Official Spokesman for the New Administrative Capital (NAC) Khaled Elhusseiny said on December 11 that 70% of the land area in the new capital’s first phase – a total of 17,000 acres – has been sold out, state-owned Ahram Online reports.

The government offices and residential districts at the NAC are expected to be finalized by 2020, Elhusseiny told Ahram Online during a press conference on December 4, asserting that the main developers in the new city are mostly Egyptians.

Chairman of the Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD) Ahmed Zaki Abdeen earlier told Invest-Gate that “the development of the NAC did not cost the state budget a penny and does not represent a burden on it.”

The mega project’s first phase, which kicked off in 2016, is part of the government’s plan to expand urban areas to maintain the country’s rapidly growing population and improve the nation’s infrastructure.

NAC’s first phase spans across 40,000 acres and costs around EGP 200 bn, according to previously reported data by New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA).