Can foreigners buy property in Lebanon? The 3,000 m² rule and the rest

Yes. A foreigner can own up to 3,000 m² of built property or building land in total across Lebanon without a licence, under Decree 11614/1969 as amended by Law 296/2001. Above that, you need a decree of the Council of Ministers. Foreign buyers also pay a 5% registration fee, against 3% for Lebanese buyers.

Who counts as a foreigner?

The law applies to anyone who doesn't hold Lebanese nationality. If you're Lebanese as well as American or French, you buy as a Lebanese: no area limit and the 3% fee. For everyone else, the rules are the same whatever the nationality.

Companies count too. A company set up abroad is foreign. Under Article 2, a Lebanese company is also treated as foreign unless all its shares belong to Lebanese individuals and its bylaws forbid transferring them to non-Lebanese. In a joint-stock company (SAL), the shares must also be registered (nominative), and purely Lebanese companies may hold them too.

Article 1 adds a rule that applies whatever the area: "No real right of any kind may be owned by any person who does not hold a nationality issued by a recognised state, or by any person if the ownership conflicts with the provisions of the Constitution on the rejection of settlement (tawteen)."

What you can buy without a licence

Article 3 lets a foreigner own built property, or land meant for building, up to 3,000 m² in total across Lebanon with no licence.

The limit is per family. Under Article 8, a husband, a wife and their children under 18 count as one person. If your wife already owns a 1,000 m² plot in the Chouf, the family has 2,000 m² left.

To register, you show official statements of the property you already own in Lebanon and sign a declaration that you own nothing else (Article 15). A false declaration means the property is confiscated without compensation, on top of criminal penalties.

Above 3,000 m²: the licence and the caps

Anything beyond 3,000 m² needs a licence: a decree of the Council of Ministers on the Finance Minister's proposal. You apply to the Ministry of Finance, which sends the file to the Cabinet with a recommendation. The Cabinet has full discretion, and a refusal can't be challenged before any authority (Article 9).

The decree is published in the Official Gazette. If you don't use it within a year of publication, it lapses (Article 10).

You can sign a promise to sell that depends on the licence. It falls away by itself if the licence doesn't come by the deadline written in it, which can't exceed one year (Article 20).

The same licence is needed for an ordinary lease or a usufruct of more than 10 years, and for a long-term (emphyteutic) lease of more than 20 years (Article 4).

There are national caps too (Article 7). Property owned by non-Lebanese since 1969 may not pass 3% of Lebanon's area, 3% of any caza, or 10% of Beirut. Property bought without a licence counts too (Article 19). If a cap is reached, a Cabinet decree announces it and new foreign purchases there stop, except sales between foreigners.

Land must be built on within five years

Article 11 requires a foreign individual who acquires land under the law to finish a building on it within five years of registration. The Cabinet can extend this once. A company must put the property to the use it was bought for within the same five years. Otherwise the Ministry of Finance sells it, the owner gets back the price and legal costs, and the Treasury keeps any profit.

The text covers any individual who acquires property under the law. UN-Habitat's 2024 summary and IDAL, the state investment agency, link the rule to buyers with a licence. Ask a lawyer how it applies to you before you buy a plot.

Article 46 of the 2026 budget law (Law 40/2026) would have extended these deadlines by five years, even those already expired. On 26 March 2026 the Constitutional Council struck it down (Decision 4/2026), finding it wasn't directly linked to the budget's revenue and spending. The deadlines stay as the 2001 law sets them.

Separately, Law 46/2026 suspended legal, administrative and contractual deadlines in general from 1 March to 31 July 2026. They resumed where they had stopped. If one of your deadlines under the foreign ownership law was running then, ask a lawyer how much time you have left.

Inheritance and gifts

Foreign heirs don't need a licence to inherit property in Lebanon. Neither do wills or gifts between non-Lebanese who are among each other's heirs, such as parents, children and spouses (Article 3). These exemptions apply "subject to" Article 1, the nationality rule quoted above.

What a foreign buyer pays

The registration fee is 5% of the value for non-Lebanese buyers and 3% for Lebanese ones (Law 10/2022, Article 92). It's charged on the price or on the Ministry of Finance's value for the property, whichever is higher. Stamp duty, the Bar fee and the notary cost the same for everyone. The municipal surcharge, 5% of the registration fee, rises with it: $500 instead of $300 on a $200,000 flat.

The full list is in what buying a home in Lebanon costs.

The steps for a foreign buyer

The steps are the same as in how buying a home in Lebanon works, with a few additions:

1. Add up what you, your spouse and your children under 18 already own in Lebanon. If this purchase keeps you within 3,000 m², you need no licence.
2. Get an official title extract (إفادة عقارية) for the property before you pay anything.
3. Sign a promise to sell (وعد بالبيع). If you need a licence, make the promise conditional on it, for a year at most.
4. Gather the official statements of what you already own and sign the declaration.
5. Sign the sale contract, pay the 5% registration fee and register the sale at the Land Registry.

From abroad, you can sign a power of attorney at a Lebanese embassy or consulate and let someone in Lebanon act for you: see buying property in Lebanon from abroad.

When you're ready, search homes for sale or land for sale across Lebanon.