The latest data issued by the Orders of Engineers in Beirut and the North revealed that the number of permits rose by 14.71% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 12,879 by the third quarter of 2016, compared to 11,227 during the same period in 2015.
In details, due to the improving security situation in the North, the number of permits in this area inclined from 1,247 by September 2015 to 2,205 by September 2016. Also, as a further depiction of the North’s situation, the region’s share of total construction permits issued escalated from 11.11% by September 2015 to 17.12% by September 2016.
However, as investors’ preferences are shifting towards smaller construction areas, the construction area authorized by permits (CAP) plunged from 9.15M sqm by September 2015 to 8.86M sqm by September 2016. Hence, the average area per transaction fell from 815.20sqm/permit by September 2015 to 688sqm/permit by September 2016.
Moreover, and besides the North region, the largest shares of issued permits were concentrated in Mount Lebanon, South Lebanon, and Nabatiye with 4,629 permits (35.94% of the total), 2,438 permits (18.93% of the total) and 1,808 permits (14.04% of the total), respectively.
Number of Construction Permits by September
Source: Orders of Engineers in Beirut & Tripoli