The Orders of Engineers & Architects of Beirut and of Tripoli issued 1,175 new construction permits in January 2017, constituting an increase of 4.8% from 1,121 permits in the same month of 2016, relative to a rise of 15.2% in January 2016. Mount Lebanon accounted for 38.7% of newly-issued construction permits in January 2017, followed by the South with 16.1%, the North with 14.5%, Nabatieh with 13.1%, the Bekaa with 9.6% and Beirut with 5.3%. The remaining 2.7% are permits issued by the Order of Engineers & Architects of Tripoli for regions located outside northern Lebanon.
The number of new construction permits issued for the North rose by 47.8% year-on-year in January 2017, followed by permits for Beirut (+37.8%), Mount Lebanon (+8.1%) and the Bekaa (+5.6%). In contrast, the number of new construction permits issued for Nabatieh dropped by 17.2% year-on-year in January 2017 and those for the South fell by 16.7%, while permits issued for regions located outside northern Lebanon grew by 60% year-on-year.
Further, the surface area of granted construction permits reached 832,317 square meters (sqm) in January 2017, representing a rise of 0.8% from 825,303 sqm in January 2016. In comparison, the surface area of granted construction permits regressed by 3% year-on-year in the same month of 2016. Mount Lebanon accounted for 300,275 sqm, or 36.1% of the total, in January 2017. The North followed with 123,464 sqm (14.8%), then the South with 113,925 sqm (13.7%), the Bekaa with 82,752 (9.9%), Nabatieh with 76,260 sqm (9.2%) and Beirut with 64,195 sqm (7.7%). The remaining 71,446 sqm, or 8.6% of the total, represent the surface area of permits that were issued by the Order of Engineers & Architects of Tripoli for regions located outside northern Lebanon.
The surface area of construction permits issued for Beirut grew by 26.4% year-on-year in January 2017, followed by the Bekaa (+9.1%) and the North (+1.7%). In contrast, the surface area of construction permits issued for the South decreased by 9.6%, followed by Mount Lebanon (-9.1%) and Nabatieh (-2.5%). Also, the surface area of granted construction permits for regions located outside northern Lebanon increased by 67.7% year-on-year in January 2017.
In parallel, cement deliveries totaled 5.2 million tons in 2016, constituting a year-on-year increase of 4.1% from 5 million tons and relative to a drop of 8.6% in 2015.
LTW – Byblos Bank
8 March
