Lebanese in UAE, KSA and Qatar are looking for properties to invest in their home country

Beirut, Lebanon – 6 November 2017: Following a decision issued by Banque de l’habitat earlier this year, to decrease the interest on home mortgages from 5% to 3%, as a move towards encouraging investments in Lebanon, OLX Property, the leading property platform in Lebanon, has drawn attention to one of the significant aspect of the economy, which is the Lebanese Expats investments, by compiling an extensive report, for the period in between March and September 2017 shedding light on their interest in the Property scene in their country.

Below is the table illustrating the top 10 countries in terms of foreign visits to OLX Property in the period between March and September 2017:

Ranking

Country

Percentage

1 – UAE – 24%

2 – KSA -13%

3 – Qatar – 10%

4 – USA – 8%

5 – United Kingdom – 5%

6 – France – 5%

7 – Canada – 5%

8 – Sweden – 2.5%

9 – Kuwait – 2%

10 – Germany – 2%

According to the report, the foreign visits were mostly interested in apartments, lands and commercial units/spaces for sale.

The decision of Banque de L’Habitat has facilitated relations between expatriates and their country of origin as well as encouraged families with low to medium wages to consider investing in properties. This bank receives around 5,000 loan applications per year giving away around 60% of the mortgage loans in Lebanon.

In this regard, Mr. Fawzi Merhi, a retired banker and financial expert in Lebanon, commented:” We expect that the real-estate sector will benefit from the support provided by the Central Bank to consolidate its position and re-establish its growth potential. This year alone the BDL has earmarked $1.5 billion for that purpose, in comparison to last year’s $1 Billion.”

OLX Property is building a solid reputation as a contributor and facilitator to making Lebanon a hot real estate investment destination. This is happening by providing a comprehensive easy-to-use platform and a wide portfolio of offerings consisting of over 132K properties for rent and sale catering to property seekers from all social statuses & incomes.

This comes in line with the ongoing government efforts to attract expats investments to the country, such as the “Planet Lebanon 2017, Lebanese Diaspora Connections: National Economic Development” conference that witnessed the gathering of leading local and expatriate Lebanese businessmen, promising a brighter year for Lebanon and discussing investment opportunities.

As reported by Credit Libanais bank, the expatriate community already sends home about US$7.5 billion in remittances (17 per cent of GDP) every year. Noting that Lebanon ranks among the top twenty receivers of remittances in the world and among the top three in the MENA region.

Mr. Fawzi continues: “The subsidized housing loans have allowed private banks to offer interest as low as 4%, and the BDL has approved the increase in the maximum value of subsidized housing loans to the value of $800,000 from a previous ceiling of $528,000.”

Moreover, the report highlights the top districts Lebanese expats researched while visiting OLX Property in the period between March and September 2017. The most searched areas were recorded as the following: Beirut, Tripoli, Baalbek and Sidon, followed by Tyre, Zahle, Nabatieh, Chouf, Bchamoun and Aramoun.

John Noja, Country Manager of OLX Lebanon, stated: “These results show that people residing in Lebanon as well as the expats are using OLX Property as a trusted platform from which they can invest in their native country. We take our role seriously in being the window for the expats to explore investment opportunities in Properties in their country, and making the search for the right property easy, fast and reliable.”

OLX Lebanon registered over 800K monthly users between March and September 2017, out of which 30% are looking for properties. In addition, over 5.5M visits were recorded to OLX from within Lebanon. Such figures are a direct reflection of the increasing growth in popularity of the platform in the Lebanese market and the confidence people have in it.