The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector stood at 112,858 sqm during the month of May 2020, noting that no transactions were recorded in April due to the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However on a cumulative basis, the surface area of construction permits plunged by 75.43% y-o-y to 597,992 sqm in the first five months of the current year, compared to 2,433,378 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 (291,089 sqm <48.68%>), followed by the South (145,384 sqm <24.31%>), Nabatieh (79,130 sqm <13.23%>), Bekaa (53,035 sqm <8.87%), and Beirut (24,271 sqm <4.06%>) 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 Mount Lebanon governorate enjoyed the highest exploitation coefficient, which stood at 384 sqm per construction permit YTD May 2020, followed by the Bekaa (354 sqm/transaction), North (339 sqm/transaction), South (330 sqm/transaction), Nabatieh (308 sqm/transaction), and Beirut (255 sqm/transaction) governorates.