Egyptian expats in Saudi Arabia have the highest online demand on OLX Properties, accounting for 56 per cent of overall traffic, especially after the Egyptian government floated the EGP last November, Invest-Gate reports.

OLX Properties Egypt & JLL recorded the foreign traffic from September 3rd to November 3rd 2016 versus November 4th 2016 to January 4th 2017.

Ayman Sami, Country Head – Cairo Office, MENA at JLL says: “Uncertainty over value of the EGP has contributed to increase the investments in residential real estate, as investors searched for secure assets which have traditionally acted as hedges against inflation and devaluation.

“The reduction in prices in USD terms made the residential units more attractive for foreign investors, since the residential units are less expensive by a margin of 40% to 50%. This is the driver for the increased traffic on OLX platforms from the GCC countries, considering the fact that there are leage Egyptian expat communities residing in those counties, interested in buying residential units back home.”

Momtaz Moussa, OLX’s General Manager of Egypt, also highlights the importance of the online platform to attract foreign investors in the property market. He says, “We have a massive market with a lot of potential for growth not only for local investors, but also for Egyptian expats interested in investing from different countries in the region – a strong factor played here that there is income not in EGP, so floating the currency gave them a higher purchase power due to the new exchange rate of the currencies.”