Times are very tough for Lebanon’s real estate sector. After years of poor demand in the upper and middle segments of the housing property market, demand for entry level units plunged in 2018 with the news that subsidized home loans were no longer available (although Parliament did legislate a one-year $66 million fix to subsidize…
BDL decision upends plans of prospective first-time homeowners
Just when you thought you could not disappoint teta any further, news that your home loan has been put on ice will surely do the trick. For the first time in nearly two decades, Lebanese citizens can no longer rely on the public sector for support in buying a starter home. For older generations especially,…
Survival of the fittest for Lebanese real estate developers
Coming into 2018, Lebanon’s real estate market was already sputtering. For several years, real estate developers have complained of worrying market conditions—always hoping that the next year will be better, that the political situation in Lebanon will change, and that buyers will come clamoring back. The first wave of concerns was voiced by developers of…
Financial literacy initiatives for everyday
When it comes to maximizing money, the rich have access to many more resources than anyone else, not to mention the disposable cash to play with in the first place. That doesn’t mean that they are financially literate by birth but they usually grow up in a very favorable family environment for acquiring financial literacy,…
National poverty targeting and employment programs
The conquest of poverty is a core target of the World Bank. Even as it often is viewed—or maligned—as an instrument of capitalism and capitalist interests, the World Bank’s focus on poverty alleviation and on achieving the United Nations’ sustainable development goals means that the multilateral institution has a strong role to play wherever countries…
Hidden pathways to wealth for the Lebanese middle class
Certain roads to wealth for the middle class are less traveled in some lands but well known in others. Describing life insurance as an obscure path to savings would honestly be preposterous in most developed economies. Accounting for $2.7 trillion in premiums, or about 3.5 percent of global GDP, life insurance represents well over half…
Keeping lebanese wealth alive
The quest of trying to depict the 2018 outlook on investment opportunities from the Lebanese corner reminds in some respects of the almost 20-year old hit comedy on the American mob, Analyze This. As with the Robert de Niro and Billy Crystal pic, any move of international financial markets and any development on the political…
Holy guacamole
In summer 2018, McKinsey & Company, a United States-based management consulting firm hired by the Lebanese government to design an economic plan for the country, presented their report to government officials. Though the final report has yet to be made public, some details have made their way from government officials into the public sphere. From…
Curses of poverty and affluence and the search for financial cures
Many believe that there is no such thing as too much money. At a closer look, however, the extreme abundance or absence of wealth both appear to be prime causes of anguish, albeit in incomparable proportions. Even moderate and temporary cases of poverty lead to all manner of problems, from stress and sleeplessness to ulcers…
Acting head of the ICC discusses the state of health insurance in Lebanon
At the end of April, the imposition of rules on guaranteed renewability (GR) in health insurance was introduced to the public under ministerial decree 186, issued by the Ministry of Economy and Trade (MoET). Executive sat down with Nadine Habbal, who heads the MoET’s Insurance Control Commission (ICC), to explore the implications of GR for…