Real estate activity was subdued during the fifth month of 2021 with the number of sale transactions falling by 20.90% month-on-month to 7,434 and the value of transactions dropping by 21.09% to $0.98 billion. Consequently, the average value per transaction dropped by 0.24% month-on-month to $132,345, from $132,661 a month earlier. On a cumulative basis however, the number of real estate transactions soared by 59.00% y-o-y to 30,014 transactions in the first five months of 2021, with the value of transactions concurrently increasing by 21.84% to $4.53 billion as some depositors continued to flock into the real estate sector to withdraw all or part of their blocked dollar savings at banks. It is worth noting that foreigners’ share of sale transactions fell to 1.42% by May 2021, down from 1.53% at end of 2020.

From a geographical standpoint, the average value per real estate transaction in the Beirut region fell by 24.14% to $526,337 by May 2021, down from $693,797 at year-end 2020 with that in the Metn and Kesserwan regions concurrently declining by 8.43% and 4.17% to $236,052 and $168,111 respectively. On the other hand, the average value per transaction in Baabda region came in 5.92% higher at $165,241.