Real estate activity continued its feeble performance during the ongoing protests that broke out in Lebanon on October 17th 2019.
Data from the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre (LRC) revealed that the number of real estate (RE) transactions was slashed by an annual 17.7% to stand at 40,863 transactions by October 2019 worth $5.2B, noting its value stood at $6.6B by October last year. As such, the average value per RE transaction fell from 133,108 by October 2018 to 128,310 in the same period of 2019.
In fact, the foreigners’ share of the total number of real estate transactions grew from 1.92% by October 2018 to 2.05% by October 2019, noting that foreigners executed 952 transactions by October 2018 compared to 836 transactions this year.
A regional breakdown indicates that the largest number of RE transactions was executed in Baabda which constituted 18.6% of total RE transactions worth $952.5M by October 2019. The North followed grasping a stake of 15.7% of total transactions worth $340.2M, while the South composed 13.01% of the total transactions worth $444.9M. In turn, Zahle grasped 12.9% of the of total, with total transactions worth $187.2M over the same period.
However, with banks imposing capital controls since mid-October, big depositors may move towards risk diversification. Therefore, it is expected RE transactions will witness some improvement in the upcoming months as wealthy investors benefit from low-priced properties in the market.
Total Number of Real Estate Transactions by October
