Mountain View is a leading real estate company currently focusing on its popular iCity project, with two locations; 6th of October City and Tagamoa, in addition to its Chillout Park project, also located in 6th of October City. Mountain View is working to offer prestigious housing units to its clients through unique concepts that address diverse residential needs.
iCity is the first housing project worldwide to be constructed on four levels: one level for cars and parking, the second for the islands and houses where people live, the third for gardens, and the fourth for the corniche.
To understand more about these projects, Daily News Egypt met with Amr Soliman, Mountian View’s Chairperson, to learn more.
What new aspect is iCity offering for its clients?
What makes iCity unique is the four levels on which it is constructed. The first city in the world to implement such a concept, the city meets the real needs of its clients by uniquely balancing the desire for easy access, with concerns over road safety, traffic and overcrowding. Addressing these needs and concerns to create a residential community that truly addressed client’s needs, iCity is constructed on four levels: one level for cars and parking, the second for the islands and houses where people live, the third for gardens, and the fourth for corniche. The separation of cars from residential communities allowed us to provide access whilst reducing car traffic and crowding, in fact this is one of the key reasons we experienced such phenomenal demand in phases one and two.
What is special about iCity in 6th of October City?
After the success of iCity in Tagamoa, we wanted to recreate the same success by addressing a wider audience and residents on the other side of the city, through iCity 6th of October City. Based on the same concept the 6th of October project was based on the same philosophy of its Tagamoa counterpart, but added some additional improvements based on other needs of our clients.
iCity of October, offers a prime location; established on 500 feddans (518.9 acres) behind the 6th of October, Shooting Club, which is an obvious advantage for potential buyers. iCity of October as with the iCity of Tagamoa, offers spacious green zones and a massive parking area; however, we will still have several other surprises for our clients in store, so you will have to wait for the latest Mountain View announcements, coming soon.
Is there any increase in the units’ prices after the last changes in the market?
Market prices are subject to multiple factors and we are constantly studying the market to ensure that we offer value for money, through competitive market prices and residential projects that offer international standards of excellence and quality.
How about your sales amount?
The phenomenal success of iCity in phases one and two, is a testament to our success within the market and we are confident we will continue to generate healthy sales numbers this year. In fact we already have a waiting list of clients looking to secure units in the coming phases of iCity, which is of course very promising and highlights customer confidence in Mountain View as a brand.
iCity Tagamoa consists only of housing units, or are there other services?
iCity is much more than a residential development. As the name suggests it’s a city, a fully integrated residential community that caters to all the essential needs of residents, including a school, a social club, and a commercial mall and more. We are currently working to secure the right operators to manage each sector and hope to announce our progress in this area in the coming period.
How do you see the upcoming period?
We are confident that Mountain View will continue to lead the market. Despite concerns by some over the economic crisis and flotation of the pound, we have taken this on as a challenge, to create more unique and innovative solutions that meet and exceed expectations, to help overcome these challenges.
We are also looking forward to announcing several exciting updates before the end of the year.
In addition to iCity, what are Mountain View’s other projects?
Inside Cairo, we also have the Chillout Park in 6th of October City, which consists of villas and focuses on the concept of providing a relaxed, tranquil environment for city dwellers to escape from the everyday stresses of traffic and overcrowding. We also have a project in the North Coast area too.
Our developments tend to focus on two kinds of projects, which are the various and integrated levels in iCity, and villa compounds, including Mountain View 1 and Mountain View 2.
Which kinds of financing do you depend on?
When it comes to this matter, we are conservative and have so far chosen to rely on self financing. We believe that it is important to build trust and credibility between Mountain View and our clients.
Did the flotation decision impact your company?
Of course everyone to some extent was impacted by this decision, however, the advantage that we have is that our units are constructed on large areas. The strongest impact would be felt by companies with constructions on small areas, such as 50 or 80 feddans (51.89 or 83.03 acres).
What we care about most is that our clients purchase high-quality products at a competitive prices and it is because Mountain View consistently follows this philosophy, that we have been able to successfully over come challenges such as the flotation and continue to flourish.
Additionally, there is market awareness as to where increase in prices originates from, and it would not be for investments, but would be because of the cost of construction, estimated at not less than 50% or 60%.
But it is said that the real estate companies which sold many of their products before the flotation decision are the ones who suffered more, and you were one of these. What is your opinion in this regard?
Yes it is true that we achieved phenomenal sales before the flotation, but we still have a lot more to sell. Keep in mind that what we sold in iCity Tagamoa represents only nearly 10% of our whole land and space.
Before starting any project you mentioned that research and studies are carried out. Can you give our readers a brief about this in regards to the iCity?
As we strongly believe in innovation, before starting iCity we studied what Egyptians need psychologically. In fact, we spent almost a year and a half studying the market and the diverse needs of different Egyptians of different ages and genders. Actually, there was a strong need for the cars to be separated from pedestrians, which is where the idea of iCity was first developed. We are also offering this commodity at an affordable price according to the market.
Our market research however goes beyond just understanding the emotional and physiological needs of our consumers. We pride ourselves on offering the best in international standards of quality and innovation, which is why we also visited more than 16 of the best cities worldwide, to see their models for construction and how we could integrate the best of these cities in to our projects.
The result was iCity; the first city in the world to be constructed on four levels.
So the psychological aspect for the client is taken into consideration?
Of course, and we are very sophisticated when it comes to the psychological requirements of our clients. We have a team that conducts effective research that is able to address and engage clients’ on a personal level. We also work with psychologists who support us in addressing the main concerns and stresses that a resident may face, so that we can identify key concerns and find solutions to them, before they ever even become a source of frustration for our residents.
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