N.B This post was originally published in November 2015.<\/p>\n
We woke up one day and found that a typical apartment in Beirut costs upwards of $1.5 million, and I\u2019m not talking about a swanky apartment with a gym or anything like that – those are likely to run you in the double-digit-millions. I\u2019m talking about a fairly average apartment in Ras Beirut. How does this reflect the reality of wages earned in Lebanon? Do citizens not have a right to live in their own capital? <\/p>\n
There\u2019s always been a problem with price indexing in Lebanon, pricing is erratic and uncontrolled – but real estate in Beirut is a problem in particular. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And I love when real estate companies try to sell you on areas outside of Beirut like, \u201cOh Metn is only a 16 minute drive from Lebanon\u2019s capital.\u201d<\/i> It\u2019s like bitch what are you driving? An airbus? I spend 16 minutes at a traffic light in Hamra every single day. And what\u2019s with the fancy as fuck names for these apartments? \u201cLuxury High Sky Tower\u201d – just name your apartment \u201cRich Dicks Only\u201d and be done with it. <\/p>\n
Beirut has become the city where you can have breakfast, lunch, and dinner for under $7, and need several millions for a very average family-sized apartment. <\/p>\n
And the banks with their 3-5% interest rate. After you get through the grueling process of applying for a loan, after you give up your soul and pawn your youngest child in exchange for a compounded interest rate that is sure to screw you for the next 30 years, then come the down-payments: \u201cJust pay 1\/3 of the total apartment price.\u201d Okay cool, please hang on for one second while I reach up my ass and grab $500,000 real quick. Let\u2019s not forget that at least 30% of Lebanese citizens live below poverty lines – and that\u2019s an outdated and conservative estimate. Real estate brokers should make special deals with us, trade kidneys for down-payments.<\/p>\n
We woke up one day and found that a typical apartment in Beirut costs upwards of $1.5 million. When did this happen? And how can we stop it?<\/big><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
N.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":415621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","_preview_accessed":0,"_lftp_listicle_injection":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"media-embed-type":[],"class_list":["post-44101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"authorship":[102],"yoast_head":"\n