The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector, fell to 262,757 sqm during the month of October 2019, down from 387,009 sqm in September. On a cumulative basis, the surface area of construction permits plunged by 30.09% y-o-y to 4,304,203 sqm in the first ten months of the current year, compared to 6,156,537 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 (1,881,690 sqm <43.72%>), followed by the South (1,022,789 sqm <23.76%>), Bekaa (527,586 sqm <12.26%>), Nabatieh (468,216 sqm <10.88%), and Beirut (359,380 sqm <8.35%>) 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 638 sqm per construction permit by October 2019, followed by the Mount Lebanon (572 sqm/transaction), Bekaa (567 sqm/transaction), South (494 sqm/transaction), North (469 sqm/transaction), and Nabatieh (364 sqm/transaction) governorates.