This is a composite scenario built from patterns we see repeatedly in our advisory work, not a single identified client.
A client who came to us in September was set on a resale condo in Panama City, convinced he had to close before an "October 15 deadline" or watch the Qualified Investor real estate threshold jump from $300,000 to $500,000. We found no such deadline in the decree or in the law-firm summaries of it. But Panama's government did issue a genuinely new decree on the Qualified Investor program: Executive Decree 17 of September 8, 2026, published and in force September 16, 2026 (Gaceta Oficial Digital No. 30613). The real change had nothing to do with a calendar deadline, and everything to do with what kind of property he was buying.
The rumor versus the reality
The "$300K expires October 15" story has been repeated by real estate marketers for months, and it traces back to a genuine but misunderstood fact: the $300,000 figure started in 2020 as a temporary, two-year discount, extended a couple of times, with a final extension window that ended October 15, 2024 — not 2026. A 2024 decree then made $300,000 the standing minimum (per law-firm summaries). Anyone telling you the threshold sunsets on a specific future date should show you the article in the Gaceta that says so.
What actually changed, on September 16, 2026, is more interesting: the government replaced the old decree with one that splits the real estate route by property type rather than by date.
What the new decree actually says
- New construction, first sale: $300,000 minimum.
- Resale property — previously marketed, occupied, leased or transferred: $500,000 minimum.
- Securities route: $500,000 through a licensed Panamanian brokerage.
- Bank deposit route: $750,000 generally, or $500,000 directly at Banco Nacional de Panamá or Caja de Ahorros. Funds must be your own, come from abroad and be traceable; third-party gifts do not count.
- All investments held a minimum of five consecutive years.
- Valuation: the net value counted is the lower of the price paid and the reasonable commercial value, minus real liens. An independent appraisal can be required when there are objective doubts about the value (valid six months).
Where our client landed
His resale condo — a well-located but previously-owned unit — now needed to clear $500,000 to qualify, not $300,000. Rather than rush a purchase to beat a deadline that didn't exist, we walked him through the actual math: a comparable new-build unit from a developer's first-sale inventory qualified at $300,000, with a legitimate appraisal already on file from the developer, and no risk of the stricter valuation scrutiny the new decree introduces for resales priced near the threshold.
He closed on the new-build instead — for less capital, with a cleaner appraisal trail, and without ever needing the deadline that was pushing him to move fast.
The lesson
The property market has every incentive to make a threshold change sound like a countdown. The actual rule, as of this month, doesn't care what day it is — it cares whether the unit you're buying has ever been sold or occupied before. That's a five-minute question to answer before you make an offer, and it can be the difference between $300,000 and $500,000.
Sources: Executive Decree 17 of 8 September 2026, Gaceta Oficial Digital No. 30613 (16 Sept 2026), decree on pp. 23–37; summaries by Icaza, Fábrega Molino and Quijano. Law-firm summaries are not the official text: confirm with Migración or a Panamanian attorney. Applications filed before 16 September 2026 follow the previous rules.