If you have seen headlines about a “$300,000 Panama deadline in October,” they are out of date. On 8 September 2026 Panama signed Executive Decree No. 17, splitting the golden-visa property route: resale property now requires $500,000, while new-build and off-plan purchases stay at $300,000 (off-plan with a bank guarantee). Here is the accurate version.
What changed
On 8 September 2026, Panama signed Executive Decree No. 17, which appeared in the Official Gazette on 16 September and took effect on publication. It replaced the 2020 decree that created the Qualified Investor Permanent Residency programme, along with its later amendments.
The headline change is to the real-estate route, which has been split in two:
- Resale property now requires a minimum of $500,000.
- A first purchase of a new property from its developer still qualifies at $300,000.
- Off-plan purchases also stay at $300,000, but now require a bank guarantee — an irrevocable instrument payable on demand — that stays in place until the finished property is registered in your name.
So the old position, where any property purchase of $300,000 qualified, is gone. The $300,000 entry point survives, but only for new-build and off-plan. Buy an existing, previously-owned home and the figure is now $500,000. The government has been open about why: it wants to channel foreign investment into new construction, which it says creates more jobs and economic activity than resale.
The other routes moved too. The securities route stays at $500,000, but now explicitly includes private equity and venture capital funds and Panamanian government debt. The bank-deposit route is $750,000 at a private bank, or $500,000 if the deposit sits at one of the state banks.
If you are already mid-deal
The citizenship point, made clearer than ever
The decree also, for the first time, writes naturalisation into the programme: qualified investors may seek citizenship after five continuous years of residence. But — and this matters — it does not define how much physical presence “residence” requires, and Panamanian commentary is now openly warning that the popular “just visit once every two years” advice is likely to get a naturalisation application rejected.
In other words, the version sold online — a Panama passport in five years without living there — is looking less safe, not more, after this decree. Panama gives residency by investment. Citizenship is a genuine naturalisation that expects real ties to the country, and the government has just signalled it intends to scrutinise that.
What this means in practice
The “$300,000 Panama golden visa” is still real, but it now means a specific thing: a new-build or off-plan purchase from a developer, with the paperwork and, for off-plan, the bank guarantee that goes with it. Resale buyers face $500,000. And anyone whose real goal is a fast, low-presence route to a passport should treat the citizenship timeline with more caution than the marketing suggests. The full programme is set out in my complete Panama Golden Visa guide.
If what you actually want is Europe — the right to live, work and study across the EU — none of this is your route in any case. That is Portugal, and I compare the two honestly in Panama vs Portugal for Americans.
