The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector, fell to 615,663 sqm during the month of October 2021, down from 704,012 sqm in September. On a cumulative basis however, the surface area of construction permits soared by 91.46% y-o-y to 6,219,723 sqm in the first ten months of the current year, compared to 3,248,557 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 (2,596,383 sqm <41.74%>), followed by the South (1,645,507 sqm <26.46%>), Nabatieh (987,737 sqm <15.88%), Bekaa (813,803 sqm <13.08%>), and Beirut (114,139 sqm <1.84%>) 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 671 sqm per construction permit YTD October 2021, followed by the North (555 sqm/transaction), Mount Lebanon (504 sqm/transaction), Beirut (478 sqm/transaction), South (436 sqm/transaction), and Nabatieh (379 sqm/transaction) governorates.