The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector, rose to 279,585 sqm during the month of November 2019, up from 262,231 sqm in October. On a cumulative basis however, the surface area of construction permits plunged by 30.91% y-o-y to 4,589,091 sqm in the first eleven months of the current year, compared to 6,642,393 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 (2,002,167 sqm <43.63%>), followed by the South (1,105,561 sqm <24.09%>), Bekaa (561,529 sqm <12.24%>), Nabatieh (513,620 sqm <11.19%), and Beirut (360,722 sqm <7.86%>) 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 615 sqm per construction permit by November 2019, followed by the Bekaa (574 sqm/transaction), Mount Lebanon (572 sqm/transaction), South (490 sqm/transaction), North (450 sqm/transaction), and Nabatieh (368 sqm/transaction) governorates.