Expo CAPAC 2026: Housing Demand in Numbers

Expo CAPAC 2026 closed on September 27 at the Panama Convention Center with something the sector had not seen in months: lines at the door. We reviewed what developers presented, how they captured leads, and what happens to those leads after the fair. What follows is what the fair says about housing demand in Panama, what every sales team should be asked, and how to prepare for what comes next.

How many people attended Expo CAPAC 2026?

According to the fair's official website, Expo CAPAC 2026 gathered over 9,000 participants at the Panama Convention Center from September 24 to 27, 2026. Separately, the newspaper Crítica reports that on Sunday alone more than 10,000 people had passed through by mid-afternoon 3. The figures come from different sources and are quoted as each published them.

The edition's numbers tell the rest of the story:

• Over 300 exhibitors and about 150 housing developers (Telemetro and TVN, September 24, 2026) 4 6.
• Over 300 housing projects, with homes from B/.50,000 (TVN, September 24, 2026) 4.
• The fair projected around B/.80 million in transactions (TVN, August 25, 2026) 5 and closing headlines pointed to B/.100 million (Crítica, September 27, 2026) 3.
• The 10 participating banks offered on-site mortgage pre-qualification and approval, plus information on the preferred-rate mortgage regime (CAPAC, August 25, 2026) 2.

What does the fair say about demand in each segment?

The fair saw real demand across every market segment: from affordable housing starting at B/.50,000 to luxury towers, with buying audiences in every price range. Demand is not the problem. The problem is what happens to each lead after they leave the stand.

At InmoBenchmark we measure Panama's 98 developers across five segments: LUX (luxury), UPR (upper), MID (mid-market), LOW (affordable housing) and COM (commercial). The market's average digital maturity is 53.07 out of 100 (details in the InmoBenchmark benchmark 11).

A fact that surprises many: affordable housing (LOW) is not as far behind digitally as assumed. The real gap is in lead capture. In our research, 68 of the 98 developers have no detected CRM behind their website. The fair's audience had somewhere to buy. Not every developer had somewhere to store the people they served.

How does Law 546 benefit affordable and social-interest housing?

Law 546 of August 31, 2026 exempts the Real Estate Transfer Tax (ITBI) on the first B/.120,000 of the first sale of a new home. For affordable and social-interest housing, this directly lowers the upfront cost the buyer faces at signing.

The context is worth understanding, because it explains why the law arrived right before the fair. The previous ITBI benefit ended on January 1, 2026: Law 399 of 2023 set its end date, Law 468 of April 2025 repealed the relevant article of Law 106 of 1974, and Law 472 of June 2025 only suspended that repeal until December 31, 2025. For eight months of 2026, anyone buying their first new home paid the full ITBI. Law 546 restored a more focused benefit three weeks before Expo CAPAC 7 8.

• First sale of a new home, formalized within two years of the occupancy permit (30 months under the transitional provision): exemption on the first B/.120,000.
• Between B/.120,000 and B/.200,000: the tax is calculated only on the excess, with stepped rates from 0.50% to 1.80%.
• Social-interest housing under MIVIOT standards: up to B/.50,000, with access to the preferred-rate mortgage regime (Law 481) and financing of up to 98% at state banks.
• New homes up to B/.120,000 in construction value: 20-year property tax exemption on improvements.

A tax benefit does not sell by itself. It needs to appear in the project fact sheet, the landing page, the quick WhatsApp reply and the sales team's training, or the buyer learns about it at the notary. Developers who translate the law into a clear message ("you pay less at signing") will capitalize on the demand already out there.

What questions should every developer ask their sales team?

Start with one: how long does your team take to answer a new lead? In our work with developers in Panama, leads that wait more than one hour convert far less than those answered immediately 13. The fair multiplies leads; the response converts them.

These are the questions that would leave any sales team without comfortable answers, and each one comes from what we measure in the benchmark:

• Which CRM does your sales team use? In our research, 68 of 98 developers have no detected CRM. If the answer is "a spreadsheet" or "the salespeople's phones", the fair was wasted.
• How long does your team take to answer a new lead? The first hour is what matters [13]. Define a maximum response time and make it a team goal.
• Do you know where each lead comes from: WhatsApp, portal, fair, Meta Ads? 58% of the benchmark's developers use WhatsApp as their main channel. Without traceability, there is no way to know which investment brings buyers.
• What happened to the leads you collected at Expo CAPAC? Every fair lead should be logged in a system the same day, with date, project of interest and a follow-up deadline. If this is written down nowhere, ask today how it is going.
• How are you preparing for the next fair? Today's leads are Q1 2027 sales. The team that enters January with a worked list starts ahead.

WhatsApp or email?

WhatsApp and email do not compete: they serve different functions. WhatsApp opens the conversation with the Panamanian buyer, which is where 58% of the benchmark's developers live. Email is where quotes, floor plans, formal approvals and the history that survives team turnover are kept.

A chat lost on a salesperson's phone after they quit is a sale lost twice. An email archived in the system is information the next person can pick up. The practical rule: WhatsApp to answer fast, email to keep a record, and both inside the follow-up system. If your team lives only on WhatsApp, you are operating without files.

How to prepare for ACOBIR 2027 and the next Expo Vivienda?

The next big date is Expo Inmobiliaria ACOBIR 2027: January 28 to 31, 2027 at the Atlapa Convention Center, with over 300 projects according to the organizers 10. Then comes Expo Vivienda CAPAC in April 2027 (the 2026 edition ran April 16 to 19), with dates to be confirmed by CAPAC 12.

Four months between now and Atlapa is enough time to arrive with the lead-capture system ready, not to improvise it the week before. Three things to decide now, not in January:

• Who from the team goes and how stand shifts are shared.
• Where leads are logged during the fair (a form on a phone works; a notebook does not).
• How long the first follow-up takes after the contact, and who measures it.

See you at Expo Inmobiliaria ACOBIR 2027. If you want to talk about how your project compares with the market before the fair, you can start below.