Savills, one of the world’s leading real estate consultancies, releases its first Egypt Property Report, providing a comprehensive overview of the Greater Cairo real estate market, in addition to an in-depth analysis of the residential, offices, and retail sectors, Invest-Gate reports.

At a press conference held to announce the release of the report, Catesby Langer-Paget, head of Savills Egypt, says “Marking our third year in Egypt, this report will be the first of many, as this industry continues to thrive and develop,” noting that “Globally, we release hundreds of reports from our 650 global offices, which real estate professionals and investors rely on for current market trends and predictions for the future to help make the right decisions.”

Moreover, Langer-Paget highlights the fact that Egypt’s economic expansion will be about 4.5% between 2021 and 2022; however, the level of GDP growth rate is expected to return to its pre-pandemic rates of above 5.5% by 2023.

He adds that “We can very much see the impact of Egypt’s economic expansion on the real estate market, as the market is maintaining its position and is regarded as an attractive investment,” stressing that “One should note that the decrease of interest rates in the market is positioning real estate assets as a safe haven for investment across the country, driving demand for local investors, Egyptian expatriates as well as foreign investors.”

Additionally, Head of Operations at Savills Sherine Badreldine states, “Reports show that the real estate market is still maintaining its position and even growing in some sectors; as in the case of the residential market where demand for units has remained strong across Greater Cairo, bringing the current residential stock to 7.1 million units.”

She adds that “Following the government’s expansion vision and the Egyptian New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA), private developers are offering a variety of large mixed-use developments across both West Cairo and New Cairo, leading to a strong increase in the supply of Grade A residential developments, accounting to around 1.0% of the total supply in 2020.”

Badreldine also remarks, “The same applies for the office market: the demand for office space remains strong and is gradually increasing on an annual basis across Greater Cairo. There has been a steady growth in the number of foreign corporations recently establishing their operations in the city or expanding their footprint.”

Finally, Zeinab Adel, head of the strategic consultancy comments, “The upcoming years will continue to witness an increase in residential demand driven by population growth,” noting that “For the office market, the demand for office space remains strong, nonetheless, patterns of supply and demand within the key office hubs are changing. With a current office supply stock of 1.7 million sqm (end of 2020).”

Furthermore, Adel points out, “Developers are preferring to move away from Downtown Cairo and Giza towards mixed-use organized office parks, that offer a variety of amenities and sufficient parking space in Sheikh Zayed City and New Cairo.”

Adel concludes that the report links the change in the retail sector to the change in demographics due to the growth of the Egyptian middle-class youth. This shift has been more prevalent in the last few years, especially in 2019, with the significant increase in the city’s retail GLA with the handover of Mall of Egypt and Almaza City Centre, in addition to retail strips in New Cairo and the expansion of Cairo Festival City.