The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector stood at 663,280 sqm during the month of September 2020, up from 422,599 sqm in August. On a cumulative basis, however, the surface area of construction permits plunged by 32.75% y-o-y to 2,720,796 sqm in the first nine months of the current year, compared to 4,045,728 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 (1,110,589 sqm <40.82%>), followed by the South (785,822 sqm <28.88%>), Nabatieh (429,173 sqm <15.77%>), Bekaa (299,533 sqm <11.01%), and Beirut (67,671 sqm <2.49%>) 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 Bekaa governorate enjoyed the highest exploitation coefficient, which stood at 489 sqm per construction permit in the first nine months of 2020, followed by the North (475 sqm/transaction), Mount Lebanon (410 sqm/transaction), South (390 sqm/transaction), Nabatieh (329 sqm/transaction), and Beirut (290 sqm/transaction) governorates.