Construction permits
increase in numbers

Mount Lebanon

acquires largest share

The number of construction permits rose 13 percent in 2016 to 17,295, covering 12.3 million square meters (m2) – unchanged from 2015. The average area per permit is 707 m2, down 13 percent.

Beirut saw the sharpest decline in area and number of permits. Negative growth was also recorded in Mount-Lebanon, which has the lion share of permits.

The highest growth in terms of area was recorded by Bekaa, followed by the South. The area of permits also went up in the North and Nabatieh.

Marius Beaini, Chairman of the Order of Engineers in Tripoli, said: “The growth in number and area reflect the restored confidence of developers and investors after the situation improved in the North.”

Beaini said that execution orders are higher than all previous years.

He said: “We have been giving more and more orders, especially in the past two months.”

Orders are mainly focused in Koura and Akkar.

The Order of Engineers in Tripoli is in the process of changing its systems. It now calculates all other types of transactions under the single category ‘number of construction permits.’ This justifies the significant increase in permits compared to 2015.

Excluding the permits provided by the Order, growth in the number of transactions reached six percent, to 14,212.

	Area of permits (m2)	Growth	Number of permits	Growth
Beirut	513,768	-23%	680	-16%
Mount Lebanon	5,159,228	-13%	6,219	-2%
North	2,428,484	10%	3,243*	79%
Bekaa	1,217,882	20%	1,550	0%
South	1,750,546	15%	3,236	26%
Nabatieh	1,163,990	13%	2,367	18%
Total	12,233,898	-1%	17,295	13%

*Number includes all transactions by Order of Engineers in the North
Source: Orders of Engineers in Beirut and the North