According to the orders of engineers and architects in Beirut and Tripoli, the construction industry grew within the first 6 months of the year, where the number of real estate permits increasing from 7,387 by June 2015, compared to 8,408 in the same period of 2016.
Lebanon’s construction activity growth is mainly attributed to the significant rise in permits issued for the North region, increasing from 814 by June 2015 to 1,158 by June 2016. Also, the construction area authorized by permits (CAP) also rose from 5.92M sqm by June 2015 to 6.35M sqm by June of 2016.
Therefore, the average area per transaction decreased by June 2016 from 801.08 sqm/permit by June 2015 to 754.78 sqm/permit, which designates the investors’ preference to smaller construction areas for their projects.
Moreover, the largest share of issued permits were concentrated in Mount Lebanon, South Lebanon, and Nabatiye with 3,225 permits (38.36% of the total), 1,600 permits (19.03% of the total) and 1,197 permits (14.24% of the total), respectively.
Number of Construction Permits by June
Source: Orders of Engineers in Beirut & Tripoli