Bankrolling the builders

ENAR

Though Lebanese real estate has always carried its weight as a prime investment tool and a win-win sector for both suppliers and end-users — even during the uncertainty of the civil war years — the cracks are finally beginning to show as both internal and external factors are affecting (former) market strongholds. Banks, the middle-men who keep the property market in swing, are now in an unfamiliar situation and may be left with little option but to rein-in loan offerings to the real estate sector;  its profit harvest has diminished compared to healthier years and its expected contribution to gross domestic product has weakened. The trickle-down effects of the financial crisis on Arab wallets (residential sales to foreigners plunged 31 percent this quarter), combined with sticky top-dollar prices that stem from the high cost of (limited) land, have come into play simultaneously, with the result a whopping 21 percent fall