‘Ghost towers’ raise fears of Lebanon real estate crash

Ghostly apartment blocks and half-built buildings dot Lebanon, as entrepreneurs and experts fear that the country’s key real estate sector is on the brink of collapse.

The country’s construction sector witnessed an unprecedented boom from 2008, fueled in part by sales to wealthy Gulf Arabs and Lebanese expatriates.

But after civil war broke out in neighboring Syria in 2011, political insecurity caused sales to dwindle and local demand to drop.

A slump in oil prices from 2014 compounded the slowdown, leaving thousands of apartments unsold across Beirut, and forcing some developers to freeze construction sites.

“About 3,600 unsold apartments exist today in Beirut alone,” said Guillaume Boudisseau, of the Ramco real estate consultancy.

In front of Beirut’s port, a building dubbed “The Coast” is one of many luxury apartment blocks looking for buyers.

The tower was completed in 2014 and offers views over the Mediterranean from its apartments. But in the four years since, just two of its 21 flats have been sold.

“When we started work in 2010, the context was very different,” said owner Hussein Abdallah, who had hoped to make lucrative sales.

Instead, the businessman had to hand over ownership of eight flats in the building to the bank to pay off his debt.

Other entrepreneurs have decided to halt building altogether.

On a road near the Beirut seafront, construction of another tower ground to a halt two years ago, with only the concrete outer shell completed.

“We only sold a single apartment off plan,” said its owner, who asked to remain anonymous.

The price was cut by 20 percent, “but it didn’t help,” he said.

Near the capital’s iconic Martyrs’ Square, the foundations of another major project, “Beb Beirut,” stand frozen in time, with concrete pillars jutting from the ground.

Silent cranes loom overhead, while around the stunted construction site sparkling new apartment blocks appear empty.

Owner Mireille Choufany decided to stop building two years ago. “Demand is almost nonexistent,” she said.

Outside the capital, real estate