UNIT for living · 16 September 2026
Long stays in Beirut: UNIT for Living
A serviced residence on Ain Waraka Street, five minutes on foot from Mar Mikhael, with a rooftop pool, a gym, a front desk around the clock and apartments from a studio to two bedrooms — for a season, a posting or a year.
Ain Waraka Street lies on the quiet side of Mar Mikhael: five minutes on foot from Armenia Street and its cafés, and far enough from them that the evening does not follow you home. UNIT for Living stands on it, a residential building conceived from the outset for those who stay — a stone-clad lobby with a front desk staffed around the clock, a lift, underground parking, a gym, and a rooftop with a pool and a view over the port to the sea and the mountains behind.
The apartments are of three kinds. Studios of one well-proportioned room, with a queen bed, a kitchen, a desk and floor-to-ceiling windows. One-bedroom apartments, with a separate bedroom and a living room opening onto a balcony; the largest of them has a full kitchen, a dining table and a washing machine. Two-bedroom apartments, with a queen bed in each room, for a family or for colleagues. All are furnished in pale wood and stone, with fast Wi-Fi, air conditioning and heating, and a safe.
What distinguishes the building is what happens around the apartment. Housekeeping is provided. The desk is staffed at every hour, so an arrival at midnight is received and a delivery during the day is signed for. The car is parked below ground. The gym is on the premises, and the pool on the roof, with the moon rising over the port, is where the building's residents end their summer evenings.
For a long stay — a season, a posting of several months, a year in Beirut — this arrangement changes what the city asks of a resident. There is no lease to negotiate and no deposit of several months' rent; no furniture to buy, no utilities to open, no cleaner to find, and nothing to sell or return at the end. The apartment is ready on the day of arrival, the building is secure, the term is extended when it suits, and the city is on foot: Mar Mikhael and Gemmayzeh in five minutes, Achrafieh and Downtown within a walk, the airport in twenty-five minutes by car.
Diar manages the apartments at UNIT for Living. Stays of a few nights are booked on this site; for several months or longer, long-stay terms are available, and the team will confirm availability and a rate for the period in question on request.
