Building for demand

With the Lebanese real estate market remaining stagnant again in 2014, Executive sat down with Jihad Ibrahim, general manager of Jamil Ibrahim Establishment, to discuss ways to better regulate the sector and how to improve statistics related to real estate transactions, which he says today are misleading.    We’re seeing a lot of newly built units remaining unsold in Beirut — particularly the most spacious. What happened and what’s the best way to fix this problem? The only salvation for the real estate market is a little bit of intervention. The main issue, and the most important point, is the demand. Does the community need the project being built? This is how you safeguard [the market]. This goes a little bit against laissez-faire economics because it’s a directed economy. I’m not saying we should go into a completely directed economy, but there is some logic to it. You have to