Housing Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Egypt is in need of 600,000 residential units per annum to accommodate its increasing population, with expectations for the figure to rise in the future to one million units, Invest-Gate reports.

The minister, during Akhbar Al-Yom Economic Conference, stated that the private sector alone is incapable of constructing that amount of units yearly, thus the state had to enter the real estate sector as a developer.

The Housing Ministry, according to Madbouly, also has “no choice” but to increase urban areas to accommodate population growth.

“We have 25 new cities, and we’re currently working on developing 13 new ones,” he added.

The construction sector has provided three to four million job opportunities in the past three years, he noted.