Foreign property nearing seven percent in Beirut

Stringent draft law
fails in Parliament

Foreign and Arab nationals own 36 million square meters (0.352 percent) of the country’s estate. This up to March 17, 2014 census, was published by the Cadastre in the Official Gazette.

The highest percentage of foreign ownership is in Beirut, with 6.692 percent.

Baabda is the second in relative foreign ownership (2.641 percent of the total area of the caza). Aley (2.17) and Metn (2.08) follow.

In the other cazas, foreign ownership is still below one percent.

Last week, Members of Parliament from different parties introduced a draft law on foreign ownership amending the current one. It did not pass. MP Alain Aoun said: “The current law does not have the proper restrictions. It is unbalanced.”

Under the current law, foreigner-owned property should not exceed ten percent of the total area inside Beirut, and three percent in other cazas.

The draft called for increasing the registrations fees to 17.2 percent, as it was previously, up from the current rate of 5.65 percent.

The draft law also exempted nationals from registration fees when buying property from foreign owners.

“We tried to fill gaps, avoid missing information, and create accurate, detailed, and clear control mechanisms that cannot be overcome or frozen,” said the lawmakers behind the failed draft law.