Real estate activity dropped markedly during the tenth month of the current year on the back of the massive protests and road closures during the second half of the month, with the number of sale transactions dropping by 32.81% on a monthly basis to 3,911 and the value of transactions contracting by 36.96% to $504.86 million. As a result, the average value per transaction dropped by 6.18% month-on-month to $129,087, from $137,585 in September. Moreover, and on a cumulative basis, the number of real estate transactions plunged by 15.61% y-o-y to 40,863 transactions during the first ten months of 2019, with the value of transactions dipping by 19.78% to $5.24 billion. Consequently, the average value per transaction contracted by 4.94% y-o-y to $128,310 at end of October 2019, from $134,978 a year earlier. It is worth noting that foreigners’ share of sale transactions rose to 2.05% by October 2019, up from 2.00% at end of 2018.

From a geographical standpoint, the average value per real estate transaction in the Beirut region increased by 7.00% to $545,334 by the month of October 2019, up from $509,659 at year-end 2018, with that in the Metn region improving by 2.21% to $207,841. Conversely, the average value per transaction in each of the Kesserwan and Baabda regions plummeted by 12.96% and 7.46% to $131,775 and $125,151 respectively.