Despite the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 crisis, Egypt’s property developers enjoyed a bumper Q3 last year, with sales turning positive on a YoY basis, reflecting optimism for a quicker and more robust recovery over 2021, according to Invest-Gate’s latest market overview report, titled “Scope-Out Egypt’s Real Estate Scene in 2020.”

The rapidly evolving threat around the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the business and investor community across the world, not to mention the go-between part of the realty sector. That is why traditional resilience planning was enough to stand against the health crisis.

E-commerce growth is not necessarily bad news for the commercial real estate scene. In fact, it appears that e-commerce adoption does not necessarily mean the gradual disappearance of commercial properties. The reason is that online retailing's supply chain operations require more warehouse and logistics spaces to ease product delivery to consumers. 

As Coronavirus becomes today's new normal, lots of questions are popping up about the new trends emerging on the road to the real estate sector's recovery, especially after the return of physical exhibitions and events. That follows the heavy reliance on online showrooms and virtual tours to practice social distancing in the wake of the health crisis, as well as developers' unfolding of new innovative products to meet the different needs of clients. 

Summer is the time when most people head to their vacation houses on the North Coast or the Red Sea, fueling an appetite for first-time buyers and potential investors to hop on the bandwagon. But summer 2020 is unlike any other; appetite for leisure property purchases is somewhat suppressed during this supposedly "always-busy" holiday. This was mainly due to the Coronavirus crisis, which changed the facets of the Egyptian summer property market. 

Gone are the days when giving out pamphlets to customers was the optimum way to sell for your business. In this digital era, it is imperative that all real estate developers, along with industry-related players, establish and maintain a strong online presence to build a powerful reputation and close more leads, in line with a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

The real estate industry used to be straightforward, with a traditional business model where you could secure a piece of land, hire a reputable architect to make plans, then a contractor who would open up a site office, with the sales process maintaining itself.

The real estate sector seemed always a bit conservative, mostly unresponsive to innovation. Just a couple of years back, not many countries had a digital public ledger of properties. With time, digital solutions are firmly taking bit by bit over in the property business; not to mention the rise off the pandemic COVID-19 has ensued need for social distancing, cleanliness, and minimal contact, and changed technology’s role from nice-to-have into a must-have.