todavía insuficiente" for a consolidated recovery, and CAPAC's own comparison put Q1 2026 permit value 44.1 percentage points below the equivalent comparison for Q1 2023, before the two-year slump. In other words, the market is climbing back toward where it was rather than into new territory.

What CAPAC points to as the real engine for 2026 is more than B/.11 billion in planned public infrastructure spending, alongside a projected 4% to 5% construction-sector GDP growth. For a buyer, public infrastructure is the part of a market forecast that is hardest to fake: roads, transit and utilities get built on published budgets, and they change what a location is worth by changing how long it takes to get there. If you are weighing a purchase in a corridor that is still filling in, the infrastructure pipeline is the thing to ask your agent about by name.

The tax change that decides your timing

This is the most actionable thing on this page, so it gets room.

Ley 468 de 2025, published in Gaceta Oficial No. 30264-A on 24 April 2025, repealed Article 4 of Ley 106 of 1974, the provision that had exempted first sales of new homes from the property transfer tax, ITBI. The repeal took effect on 25 April 2025 with one narrow carve-out: purchases financed through a preferential mortgage under Ley 3 of 1985, processed between 25 April and 31 December 2025, on a new primary residence priced at B/.120,000 or less, could still claim the exemption. That window closed at the end of 2025.

So the position today is simple. Since 1 January 2026, every first sale of a new home in Panama pays the full 2% ITBI, calculated on the greater of the sale price or the cadastral value.

On 30 July 2026, the Consejo de Gabinete approved a bill to bring a version of the exemption back, announced jointly by Finance Minister Felipe Chapman and Housing Minister Jaime Jované. As proposed, it would fully exempt new homes up to $120,000, then apply reduced rates on the portion above that:

That is a Cabinet-approved bill, not a law in force. It needs the National Assembly, and as of this check in August 2026 it has not passed, so plan your purchase on the 2% that applies today and treat any saving as upside.

Here is how that lands depending on who you are:

• Buying new construction from a developer under $200,000. Your closing date and the Assembly's calendar are now connected. Ask your developer in writing how the contract allocates ITBI if the rate changes between signing and title transfer, because that is a clause that can be negotiated before you sign.
• Buying new construction above $200,000. The bill does not change your position. You pay 2%, as you would have in 2025.
• Buying a resale from another individual. The exemption has never applied to you, in either its old or its proposed form. Resales pay the standard 2%, and it is the seller who files it, which our buying guide walks through step by step.
• Buying for residency. The property thresholds are B/.300,000 for the Qualified Investor route and B/.200,000 for Friendly Nations, and those are set by decree rather than by this bill. Our residency guide covers both routes and which documents each needs.

Where to get an actual price

Panama publishes what gets built. It does not publish a national price index, and the Registro Público records individual deeds without aggregating them into a median or a figure per square meter by district. That means the useful prices in this market are per-building and per-unit, not per-zone, and gathering them is exactly what we do.

Two places to go from here. Our area pages carry the real, checked positions for the places people actually shortlist: Boquete for the mountain climate, Pedasí and Playa Venao on the Azuero coast, Bocas del Toro for the Caribbean. For the capital, our Panama City neighbourhood guide compares the districts foreign buyers choose, and our cost of living guide sets out the rent and household numbers Panama does publish, from the 2023 census.

For an asking price in a specific building this month, ask us. We hold current per-unit pricing on the projects we cover and we can pull the rest.

Your next step

Panama is building again, the infrastructure money is committed, and the tax picture for new homes may be about to improve. The part that is specific to you, which district, new build or resale, and whether to close before or after the Assembly moves, is a short conversation.

Send us your budget, your timeline, and what you want the property to do for you, whether that is a home, a rental, or a residency qualification. We will come back with a shortlist of buildings and areas that fit, with current asking prices attached. It costs nothing to ask.

Frequently asked questions