High rental prices in Beirut push restaurants and consumers out to the peripheries

With the soaring prices in restaurants and cafes, often blamed on the rising cost of rent in Beirut as well as on new stringent conditions put by some restaurants on consumers such as the compulsory ‘shisha’ with every meal, a new wave of young people and shop owners are reportedly seeking entertainment places in the outskirts and migrating farther away from the boundaries of the administrative Beirut district. In this respect, Byblos came first in attracting nightlife goers and for that reason has now been classified as the second Downtown Beirut, the original having become increasingly deserted as a result of the overall poor economic and security conditions in the country as well as the high level of rent. Hussein Shareef, a random young consumer, told Al Diyar newspaper that he prefers to go to places outside the capital where he can access affordable entertainment. Roy Abi Khalil for his part noted that he and his friends are old customers of Hamra and Verdun cafes and pubs; however, due to the rocketing prices of dining and the like, they have opted now for other cheaper places and found Byblos to be an appropriate one. In view of that, it is now urgent that the Ministry of Economy intervenes in order to curb the increase in rental prices. (Al Diyar, 30 June 2015)