In light of the Corona virus outbreak and the worsened economic situation, the overall climate in Lebanon further deteriorated and the security situation worsened, which led most future investments and construction projects to be put on hold.
According to the data from the Orders Engineering in Beirut and Tripoli, the total construction permits witnessed a year-on-year (YOY) drop of 8.36% to reach 9,488 permits by November 2020. Notably, the Construction Area Authorized by Permits (CAP) also slumped by an annual 31.94% to 3.89M square meters (sqm), mainly reflecting the little interest of investors in undertaking new projects.
Compared to the same period last year, construction activity witnessed a prominent decline regionally. Across the governorates, Mount Lebanon (37.25% of the total permits) accounted for 3,534 permits compared to 3,504 by November 2019. However, for the South (28.84% of the total permits), the respective number of permits rose to 2,736 permits from 2,254 permits. In Nabatieh, (18.78% of the total permits), permits accounted for 1,782 compared to 1,398 permits by November 2019. In Bekaa and Beirut, 832 and 294 construction permits were issued by November 2020, down from 980 and 617 permits respectively in the same period last year.
Number of Construction Permits by November
