The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector, rose to 786,659 sqm during the month of December 2021, up from 740,118 sqm in November. Similarly, the surface area of construction permits soared by 76.00% during the year 2021 to 7,772,946 sqm from 4,416,328 sqm in 2020. This may be attributed to the fact that many developers have been flocking to obtain construction permits to benefit from the relatively low fees which are still priced at the official exchange rate of the US Dollar against the Lebanese Pound when compared to the black market 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 (3,292,018 sqm <42.35%>), followed by the South (2,054,449 sqm <26.43%>), Nabatieh (1,209,100 sqm <15.56%), Bekaa (977,507 sqm <12.58%>), and Beirut (136,499 sqm <1.76%>) 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 North governorate enjoyed the highest exploitation coefficient, which stood at 738 sqm per construction permit in 2021, followed by the Bekaa (641 sqm/transaction), Mount Lebanon (500 sqm/transaction), Beirut (453 sqm/transaction), South (426 sqm/transaction), and Nabatieh (373 sqm/transaction) governorates.