Invest-Gate concludes its virtual roundtable on April 26, which discusses the new building requirements, in cooperation with the Egyptian Businessmen Association.

The table hosts a group of prominent experts and specialists in the Egyptian real estate sector, namely: Fathallah Fawzi, founder of MENA Group; Ahmed El-Sigini, chairman of the Local Administration Committee in the House of Representatives; Waleed Mokhtar, CEO and Co-founder of Iwan Developments; Mohamed Hany El Assal, CEO of Misr Italia Properties;  Hisham Shoukry, Chairman of Rooya Group; Ahmed Shalaby, President and CEO of Tatweer Misr; Amr El Kadi, real estate expert; Ali Ragheb, chairman of Raghebco Engineering and Construction Consultancy; and Ali Hussein Abdel-Rahim, chairman of the Investors Association Investment Zone Giza Governorate and Beginning of Cairo Alex Desert Road.

Participants agreed on the following recommendations:

General Recommendations

• A robust mechanism should be determined to re-evaluate the new structural requirements after applying them on a trial basis for a period of two months.
• The main streets and axes that will be excluded from these requirements must be specified and established for the governors to ensure that they are properly applied to protect the real estate wealth in some areas.
• The new conditions must include the context of the architectural and civilizational design in terms of form, uniformity of color, and landscape.
• A transitional phase that is not restricted to a time period must be applied.
• Not applying the new building requirements to those who obtained a building permit or valid certificate in accordance with previous building requirements.
• The building requirements must take into account that there should be a study of the special needs of each area, whether residential, commercial, medical or multi-use.

Issuing Building Permits

• A clear and effective mechanism should be put in place to ensure that licenses are obtained within the specified period of time stipulated in the new building requirements, which is only 60 days.
• If building permits are not obtained within 60 days, this should be considered a tacit approval.
• More human resources should be provided in universities to facilitate the procedures for issuing building permits, in addition to ensuring adequate monitoring and follow-ups.
• Consider creating a competitive group with many specialists, parallel to universities.
• Building permits for consulting offices should be reconsidered in accordance with the Unified Building Law No. 119 of 2008, instead of universities.
• Governance must be applied and not the issuance of licenses solely to combat random construction violations.

Land Divisions

• Landowners, who their lands will be withdrawn, should be compensated with new lands of the same value and not the area.
• Landowners should must be financially compensated.
• The requirements could be applied to the new lands and not to those that were previously divided within the urban space.
• The state must respect its contracts and the legal positions of landowners, with the exception of those who obtained licenses before these new requirements are activated.