Investment supremo touts billions in property sales - mosty to non-residents
Saudi, Kuwaiti and Emirati nationals gobble up real estate By Osama Habib
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
BEIRUT: More than $4 billion worth of properties were sold in Lebanon in the first eight months of 2008 and the figure is expected to reach $5 billion by year-end, the head of the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon (IDAL) said Tuesday. "The policies of the central bank during the political and security crisis have apparently paid off as Lebanon started attracting funds form the Arab states. Some of this cash went directly into the real estate sector," Nabil Itani told The Daily Star.
In 2007, close to $4.3 billion worth of properties were sold, mostly in Beirut and Mount Lebanon. These transactions, according to brokers, pushed the price of property in the capital up by more than 30 percent.
Despite many of the transactions' having been paid for by non-residents, they cannot be classified as foreign direct investment (FDI) because buying or selling a piece of land does not, in itself, not create jobs.
IDAL was created by the government to offer tax incentives to investors and reduce routine paper work for companies and individuals seeking to launch a project in the country.
"There is an unusual appetite for properties in Lebanon and if the demand continues at the same pace then we will definitely exceed transactions that took place in 2007," Itani said.
He said that Saudi, Kuwaiti and UAE nationals were among the main real estate investors this year, describing this as a clear indication that Arab investors's confidence in Lebanon was being restored.
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