Lebanon’s loss may be Egypt’s gain, Gulf News reports, as investors from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries are leaving the nation for more stable regions closer to home. The six-member GCC member countries include Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The publication spoke with Fadi Moussalli of consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle about Lebanon’s losing position. “We currently see little or no new money deployed by GCC investors in Lebanon,” said Fadi Moussalli, Head of the International Capital Group at JLL Mena. “Actually Gulf investors have been net sellers in Lebanon in the past three years. Geopolitical tensions are responsible.”There is clearly an erosion in appetite for Lebanon realty, and Beirut’s in particular. It’s famed ability to bounce back from the worst troughs — usually set off by external factors at its borders — does not hold potential investors in thrall any longer. (And the selling period is getting longer — one UAE based investor took the better part of a year and more to to sell off a four-year old villa outside Beirut. Even then, he had to take a 20 per cent cut on his asking price to get the buyer interested.) “The impact of the dull market is most visible in the luxury sector which tends to be oversupplied in the core areas of Beirut and in the high-end leisure and resort destinations,” said Moussalli. “A drop in values of 10-20% has been observed.”
Compounding the issue, the publication notes, is a perception issue among investors that prices in Lebanon’s real-estate market hit unsustainable highs during its peak performance period of 2005 to 2011, and the market would be unlikely to provide any upside investment opportunities in the near future. [Gulf News]