To answer this question a comparison should be made between real estate in Lebanon and real estate in other countries.
For this purpose, we decided to make a simple comparison between Qatar and Lebanon.
A comparative table was developed. This table shows the main indexes for a country’s performance, in the major areas of peace, quality of infrastructure, quality of living, ease-of-doing-business, environment, health and wellbeing, economic freedom, corruption, Public debt, prosperity, and passport power.
Data has been collected from renowned International Websites.
The idea is to answer the question through simple, undeniable facts.
Looking at the table above, it is clear that Qatar outperforms Lebanon, and by some good margins, in ALL areas.
Furthermore, no improvement seems visible in the future for Lebanon. On the contrary the country is drowning in major issues such as:
· Financial and Debt crisis;
· Syrian refugees’ crisis;
· Rising unemployment;
· Decreasing GDP;
· Electricity crisis;
· Garbage crisis;
What’s more troubling is that no real actions are planned to resolve all those issues. There is no plan to tackle corruption, no urban planning to improve infrastructure and reduce traffic, no financial planning to reduce debt, no planning to resolve the electricity and garbage problem.
It would be important also to mention that, unlike in Lebanon, the government in Qatar has strict monitoring policies regarding food, illegal businesses, piracy and theft etc… Qatar also ensures that processing of municipal, governmental and legislative requirements is made easy without much headache. Transportation is cheap, a metro in Doha is being constructed, and vehicles prices are much cheaper than in Lebanon (due to customs).
Keep in mind that if you compare apartment rent, you will find out that the rent in Qatar includes:
• Free electricity 24h unlimited
• Free Comprehensive Maintenance
• High speed/Free WiFi unlimited
• Free water 24h unlimited (NOTE: Desert)
• No parking problem
• Calm Neighborhood (enforced by law)
Besides Doha is considered best place in the world to move (according to HSBC Expatexplorer surey)
So, why is real estate price in Lebanon much higher than Qatar?
Are property prices in Lebanon justified?