The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector, fell to 734,288 sqm during the month of August 2021, down from 756,604 sqm in July. On a cumulative basis however, the surface area of construction permits soared by 136.07% y-o-y to 4,885,913 sqm in the first eight months of the current year, compared to 2,069,645 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 (2,023,884 sqm <41.42%>), followed by the South (1,309,142 sqm <26.79%>), Nabatieh (783,742 sqm <16.04%), Bekaa (632,342 sqm <12.94%>), and Beirut (82,811 sqm <1.69%>) 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 685 sqm per construction permit YTD August 2021, followed by the North (607 sqm/transaction), Mount Lebanon (526 sqm/transaction), Beirut (476 sqm/transaction), South (446 sqm/transaction), and Nabatieh (392 sqm/transaction) governorates.