Karim Jallouf
For several years, buying property in Lebanon has been largely a cash-driven decision. A buyer’s available liquidity often determined not only what they could purchase but also whether they could enter the market at all.
Today, we are beginning to see a shift.
Property financing solutions are gradually returning to the Lebanese market, while preparations surrounding housing loan programs are also bringing the conversation around financing back to the forefront.
Housing Loans and Bank Financing Are Not the Same
One important distinction buyers need to understand is that not all property financing falls under the same category.
Housing loan programs are primarily designed to facilitate the purchase of a primary residence, subject to specific eligibility requirements and program conditions.
At the same time, Lebanese banks are beginning to introduce their own property financing facilities, covering a broader range of needs.
These can include financing for the purchase or renovation of a residential property, as well as the purchase or renovation of offices, commercial spaces and warehouses.
Some banking facilities currently available can reach up to USD 250,000, with repayment periods of up to five years, depending on the specific bank program, the applicant’s financial profile, income and repayment capacity.
What Does This Change for Buyers?
The biggest change is not simply that loans are becoming available again.
It is that buyers may need to rethink how they calculate their real purchasing power.
For years, the question was straightforward:
“How much cash do I have available?”
Today, the better question may be:
“What is my total purchasing capacity once I understand the financing options available to me?”
A property that initially appears outside a buyer’s cash budget may therefore deserve a second look once financing possibilities have been properly assessed.
This does not mean that every buyer will qualify for financing, nor that every property should be financed. Each application remains subject to the relevant bank’s requirements, and affordability should always be evaluated carefully.
But it does mean that buyers should understand their options before limiting their property search.
Financing Should Come Before the Property Search
In my view, one of the most important changes we need to see in the Lebanese real estate market is a shift in the buying process itself.
Instead of finding a property first and asking about financing later, buyers should start by understanding three things: their available cash, their financing eligibility, and their comfortable repayment capacity.
Only then can they establish a realistic property budget.
For residential buyers, this can help determine the right price range before beginning the search. For entrepreneurs and businesses, access to financing for offices, commercial spaces, or warehouses can also create opportunities that would otherwise require significantly more immediate liquidity.
Your Budget Determines Where You Should Be Looking
This is perhaps the most important point in the entire process: once we determine the buyer’s total purchasing capacity, we can determine where that buyer should realistically be looking.
In real estate, budget and location cannot be treated separately.
A buyer may initially have a specific area in mind, but the combined value of available cash and eligible financing gives us the real budget, and that budget ultimately determines which areas, property sizes, and opportunities are realistic.
This becomes particularly important when comparing different financing options. Government-backed housing programs are generally intended to serve buyers within more limited budgets, while private bank financing may provide different levels of purchasing capacity depending on the applicant’s profile and the facility available.
So the process should not begin with “I want an apartment in this area.”
It should begin with “What is my actual purchasing capacity?”
From there, we can identify the areas where that budget makes sense, understand what type and size of property it can secure, and build a realistic request based on the market.
This approach saves buyers from spending months searching in areas that do not match their financial capacity, while also potentially introducing them to locations and opportunities they may not have initially considered.
Budget first. Area second. Property third.
A Market Slowly Moving Beyond Cash
Lebanon’s property market remains very different from what it was before the financial crisis, and the return of financing should not be interpreted as a return to the old lending environment.
However, the reappearance of property financing is an important development.
For buyers, the message is simple: do not define your property budget based solely on the cash you currently have before understanding what financing options may be available to you.
The more informed the buyer is at the beginning of the process, the better positioned they are to define a realistic search, evaluate properties, negotiate, and ultimately make the right real estate decision.