Lebanon’s real estate (RE) and construction sector activities witnessed a slowdown during the first 8 months of 2018.
According to the data from the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre (LRC), the number of RE transactions which may include one or more realties, decreased yearly by 20.16 % to reach 38,102 transactions by August 2018 . In its turn, the value of total RE transactions stood at $5.15B, also contracting by 20.57% year-on-year (y-o-y). Moreover, the average value per transaction declined from $135,779 by August 2017 to $135,074 in the same period this year.
In addition, foreigners executed 742 transactions of the total by August 2018 compared to 843 by August 2017. Meanwhile, the foreigners’ share by August 2018 accounted for 1.95% of total real estate transactions, up from 1.77% in the same period last year.
As for the regional breakdown, Beirut grasped the largest share of the total value of real estate transactions with a share of 28.78% (worth $1.48B) by August 2018, followed by Baabda and Metn with shares of 19.29% (worth $992.6M) and 17.30% (worth $890.1M), respectively. In terms of the number of RE transactions executed, Baabda ranked first grasping 7,479 transactions (equivalent to 19.63% of the total) by August 2018. Total North , Zahle and South followed, with stakes of 15.77% , 12.58% and 11.53% of total number transactions, respectively, over the same period.
Moreover, According to the Orders of Engineers in Beirut and Tripoli, the number of construction permits declined by an annual 17.78% to settle at 9,326 permits by August 2018 .
Total Number of Real Estate Transactions by August
Source: LRC