June 16, 2008

Running Out of Time

Real estate prices now are just like the stock market, a real estate dealer tells me. “I can tell you the price of this house, but if you want to buy it next week, I’d tell you to call me again next week, because the prices change on a daily basis.
The apartment we bought five years ago has doubled in price. Plots of land that have laid empty for 14 years are suddenly being bought, and high rise is going up left and right. Apartments in Ras Beirut are selling for an average of 600,000, if not more. Nobody looks surprised when hearing of prices of a million and up.

With the prices of land on the rise in Beirut, the old houses are disappearing rapidly, one by one. I keep telling myself to make a picture of this one, and then that one, but the next time I pass by, it has been turned into a parking lot already.

Is anyone documenting the old architecture of Beirut? So when I passed this one, I had to make a picture. I bet this is the only wooden house left in Beirut.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where is that house? I never noticed it!

Anonymous said...

Omar Zeene street, Sanayeh.

And this gives me another opportunity to thank Sietske for her help and pick-up truck in moving our furniture (no bed yet, we are starters ;) ).

Unknown said...

Mijn ex doet veel aan architectuurgeschiedenis met name in Beirut en heeft er ook een boek over geschreven, helaas in het Italiaans. Het is te googlen, de naam van de auteur is Mazen Haidar.

T

Anonymous said...

hey nice picture. Can I ask you though, how do you watermark your photos with your logo? It's a good idea. Didi