Lebanese real estate – things aren’t all bad

The stagnation that characterized the real estate market during 2012 continued throughout 2013. Bad? Perhaps. Stagnation, however, is not regression, and that’s definitely a positive sign. While the market was indeed sluggish this past year, it has managed to remain relatively stable despite nearly a year without a government, a shrinking economy, growing security tensions across the country and a flood of over 930,000 Syrian refugees. All in all, the slight reduction in real estate prices that took place in 2013 is a normal market reaction to a very opaque, unpredictable economic, political, and security situation. The main real estate indicators continued to drop in 2013. There were 25 percent fewer construction permits in 2013 than in 2012 and the value of transactions dropped by 5 percent in the same period. Strained market conditions, however, have an obvious negative impact on demand. Investors, who up until now had remained optimistic, find