Cityscape Egypt Business Breakfast was held on January 14 at the Nile Ritz-Carlton in Cairo, Egypt, with government authorities and leading experts shedding light on the country’s property sector and expectations for 2019.

The event, held under the theme “Moving Forward; the Future of Investing in Egypt,” tackled the core issues facing Egypt’s real estate sector, while discussing the progress in the country’s new cities as well as means of luring investments in 2019.

Assistant Minister of Housing for the Affairs of the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) Waleed Abbas delivered a keynote address titled “Ushering in a New Era: New Cities Offering an Update on the Country’s New Cities, revealing that the authority is preparing to develop 112 land plots in the new industrial areas and 120,000 acres of land in new cities to attract real estate investment.

“We aim to increase the rate of projects in Upper Egypt governorates such as Minya and Sohag,” he added.

Meanwhile, Minister of Planning and Administrative Reform Hala El-Saeed said, “In 2016…We were able to achieve economic reform in all sectors and structural reform in the productive sectors, achieving an economic growth rate of 5.3% in Egypt, which is considered the highest rate in the last ten years.”

Meanwhile, Fathallah Fawzy, chairman at this year’s Cityscape Egypt Business Breakfast and founder of Mena Group, noted that 2019 is expected to usher local and foreign real estate investment in the country, thanks to economic reforms and growth in the property sector.

“The government’s plans and the unprecedented development in the real estate sector over the past four years should encourage more companies to get involved in achieving the country’s plan for urban development,” Fawzy noted, adding that “together with the private sector, the government has introduced new lands, which has already witnessed an increase in sale figures, compared to last year.”

The event was concluded with a panel discussion titled “Moving into the International Arena,” which saw experts addressing topics such as foreign investment, creating an attractive return on investment (ROI) for investors, and satisfying the supply gap.

The event, sponsored by Arton Capital, this year’s Global Citizenship Partner, together with Platinum Sponsors: Gates Developments and OLX, will be followed by the seventh annual Cityscape Egypt Conference, which will return to the Four Seasons Nile Plaza on March 24-25, then the Cityscape Egypt exhibition – which will take place from March 27 to 30 at New Cairo’s Egypt International Exhibition Center (EIEC).