Tarek Shoukri, head of the Real Estate Development Chamber affiliated to the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI), said Egypt is witnessing the implementation of a massive volume of development projects to increase the number of urban areas, and thus, accommodate the ongoing population leap, Invest-Gate reports.

The real estate market will witness a number of challenges in the coming period; property developers are preparing to adapt to the market’s new changes in the coming period in the light of the continued rise of projects’ implementation costs and the stability of clients’ purchasing power, Shoukri noted in a statement.

An expected price hike between 10% and 15% will be witnessed in the market over the next year as a result of expectations of a rise in iron prices as well as further deep cuts in energy and electricity subsidies, Shoukri added.

The chairman pointed out that the real estate sector contributes 18% directly to Egypt’s total GDP and 24% indirectly to the total output, reflecting the size of such a mammoth market. He also unveiled the state’s intentions to implement more housing units for the middle- and high-income citizens in new cities such as New Alamein.

He highlighted that it was agreed to grant a temporary operating license to the commercial centers in some new cities for a six-month period and will be renewed only once until the final operating license is obtained, according to the statement.

On the developments of the executive regulations for the residency-for-property law, he explained that it was finalized and submitted to the immigration ministry and the approval for residency will be granted within two weeks; in case there are no security problems on the applicant.