According to the Orders of Engineers in Beirut and Tripoli, the number of construction permits declined by an annual 16.47%to settle at 10,446 permits by September 2018. The Construction Area Authorized by Permits (CAP) also slipped by 24.65% year-on-year (y-o-y) to stand at 6.98M square meters (sqm), which most likely indicates that investors are preferring smaller construction areas for their projects.
In a regional breakdown, the deterioration registered in the number of permits reflected a slowdown in the construction activity in all governorates. In details, Mount Lebanon grasped the largest share of permits issued (38.26% of total permits), with 3,997 construction permits issued by September 2018, down by 9.77% y-o-y. The South of Lebanon (grasping 19.38% of total), witnessed a yearly decline of 7.66% in the number of construction permits, which reached 2,024 allocated permits over the same period. In the North, the number of permits contracted from 2,573 permits by September 2017 to 1,555 permits by September 2018. The CAP in the North also shrank from 2.19 sqm by September 2017 to 1.47M sqm in the same period of 2018. In Nabatiyeh (constituting 13.04% of total issued permits), 1,362 permits were issued by September 2018, down 16.08% compared to the same period last year. Moreover, in the Bekaa (9.52% of total permits), the number of construction permits decreased by an annual 12.58% to reach 994 permits.
Similarly, in Beirut (4.92% of total), the number of construction permits contracted by 6.55% y-o-y to stand at 514 permits by September 2018.
Number of Construction Permits by September
Source: Orders of Engineers in Beirut & Tripoli