The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector rose to 685,322 sqm during the month of December 2020, up from 482,449 sqm in November. On a cumulative basis, however, the surface area of construction permits plunged by 9.85% in the year 2020 to 4,416,328 sqm, compared to 4,898,666 sqm in 2019.

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 (1,816,374 sqm <41.13%>), followed by the South (1,261,692 sqm <28.57%>), Nabatieh (694,366 sqm <15.72%>), Bekaa (507,799 sqm <11.50%), and Beirut (96,452 sqm <2.18%>) 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 Bekaa governorate enjoyed the highest exploitation coefficient, which stood at 517 sqm per construction permit in 2020, followed by Mount Lebanon (441 sqm/transaction), the North (413 sqm/transaction), South (396 sqm/transaction), Nabatieh (340 sqm/transaction), and Beirut (292 sqm/transaction) governorates.