Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a financial services firm specialized in providing real estate services, published its “Global Real Estate Transparency Index 2022” report in which it assesses real estate transparency conditions in 94 markets around the globe using 254 indicators to calculate a composite score ranging between 1.00 and 5.00. JLL accordingly categorizes each market from highly transparent (score: 1.00 - 1.96) to opaque (score: 4.17 - 5.00) and releases its findings on a biennial basis. The indicators are grouped into six broad sub-indices, namely “Performance Measurement” (25% weight in the index), “Market Fundamentals” (16.5%), “Governance of Listed Vehicles” (10%), “Regulatory and Legal” (23.5%), “Transaction Process” (15%), and “Sustainability” (10%). The index aims at helping real estate investors, retailers, and corporate occupiers understand the specifications and characteristics of the real estate sector in each of the covered countries when transacting (owning or renting) in foreign markets.

Anglophone countries outperformed the rest of the world for yet another consecutive time, with the United Kingdom topping the list of covered countries (score: 1.25), followed, and at a close distance, by the United States (score: 1.34) and France (score: 1.34).

As far as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is concerned, Dubai – UAE enjoyed the most transparent real estate market among its peers (global rank: 31; score: 2.56) falling in the semi-transparent category, followed by Abu Dhabi – UAE (global rank: 45; score: 2.98) and Saudi Arabia (global rank: 49; score: 3.27). Morocco (global rank: 58; score: 3.55) on the other hand, topped the list of MENA countries in the low real estate transparency category, followed by Egypt (global rank: 61; score: 3.60), and Bahrain (global rank: 66; score: 3.80) only to name a few.

On a local basis, Lebanon ranked 84^th in the world and 13^th in the MENA region in the “Global Real Estate Transparency Index 2022” with a score of 4.43. More specifically, Lebanon fared best in the governance of listed vehicles sub-index with a score of 3.34, followed by the regulatory & legal sub-index (4.03), the performance measurement sub-index (4.47), the transaction process sub-index (4.73), the market fundamentals sub-index (4.96) and the sustainability sub-index (5.00). The report mentioned that Lebanon has faced several political and economic challenges over the past two years which thwarted progress in real estate transparency. In this context, Lebanon was classified in the “opaque” category of markets for the fourth time in a row.