Multiple Personality Price Disorder and the Schizophrenia of the Real Estate Sector

Multiple Personality Price Disorder and the Schizophrenia of the Real Estate Sector:

Let's say that you bought an apartment for $180,000 (the agreed price between you and the seller). You don't have ANY of the money, so he tells you that he'll "help" you, by signing a (fraudulent, illegal) letter that falsely attests that you paid 20%, so you can get an Iskan loan for 100% of the price you paid. This is what is called a sub-prime loan, by the way, which lead to the 2006 crash in the USA. To get the 100% loan, which is $180,000, you need the appraiser to write a (fraudulent, illegal) appraisal report that your apartment is worth $225,000. Then you go to register the apartment with the government. To evade taxes, the buyer and seller both lie to the government and say the apartment was bought for, say $90,000. After some haggling back and forth, and perhaps greasing some palms, the apartment is "determined" by the government to have been sold at $100,000, thereby saving you around 44% on your taxes. Finally, there's the actual market price, which this is the price that the smartest, most informed buyer paid in the last few months. This price is highly classified and hidden by the developers through the lack of transparency and collusion in the system. Let's call this price $150,000. Finally, there's our price, which is the projected price for this apartment in 5 years. And here it is: $80,000.

Here's the summary of all the prices on this one apartment:

Purchase Price: $180,000
Actual (smart buyer) Market Price: $150,000
Appraised Value: $225,000
Government Registry Price: $100,000
Our Projected Price: $80,000

ٍSource: Real Estate in Lebanon