On site this week the work sits on paper rather than on plot. A concept visualisation for a hillside house: pale stone volumes stacked and cut back, deep overhangs, timber slats over the main terrace, a pool along the glass edge, a planted roof terrace above, and below it a sunken seating pit with a fire bowl held by dry stone walls. A planted roof is a structural decision, and taking it at concept stage is the right moment to take it. We also checked the render on a three-block residential scheme — beige facade, dark window frames, glass-railed balconies with hanging plants, a red car at the kerb, forest on the hill behind. Both are images, not built buildings.
The wider market is mixed. According to [blominvestbank.com](https://blog.blominvestbank.com/cumulative-construction-permits-fell-yearly-by-32-47-to-3315-by-july-2026/), cumulative construction permits fell 32.47% year-on-year to 3,315 by July 2026, and cumulative authorised area dropped 15.33% to 3,711,690 square metres. Blominvest attributes the decline mainly to delays in new projects after the February conflict, with continued Israeli strikes, higher material costs and elevated transport and insurance expenses keeping developers cautious. Activity fell in most governorates but rebounded in Beirut and Mount Lebanon — the area tracked monthly by the Order of Engineers of Beirut permit series on [brite.blominvestbank.com](https://brite.blominvestbank.com/series/Construction-Permits-Area-Mount-Lebanon-3429/).
Rooftop demand is being pushed from two directions. [today.lorientlejour.com](https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1543692/electricity-lebanon-seeks-to-catch-up-on-the-solar-boom.html) reports that the Electricity Regulatory Authority issued a call for Expressions of Interest on 22 July for up to 350 MW of solar capacity with storage — four years after the 2022 programme's 165 MW of awarded projects had still to produce an operational plant. EDL officials put daily public supply below four hours. Blominvest's electricity review notes the $250 million World Bank agreement signed in April 2025 for the Renewable Energy and System Reinforcement project, run by EDL and the Litani River Authority, and cites an expected rise in average production from 650 MW in 2025 to 1,013 MW by 2030 — a projection, not a commitment.
The attic law now writes engineering into the roof. As reported by [today.lorientlejour.com](https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1290359/why-is-building-an-extra-floor-made-legal-again.html), at least 15% of a new attic roof area must be reserved for solar panels, and common areas must include a water treatment plant and rainwater tanks of at least 5 cubic metres per household, alongside height limits. Walid Moussa of the Real Estate Syndicate of Lebanon expects it to tidy the roofscape over time, but says it is hard to apply to existing buildings, especially in Beirut, where urban infrastructure can barely absorb the added load. The same caution applies to panels and tanks on older slabs: engineer the structure before the drawing. Blominvest's damage assessment underlines the point — around 411 damaged buildings in Baabda district alone, and roughly $365 million of assessed damage across Beirut and Mount Lebanon, over 96% of it in Mount Lebanon.