Real estate activity was subdued in the second month of 2021 as a result of the government’s imposed strict lockdown which started on January 14. In details, the number of sale transactions dropped by 60.26% month-on-month to 589 in February and the value of transactions contracted by 69.72% to $67.47 million. Consequently, the average value per transaction fell by 23.81% month-on-month to $114,544, from $150,338 a month earlier. Furthermore, and on a cumulative basis, the number of real estate transactions plunged by 80.88% y-o-y to 2,071 transactions by February 2021, with the value of transactions dropping concurrently by 83.63% to $0.29 billion. It is worth noting that foreigners’ share of sale transactions fell to 1.30% by end of February 2021, down from 1.53% at end of 2020.

From a geographical standpoint, the average value per real estate transaction in the Beirut region increased by 67.99% to $962,618 by February 2021, up from $693,797 at year-end 2020 with that in the Metn region skyrocketing by 97.22% to $400,751. Similarly, the average value per transaction in each of the Kesserwan and Baabda regions came in 92.94% and 4.49% higher at $262,070 and $132,058 respectively.