The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector, increased to 755,571 sqm during the month of July 2021, up from 667,008 sqm in June. Moreover, on a cumulative basis, the surface area of construction permits soared by 152.11% y-o-y to 4,143,868 sqm in the first seven months of the current year, compared to 1,643,691 sqm during the same period last year. This may be attributed to the fact that many developers have been rushing to obtain construction permits and accordingly benefit from the relatively low fees which are still priced at the official exchange rate.

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 (1,719,684 sqm <41.50%>), followed by the South (1,104,905 sqm <26.66%>), Nabatieh (641,511 sqm <15.48%), Bekaa (563,396 sqm <13.60%>), and Beirut (65,586 sqm <1.58%>) 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 707 sqm per construction permit YTD July 2021, followed by the North (650 sqm/transaction), Mount Lebanon (534 sqm/transaction), Beirut (440 sqm/transaction), South (427 sqm/transaction), and Nabatieh (397 sqm/transaction) governorates.