Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, Moustafa Madbouly, stated that the Board of Directors of the Social Housing Fund has amended the proposed Fund budget for the fiscal year (FY) 2016/2017 from EGP 33.5 billion to EGP 61 billion, reported Invest Gate.

Khaled Abbas, Assistant Minister of Housing, and executive director of the Social Housing Fund, declared that, in light of the recent commissions by President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, the number of units to be executed this year will double, reaching 400,000 units, instead of the 150,000 units being implemented now. He said that this was the highest budget allocated for social housing in the history of the state, which supports the present government’s goal of achieving social justice through a number of mechanisms, including social housing.

Abbas added that the Board of Directors of the Social Housing Fund has approved a payment plan of four installments on a quarterly basis until unit delivery, in order to facilitate payments from citizens who wish to book social housing units. The rest of the amount will be paid through banks once credit approval is obtained.

Minister Madbouly stated that the Board of Directors of the Social Housing Fund agreed to sign contracts with banks who wish to fund the EGP 20 billion project. This is in light of the increase of housing units that will be implemented during FY 2016/2017, which require providing self-generated resources for construction.

The Board of Directors of the Social Housing Fund also agreed to buy 40 housing buildings from the Governorate of Marsa Matrouh, totaling 640 units, as per the actual cost of the buildings, and to include them within the social housing project of the governorate.