After the huge success of the “Real Estate & Tourism Development” roundtable last October, Invest-Gate held its first executive meeting on November 18 to discuss all action plans that should take place to execute all the roundtable’s recommendations.

Previously, Invest-Gate has released the recommendations as suggested by mega real estate developers and experts from Egypt and abroad, who thoroughly tackled two main topics during the roundtable: public-private partnerships (PPPs) and real estate exports.

The meeting was attended by Chairman and CEO of Rooya Group Hisham Shoukry, Mena Group Founder Fathallah Fawzy, CEO of Iwan Developments Waleed Mokhtar, CEO of City Edge Developments Amr El-Kady, and Managing Director and Board Member of Tatweer Misr Ahmed Shalaby.

The mega developers highlighted the importance of starting a short-term action plan to execute what have discussed in the roundtable.

They agreed that they should put their business interests aside and address the sector issues, standing united to address all challenges they face in the real estate export issue.

Fawzy said, “Today we speak not as individuals, representing our development companies but as a united front to boost Egypt’s economic reform and tourism through its vibrant product real estate.”

All attendees have agreed on the point of forming a formal committee that is specialized in exporting real estate. They suggested that the council or alliance should represent the private sector in alliance with the government to tackle all challenges towards the real estate export issue.

They noted that execution of that committee should start immediately, and they have nominated Khaled Abbas, deputy minister of housing, utilities, and urban development for national projects, to be the president of the council.

Another point of discussion that has been proposed by developers is that second homes should be the main product when exporting real estate, and promoting such homes in coastal cities is a must as the exceptional conditions in Egyptian coasts are considered as great attraction methods to tourists from all over the world.

Fawzy pointed out that due to the economic conditions in Egypt, USD 1 mn buys a property with a surface area up to 667 square meters, which shows that Egyptian properties are nowadays affordable by foreigners.

Another recommendation that should be taken in action is that the Egyptian real estate market should be investing heavily in producing Branded Residences or Boutique Residences.  

Shalaby confirmed that Tatweer Misr is already selling this type of product at its North Coast and Ain Sokhna projects: Fouka Bay and Il Monte Galala. He addressed some of the challenges they faced, presenting a successful business model of the past few years. He sees it as a very promising product that will cater to the demand of foreign homebuyers.

Shoukri believes that this product will be very attractive to the foreign second homebuyer, as a managing hospitality company will rent it out during the time of it being not in use by its rightful owner.

From the tourism market of Egypt, Shalaby believes that such units will be additional guestrooms to the hospitality market, promoting tourism worldwide.

Concerning the rules and regulations of foreigners ownership of Egyptian properties, developers suggested that a committee should be formed to discuss all laws that are considered obstacles to foreigners ownership in Egypt.

Members of the meeting proposed that the to-be-formed committee is to come up with a short-term solution for bureaucracies, suggesting that the Tourism Development Authority (TDA) should work in line with the real estate developers to create an authority granting registration to a foreigner when master plans are approved, leaving contracts between developers and their clients aside, as Mokhtar advises.

Among the suggested solutions is, also, an ownership card like that of driver’s license El-Kady suggests as a proof of the authenticity of the unit in front of the government to facilitate the logistics of the market export.

The committee is to tackle such issue very soon and present a drafted solution to the ministry and to members of parliament for further law amendments.

From their side, Invest-Gate will conduct in 2019 a series of meetings and roundtables to discuss each and every aspect that would promote real estate exports.