The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector, fell to 386,337 sqm during the month of September 2019, down from 392,088 sqm in August. On a cumulative basis, the surface area of construction permits plunged by 27.53% y-o-y to 4,038,997 sqm in the first nine months of the current year, compared to 5,573,125 sqm during that same period last year.

As far as the geographical distribution of construction permits is concerned, the Mount Lebanon region continued to control the lion’s share of the total surface area of issued permits (1,763,815 sqm <43.67%>), followed by the South (958,513 sqm <23.73%>), Bekaa (494,931 sqm <12.25%>), Nabatieh (428,232 sqm <10.60%), and Beirut (352,640 sqm <8.73%>) regions. It is worth noting that figures for the North governorate are underestimated since they exclude permits issued by the North Order of Engineers.

The Beirut governorate enjoyed the highest exploitation coefficient, which stood at 664 sqm per construction permit by September 2019, followed by the Mount Lebanon (575 sqm/transaction), Bekaa (570 sqm/transaction), South (501 sqm/transaction), North (475 sqm/transaction), and Nabatieh (367 sqm/transaction) governorates.