Panama Law 546: Transfer Tax on New Homes, Worked Out

Sixteen months after Panama stopped exempting the first sale of most new homes from its 2% transfer tax, a law in force since Sept. 1, 2026 exempts the first $120,000 of the price.

On a $150,000 apartment the tax falls from $3,000 to $300. On any new home above $200,000 it falls by exactly $2,400.

The break covers the first sale of a new home deeded within two years of its occupancy permit. It sets no condition on who buys, so a foreign buyer or an investor qualifies as fully as a first-time buyer does.

The rules below come from the text of Ley 546 of Aug. 31, 2026 and Ley 468 of April 24, 2025, both read from the scanned Gaceta Oficial issues. Project prices are developer starting prices from Panama Property Guide's records, checked on Nov. 6, 2026.

Much of the coverage called it a first-home benefit or a break for homes up to $120,000. "Nobody can buy $120,000 homes," one viewer scoffed under Telemetro Reporta's August YouTube report on the bill. The law caps neither the price nor the buyer's history, and a $400,000 apartment keeps its first $120,000 exempt too.

What you pay at each price

Under Article 1 of Ley 546, the price band sets one rate, and that rate applies to everything above $120,000. The examples treat the deed price as the taxable base.

The saving peaks at $2,700, at $150,000 and again at $170,000. Above $200,000 it stops moving, because the reduced rates end and only the first $120,000 stays exempt. The ITBI glossary entry covers how the tax works on a resale.

Why new homes paid 2% for 16 months

Panama had exempted the first sale of new homes for 50 years, Elisa Suárez, executive director of the developers' association Convivienda, told Telemetro in April.

Ley 468 of April 24, 2025, the preferential-interest mortgage law, ended that on the day it was promulgated. Its Article 13 repealed Article 4 of Ley 106 of 1974, and its Article 11 kept the exemption, until Dec. 31, 2025, only for purchases financed with a preferential-rate mortgage, a program Ley 468 limits to new homes up to $120,000.

So a new home bought without a preferential mortgage paid 2% from April 2025, and from Jan. 1, 2026 every first sale did, until Aug. 31. Much of the press dates the change to January, when it reached the lower-priced homes.

Suárez warned in April that any cost added to a home "sooner or later" reaches the buyer.

The cabinet approved the fix on July 28, the Asamblea Nacional passed it in third debate on Aug. 26 with 53 votes, and President José Raúl Mulino signed it on Aug. 31, La Estrella de Panamá reported. It took effect the next day.

Economy and finance minister Felipe Chapman said in July the measure was aimed first at helping lower-income Panamanian families buy a home. A sale deeded before Sept. 1 stays under the rules of its date under Article 2, so a seller who paid 2% in July has nothing to reclaim.

The dollar that costs $140

Because the band sets the rate for the whole excess, crossing a band edge by one dollar raises the rate on every dollar above $120,000. Article 1 applies each rate "según la base imponible de la transferencia", the total price, and that is the reading used here.

"Mañana aumentan las casas 120,001" ("tomorrow houses go up to 120,001"), one reader wrote in early September under Telemetro Reporta's Facebook post on the signing, a comment that drew 25 likes. The edges that matter sit higher.

A price of $190,050 leaves the seller $90.90 less after tax than a price of $190,000. Any price in the last column of the table does the same, so a list price just over an edge is the one a seller has a reason to trim.

Who keeps the $2,400

The transfer tax was the seller's before Ley 546 and still is. The exemption therefore lands first on the developer's side of the deed.

Buyers doubt the saving reaches them. "Más ingreso para las inmobiliarias" ("more income for the developers"), read one reply under the Telemetro Reporta post. Under the YouTube report, another viewer argued that the tax does not really fall on the seller, because developers never lose.

The law settles the contract half of that. Article 1 makes "nula de pleno derecho", void from the outset, any clause that has the buyer pay, reimburse or take on the transfer tax, so a promesa de compraventa that passes ITBI to you is void on that point.

It does not touch the list price. Whether the $2,400 shows up in what you pay depends on the developer's price list, which no part of Ley 546 regulates.

Panama's consumer protection authority, the Autoridad de Protección al Consumidor y Defensa de la Competencia (Acodeco), received 893 complaints over abusive clauses against real estate companies from January 2020 to September 2026, worth B/.120.1 million (the balboa is at par with the dollar), Telemetro reported on Nov. 6. The report does not break out the transfer tax.

The clock starts at the permit

The exemption holds only if the deed is signed within two years of the date the occupancy permit was issued. The date you signed the promesa plays no part.

The clock starts when the building is finished. The units at risk are those still unsold after the permit, and closings that wait months on a mortgage approval.

Buildings permitted before Sept. 1, 2026 get 30 months instead of 24 under Article 2. A tower that received its permit in October 2024 has until April 2027.

The seller must swear in the escritura that the home is new, that this is its first sale and that it closes inside the window, and must write the permit's date and details into the deed. No certificate from the Dirección General de Ingresos (DGI) is needed. A false declaration triggers the unpaid tax plus surcharges and interest.

Our tracked projects under $200,000

Eight of the 30 projects Panama Property Guide tracks start at or below $200,000, where the reduced rates apply. The other 22 start higher, so their buyers save the flat $2,400. Prices are the developers' published starting prices, which are asking prices.

One finished building on our list already has its clock running. Dovle Cincuentenario in Coco del Mar was delivered in the fourth quarter of 2024, so it falls under the 30-month rule: if its permit dates from that quarter, the window for its remaining units closes between April and June 2027.

Three more, Cavarosa, Dovle Selva and Casa Parque, are due for delivery in 2026, which would put their two-year windows into 2028.