According to the Orders of Engineers in Beirut and Tripoli, the total number of construction permits dropped by an annual 17.69% to reach 9,708 by October 2019. It followed that the Construction Area Authorized by Permits (CAP) registered an annual downtick of 30.53% to 5.38M square meters (sqm), which mainly indicates investors’ growing interest in smaller construction areas for their projects.
In a regional breakdown, Mount Lebanon grasped the largest share of the issued permits or 33.9% of total. In fact, the construction permits issued within the region amounted to 3,291 permits by October, down by a yearly 26.13%.
Meanwhile, the South of Lebanon (constituting 21.31% of total) accounted for 2,069 construction permits, down by a yearly 11.43%. In turn, the North ranked 3rd grasping a 15.79% of the total construction permits issued, equivalent to 1,533 permits in the first 10 months of 2019. Nabatiye (13.29% of total) and the Bekaa (9.60% of total) followed, with the number of construction permits falling by a yearly 17.47% and 16.26%, to settle at 1,290 and 932 permits, respectively.
Nonetheless, in Beirut (6.11% of total), the number of construction permits grew by 5.14% year-on-year to stand at 593 permits by October 2019.
Number of Construction Permits by October
Source: Orders of Engineers in Beirut & Tripoli