The Ministry of Housing, in cooperation with the Ministry of Investment, offered a number of land plots for sale in the areas of services within the social housing project. The first phase of the Dar Masr (House of Egypt) project for middle-income housing comes with areas ranging between 540 and 93,400 sqm.
These lands are located in the cities of New Cairo, El-Obour, New Damietta, El-Sadat, 15th of May, 10th of Ramadan, El-Shorouk, Badr, 6th of October, and New Borg El-Arab.
The lands are allocated to establish investment and service activities including commercial, administrative, commercial administrative, residential commercial administrative, hypermarkets, nurseries, schools, social clubs, sports clubs, medical centres, hospitals, car service centres, occasions centres, and bakeries.
Sources in the Ministry of Housing said that the offering of the lands of Dar Masr includes about 70 land plots, 29 of which were not sold at the first auction.
The New Urban Communities Authority offered the first phase of the lands allocated for service projects and sold 15 land plots worth EGP 298m out of 44 land plots with areas varying between 935 and 93,000 sqm in Dar Masr in eight cities.
The Ministry of Housing announced the Dar Masr project in 2014; the first phase included 31,000 units, in addition to 25,600 units in the second phase, while the project’s investments are estimated at EGP 70bn to execute 250,000 units.
The sources added that the offering of the lands allocated for service projects in the social housing project was supposed to include 119 land plots in 17 cities with areas ranging between 405-17,700 sqm, but the number of land plots was reduced and concentrated in the cities that include a larger number of units.
Tarek El-Sebaie, the official who supervises the commercial and real estate affairs in the New Urban Communities Authority, said that the down payment to show the seriousness of investors to reserve the land plots is 5% of the land plot’s value, ranging between EGP 18,300 and EGP 8.6m, according to the location and area of each plot. This amount is paid in cash in the cities’ authorities through a certified cheque or bank cheque, or through an unconditional letter of guarantee.
He added that already existing companies or individuals who want to reserve the land plots can buy the auction dossier starting from 31 January for EGP 1,000 from the offices of the authorities of the cities in which they want to reserve lands.
He also said that the land is given to the entity or person whose offer includes the highest amount of the down payment fee. The rest of the to-be-paid amount (not less than of 10% of the land plot’s value) should be paid through a certified cheque or bank cheque, in addition to 1% administrative fees, and 0.5% board of trustees fees. These should be paid within maximum a month from the date of informing the entity or person of the approval, while the rest of the value should be paid within a maximum of three months from that date.
El-Sebaie also said that it is allowed to pay the rest of the value in three years through equal annual instalments plus return of investment, equal to the interest rate announced by the Central Bank of Egypt at the time of payment, in addition to 2% to the debit balance.
According to El-Sebaie, the return is calculated starting from the date of the approval until the due date, while the due date of the first instalment plus the interest is a year after the approval. The value of the instalments plus the interest rates should be paid through post-dated checques in the name of the authorities of the cities, which should be presented as part of the contract documents.
He added that the offers can be presented from 26 February to 2 March at the office of the New Urban Communities Authority.
He also said that those who will obtain the land plots should commit to the requirements in the auction dossier and that the auction is carried out in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 17 of 2015, its amendments, and its implementing regulations. The maps of the locations of the offered land plots are available on the websites of the New Urban Communities Authority and the General Authority for Investments and Free Zones.
