How much does a notary charge for a property sale in Lebanon, and is a notary required?

Also asked as: “Notary fees for selling property in Lebanon” · “Do I need a kateb adel to buy property in Lebanon?” · “Lebanon notary fee percentage” · “Can a sale be registered without a notary in Lebanon?”

Is a notary required?#

A sale in a surveyed area is drawn up only before a notary (kateb adel) or before the competent assistant head of the real estate office, that is the Land Registry (السجل العقاري)^[1,2]. So a notary is one of two routes. According to Kallas Law Firm, the registry route needs both parties before the assistant head in the property's area, and buyers abroad usually act through a power of attorney.

Whichever route you take, signing the contract does not make you the owner. Ownership passes only when the sale is inscribed at the Land Registry^[9]. We found no source saying which route is more common in practice, or how sales of unsurveyed land are drawn up. Ask the Land Registry office for the property's area which routes it accepts.

What a notary charges#

The sources disagree. Kallas Law Firm reads the notaries' law, Law 337/1994, as setting a levy of 2 per mille (minimum LBP 20,000), plus 30% of that levy, plus a 1 per mille entry fee, about 0.36% in total. IDAL's 2018 guide lists a notary fee of 0.1%, and Mattar Law Firm an extra 0.1% when registration goes through a notary's office^[3,4,5].

In Kallas's May 2026 worked example for a Lebanese buyer, a home with an estimated value of LBP 1,000,000,000 carries LBP 3,600,000 in notary charges, on top of LBP 37,220,000 in state fees^[3]. That example uses the estimated value, which is often far below the market price; see estimated value versus the declared price. We found no published source on whether notaries add their own professional fees on top of the tariff. Only the notary can tell you, so ask for a written, itemised quote.

What else you pay at the notary#

The notary also collects stamp duty, which is 0.4%^[3,6] of the contract value. For deeds the notary draws up or certifies, it is paid in cash or by bank cheque to the notary, whatever the amount^[7,8]. Kallas adds flat stamps of LBP 200,000 (contract) + LBP 100,000 (deed)^[3]. Those flat amounts come from Kallas alone and were not checked against the stamp-duty law, and Kallas's own worked example uses different figures. Ask the notary for the current flat stamps. More in stamp duty on a sale contract.

Under a 2017 rule, when a surveyed sale contract is drawn up, a 2% fee on the contract price plus the municipal fee is paid to the Treasury within 15 days, as an advance on the transfer fee^[1,6]. Whether it is still collected the same way after Law 10/2022 is not confirmed, so ask the notary. The biggest cost is the registration fee, 3% of the value for Lebanese buyers, 5% for non-Lebanese^[10]. Kallas puts total buying charges at about 4% (Lebanese), about 6% (non-Lebanese)^[3] of the value, before broker and lawyer fees. See the total cost of buying.