The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector stood at 481,491 sqm during the month of November 2020, down from 508,089 sqm in October. On a cumulative basis, the surface area of construction permits plunged by 18.91% y-o-y to 3,721,723 sqm in the first eleven months of the current year, compared to 4,589,630 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 (1,506,567 sqm <40.48%>), followed by the South (1,070,176 sqm <28.75%>), Nabatieh (591,388 sqm <15.89%>), Bekaa (427,165 sqm <11.48%), and Beirut (89,150 sqm <2.40%>) 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 513 sqm per construction permit in the first eleven months of 2020, followed by the North (460 sqm/transaction), Mount Lebanon (426 sqm/transaction), South (391 sqm/transaction), Nabatieh (332 sqm/transaction), and Beirut (303 sqm/transaction) governorates.