Despite the country’s efforts to attract more investments to Upper Egypt, pumping more funds to enhance its infrastructure and increasing the housing facilities, investors are asking for more cooperation from the public sector to aid them in the process of investing away from Cairo and Giza. Invest-Gate explores the public and private sectors merge in real estate investment.

Investors: “Long-term Development Strategy by Gov’t in Upper Egypt is Needed”

Minister of Housing Moustafa Madbouly has announced in recent statements the establishment of 12 new urban cities nationwide, urging real estate developers to invest in new cities away from Cairo and Giza, while offering lands.

The minister explains, “Upper Egypt deserves investments… such investments are an adventure worth trying.” “Some areas in Upper Egypt deliver profits not less than those in Sheikh Zayed and New Cairo… in fact some areas can hit EGP 70,000 a meter,” the official recently said in a released statement.

The ministry has presented a clear strategy, merging between private and public sectors to enhance and build the newly established cities and presenting a new real estate investment trend; here is what developers believe.

Darwish Hassanein, the CEO of the Saudi Egyptian Construction Company (SECON) tells Invest-Gate, “Partnership between the public and private sectors is very crucial for the developer as it gives more confidence with the government facilitating the procedures needed to implement any project.”

SECON is currently establishing three huge housing projects, targeting the middle-class, in New Assiut and North of Egypt, including a residential tourist project in New Damietta.

Dora Assiut by SECON

The company’s project, Dora New Assiut, has already achieved high profits due to the high demand. The project spans an area of 11.3 acres, located on the southeast of the city and offers fully-finished housing units.

Business tycoon and Head of the Investors’ General Branch in the Chambers of Commerce General Union Mohamed Abou El-Enein tells Invest-Gate, “Real estate investment is one of the basics of development in order to increase the added-value of the lands,” asserting the fact that the increase in the urban communities is a goal both the public and private sectors are working on.

Elaborating more on the real estate opportunities in Upper Egypt, he says, “The government plan must be more concise across all governorates; such plan must be set parallel to the political leadership and the productivity of each governorate.”

“Each governorate has to represent an area that will be specialized in a certain industry in order to help investors take their decision with more focus on areas that have certain added-value,” Abou El-Enein adds.

Meanwhile, ARDIC for Real Estate Development CEO Ashraf Dowidar tells Invest-Gate that the development of Upper Egypt was kept a dream till the government’s vision of 2030 came in, aiming to achieve an overall national development, “so now, Upper Egypt’s development is a must,” he states.

Dowidar adds that ARDIC itself put governorates of Upper Egypt on top of its agenda, following a lot of market research testing the requirements of such cities. “Results show that there is a strong purchasing power in Upper Egypt; residents, there, are willing to live in communities that resemble the capital,” he reveals.

“I see that real estate investment in Upper Egypt is more preferable than in Cairo because there are so many projects that target one segment and not others,” he believes, noting that many lands currently on offer are valued at reasonable prices and with high qualifications that match different social categories.

In a bid to drive the strategy of pumping more investments in real estate, the government so far has allocated 12,000 feddan to the private sector to develop more areas both across Upper Egypt and coastal cities.

Ministry of Housing’s figures show that the real estate sector is creating three million job opportunities and sustaining 100 industries and crafts. The real estate sector has contributed to 16% of Egypt’s GDP in the past two fiscal years due to the increase in population, which surpassed 95 million.

New cities are in a need of 300,000 housing units each year to meet the needs of different segments in the society. One can agree with Minister Madbouly’s statement “It is an investment adventure worth trying.”