[Dry Ice]

Property sales in Lebanon fall by 3.3 percent

Daily Star staff
Tuesday, July 28, 2009


BEIRUT: The number of property sales transactions in Lebanon went down by a 10.6 percent year-on-year in June 2009, which more than offset the growth in demand witnessed in the first quarter of the year and in May, leading to a yearly decline of 3.3 percent in property sales transactions in the first half of the year to reach 33,830.

Figures released by the Directorate of Real Estate and published by Bank Audi Weekly Monitor indicate that the total value of property sales in Lebanon in the first half of 2009 was at LL3.703.3 trillion, down by 5.2 percent from the value of property sales registered in the first half of 2008.

The decline in the value of property transactions along with a smaller decrease in the number of transactions has naturally led to a fall in the average value-per-property sale, which was at LL109.5 million in the first half of 2009, down by 2.0 percent from the same period of the previous year.

“Nonetheless, such a decline is trivial when compared to the plummet in real estate prices witnessed across the region,” Audi said

The increase in the number of property sales transactions to foreigners slowed to 9.6 percent in the first half of 2009, relative to 18.5 percent in 2008, as Arabs and Gulf citizens, major investors in Lebanon, were adversely affected by the crisis.

“But still, the mere fact that foreigners are still purchasing property in Lebanon, in spite of the crisis, is an indicator of the attractiveness of the Lebanese real estate sector to Arabs and foreigners,” Audi said.