The latest report issued by Ramco Real Estate Advisers last July concluded that Gulf investors buying Lebanese land have poured some $680 million into the Lebanese economy between 2000 and March 31, 2004. The report added that “taking into account the additional investment on project development the amount could easily more than double.”
RAMCO noted some interesting buying trends. While last year saw the highest activity in land buying by Arabs, when no less than 800,000 square meters were bought in 56 separate deals, the first months of this year saw a slowdown in the number of purchases: only 122,000 square meters were bought, mostly by Saudi investors. RAMCO estimates that having bought large chunks of land last year, Arab developers “need some time to digest the flurry of buying.”
Also, while Kuwaitis were known to be the most active buyers in recent years, Emiratis concluded nine out of the 20 largest deals over the last 32 months, followed by four Saudi and four Kuwaiti deals, and one Qatari and one Syrian.
A total of no less than 2.03 million square meters of Lebanese land were sold between 2000 and March 31 2004 in 109 large deals. “All these deals,” RAMCO reports, “involved lands larger than 3,000 square meters, the maximum holding allowed for non-Lebanese.” The two largest purchases of land – of 368,723 square meters and 123,492 square meters – were concluded by Kuwaiti investment groups in the region of Qornayel.
The Arabs’ most preferred purchase targets are in the mountains, yet not too far from Beirut. So, 38% was bought in Baabda, 27% in the Metn and 18% in Aley. Only 1% of all land deals took place Beirut, which still represented the largest value for the Lebanese economy.
