Can a foreigner get around the limits by buying through a Lebanese company or a Lebanese friend?

Also asked as: “Buy property in Lebanon through a Lebanese company or nominee” · “Can a Lebanese friend buy land for me in Lebanon?” · “Can I put Lebanese property in someone else's name as a foreigner?” · “Does a Lebanese company let foreigners avoid Law 296?”

When a company counts as foreign#

A company or other legal entity established outside Lebanon counts as foreign for property ownership^[1,4]. Setting one up abroad changes nothing, and a company that counts as foreign faces the same limit as a person^[1,2].

For a company registered in Lebanon, the sources give three different tests^[1,4,5]:

• IDAL, the state investment agency: foreign when most of its capital is foreign-held.
• Mattar Law: foreign unless all shares are held by Lebanese and its articles forbid transferring shares to foreigners.
• Choueh Law Firm: foreign when even one share is owned by a non-Lebanese.

We did not read Article 2 of the decree itself. Choueh Law Firm and a Legal 500 country guide written by Bijjani Advocates say that where Lebanese partners hold more than half, or the company is fully Lebanese with a ban on transfers to foreigners, the limits apply to only 50% of the area it owns. IDAL does not mention this rule^[5,10]. With the sources split like this, do not count on a company to get you round the limit. Ask a Lebanese company lawyer how your structure would be classed before anyone signs. More in foreign companies buying property.

Selling shares instead of the property#

Selling company shares no longer avoids the transfer fee. Since Law 10/2022, individuals who sell shares in a joint-stock company whose main business is owning, trading or developing property, or whose property makes up more than half of its fixed assets, pay a tax at the transfer-fee rate. It is charged on the gain (sale price minus purchase cost), not on the property's value, and it is cut by 50% between shareholders or between ascendants and descendants, for example parents and children^[7,8,9]. See selling shares of a property company.

Putting the property in a Lebanese friend's name#

In Lebanon you own property only once the sale is inscribed at the Land Registry^[3]. The Land Registry extract shows that owner, with any mortgages and restrictions^[3,11]. If your friend's name is on it, the Land Registry shows your friend as the owner. Whether any private agreement between you would be enforced is not covered by any source we found.

Nothing we read says whether Lebanese courts enforce side agreements or counter-letters with a nominee, what penalties apply, or what you could do if the friend sells, mortgages, dies or is sued. That gap is the risk. What is known is that a paper that is never registered gives a buyer only a personal claim, not ownership^[2,3]. See buying with a contract that was never registered.

The state also checks what a foreign buyer declares. You sign a pledge before a notary stating that you own only the areas you declare in Lebanon and naming your spouse and minor children, and a false statement is referred to the Public Prosecution^[12]. In the south, Finance Minister Yassine Jaber names preventing land passing to Israelis through front companies as one aim of his draft ban on sales in occupied towns^[13,14]. Arab News reported fears in September 2026 that intermediaries could buy there for non-Lebanese buyers^[14].

The legal routes#

Within 3,000 m²^[1,2,6] you can buy in your own name without a licence. For that total, you, your spouse and your minor children count as one buyer^[1,2]. Above it you need a Council of Ministers decree, which the Council grants at its discretion, with no appeal against a refusal. The steps are in getting the Council of Ministers decree.