More than 7,000 residential units in 6th of October will be handed to buyers this year under the Social Housing Programme, head of 6th of October Authority Essam Badawy said.
In statements to state-owned Al-Ahram on Saturday, Badawy explained that the Social Housing Programme encompasses 100,000 units in the city, 93,000 of which were planned, while 33,000 of them were awarded to contractors. The names of the contractors were not mentioned.
The Armed Forces Engineering Corps is supervising the implementation of 40,000 social housing units in 6th of October City.
Approximately 150,000 residential units will be built by the end of this year, according to Minister of Housing Mostafa Madbouly. A previous 100,000 units have already been constructed under the programme.
The social housing project was first announced during the 25 January Revolution in 2011 by former president Hosni Mubarak’s last minister of housing, Ahmed Al-Maghrabi.
The number of applications exceeded 6m requests in August 2011, the government said at the time, closing the application phase.
However, due to the loss of data in the turmoil following the 25 January Revolution, the project was re-launched in July 2012 with the plan forecasting a period of five years to complete the project, with an average of 200,000 units expected to be constructed each year. The project aimed to provide residential units for low-income citizens.
The government’s regulations stated that owning an apartment requires a maximum family income of EGP 40,000 per year and a minimum income of EGP 23,040 a year. For renting a residential unit, the family’s maximum income was set at EGP 18,000 a year.
The government has revised its conditions, limiting the monthly income of families to no more than EGP 3,000 and EGP 1,200 for individuals.
The age of applicants was also amended to a minimum of 21 years of age, having previously been placed at 45 years of age.
