Real estate activity improved during the month of December with the number of sale transactions increasing by 121.78% to 13,391 and the value of transactions rising by 118.55% to $2.12 billion. As a result, the average value per transaction fell by 1.45% month-on-month to $158,155, from $160,490 a month earlier. On a cumulative basis, the number of real estate transactions rose by 63.25% in 2020 to 82,202 transactions, while the value of transactions more than doubled to reach $14.39 billion. Consequently, the average value per transaction increased by 28.85% from $135,828 in 2019 to $175,015 in 2020. The solid performance of the real estate sector owes to a rush by depositors to buy real estate in an attempt to liquidate part of their blocked savings in the banking sector amid the stringent foreign currency withdrawal restrictions. It is worth noting that foreigners’ share of sale transactions fell to 1.53% at end of December 2020, down from 1.97% at end of 2019.

From a geographical standpoint, the average value per real estate transaction in the Beirut region increased by 21.08% to $693,797 in 2020, up from $573,014 at year-end 2019 with that in the Metn region rising by 26.86% to $257,785 Similarly, the average value per transaction in each of the Kesserwan and Baabda regions came in 29.15% and 23.44% higher at $175,425 and $156,003 respectively.