The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector stood at 482,925 sqm during the month of June 2020, up from 113,092 sqm in May. However on a cumulative basis, the surface area of construction permits plunged by 60.52% y-o-y to 1,081,639 sqm in the first half of the current year, compared to 2,740,019 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 (491,792 sqm <45.47%>), followed by the South (291,243 sqm <26.93%>), Nabatieh (155,371 sqm <14.36%>), Bekaa (101,323 sqm <9.37%), and Beirut (34,363 sqm <3.18%>) 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 408 sqm per construction permit in H1-2020, followed by the Bekaa (394 sqm/transaction), South (382 sqm/transaction), Nabatieh (339 sqm/transaction), North (314 sqm/transaction), and Beirut (240 sqm/transaction) governorates.