While Lebanon has been ranked among the most unequal countries in the world, Beirut is no exception – home to the wealthiest sections of the population and serving as the economic center of a country in the midst of economic and institutional collapse. Historically a major economic center in the Middle East, the city today faces growing inequalities, exacerbated by monetary collapse, devastating hyperinflation and a banking crisis that has weakened savings and investments, since 2019. The sector Real estate, long an engine of growth, is hit by speculation, with a real estate bubble bursting, giving way to a stagnant market and prices inaccessible for many residents – a situation aggravated by the explosion of port of Beirut on August 4, 2021. Today, the city is under fire from Israeli bombs while the Jewish state began bombing Lebanon on September 26. It is mainly the southern suburbs of the city, a stronghold of Hezbollah, which suffers the strikes. Hezbollah, which dominates the area, exercises political and economic influence on the sector – in a mixture of cronyism and palliative to a failing state which no longer seems to be able to provide minimum public services to its population.
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