The surface area of construction permits in Lebanon, which reflects the level of future supply in the real estate sector, fell to 558,467 sqm during the month of December 2022, down from 570,429 sqm in November. Similarly, the surface area of construction permits dropped by 4.39% in the year 2022 to 7,431,626 sqm from 7,772,946 sqm in 2021 and came in even higher than the level registered in the years 2020 and 2019 which stood back then at 4,416,328 sqm and 4,898,666 sqm respectively. 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 were still priced at the LBP 1,507.5/US Dollar official exchange rate of the US Dollar against the Lebanese Pound when compared to the black market rate ahead of any adjustments to 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 (3,155,714 sqm <42.46%>), followed by the South (1,924,354 sqm <25.89%>), Nabatieh (1,046,772 sqm <14.09%), and Bekaa (1,026,282 sqm <13.81%>) regions. It is worth noting that figures for the North governorate are underestimated since they exclude permits issued by the North Order of Engineers.

Beirut enjoyed the highest exploitation coefficient, which stood at 702 sqm per construction permit in 2022, followed by the Bekaa (609 sqm/transaction), Mount Lebanon (480 sqm/transaction), South (404 sqm/transaction), North (340 sqm/transaction), and Nabatieh (334 sqm/transaction) governorates.