The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector, rose to 309,036 sqm during the month of December 2019, up from 280,176 sqm in November. On a cumulative basis however, the surface area of construction permits plunged by 31.43% in 2019 to 4,898,666 sqm, compared to 7,143,725 sqm in 2018.

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 (2,128,613 sqm <43.45%>), followed by the South (1,204,514 sqm <24.59%>), Bekaa (600,049 sqm <12.25%>), Nabatieh (544,303 sqm <11.11%), and Beirut (366,572 sqm <7.48%>) 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 601 sqm per construction permit in 2019, followed by the Bekaa (571 sqm/transaction), Mount Lebanon (566 sqm/transaction), North (501 sqm/transaction), South (491 sqm/transaction), and Nabatieh (367 sqm/transaction) governorates.