Projects Real Estate Development is developing the project Blues Tiffany North Coast with total investments of EGP 10bn.
The company was established in 2015. Its board members have more than 35 years of experience in Egypt and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region in construction and engineering.
Daily News Egypt sat down with Hossam Bahaa, CEO of Projects, to learn about the developmental status of the project and the company’s future plans.
What are the details of Blues Tiffany North Coast?
Blues Tiffany is a touristic hotel project, located on an area of 250 feddans in Ras El-Hekma, North Coast, with a total of 4,000 units with sizes ranging from 48-300 sqm.
The company has allocated about 75 feddans of the project’s land to establishing artificial lakes.
We launched the first phase of the project in July, which includes about 1,200 units, and have marketed about 70% of it so far. Furthermore, the company targets completing the marketing of the phase during the current year.
A new phase will be launched within the project during the Cityscape exhibition, which is an island within the project with about 30 units. This phase will be marketed in parallel with the marketing of the first phase of the project. We aim to market and implement the project over four phases.
As for the operational status of the project, the company contracted with Sabbour Consulting Company to design and supervise the project. Building licenses are also being obtained from Marsa Matrouh Governorate, in addition to signing contracting contracts worth EGP 100m to carry out the project’s earthworks.
What is the value of achieved sales from Blues Tiffany?
The company has achieved EGP 700m in contractual sales from Blues Tiffany.
What is the value of targeted sales by the end of the year?
The company targets increasing the project sales to reach EGP 2bn by the end of the current year, driven by the launch of new phases of the project and expanding its marketing in the local market and abroad.
What is the value of investments to be directed to the project?
The investments targeted for the project during the current year are expected to reach about EGP 400m, and that the value will increase during the next year to accelerate the implementation rate of the project. It is planned to hand over the first phase of the project in 2020, while the entire project will be implemented and marketed within seven years, with a total investment of EGP 10bn.
What is the company’s expansion plan?
The company is negotiating to buy two plots of land in New Cairo and Sheikh Zayed to implement a residential project on areas starting from 100 feddans. Moreover, the company is also awaiting the next investment offering by the New Urban Communities Authority to identify opportunities for participation.
What is your opinion regarding the New Administrative Capital?
The New Administrative Capital is of one of the new, strong, and integrated communities being developed by the government and receives national support and investment for integration and success. The company is waiting to see the results of investors’ experiences for a final study and to identify the negative and positive aspects of those experiences, to avoid falling into troubles when investing in a project.
Will the project have hotel activities?
The project includes space for a 20-feddan hotel. The company aims to contract with a global brand for its management. The company is currently preparing for the hotel’s designs, and it is planned to be implemented at the end of the project.
Will you market the project abroad?
Marketing the company’s project overseas comes at the forefront of our marketing plans. We intend to participate at the International Property Show (IPS) exhibition in Dubai next month.
Expanding in the export of Egyptian real estate abroad, especially to foreign customers, is necessary, as studies confirmed that English customers are buy the most property outside their home country, which means that England is a very important destination for real estate export, especially residential tourism projects.
Therefore, real estate developers have to produce projects that are capable of competing abroad, and to identify the needs of foreign customers for property. Moreover, Egyptian property has many advantages, most notably the low value compared to other countries of the region, which creates opportunity to provide hard currency for the state.
What issues in the market need to be addressed?
Real estate appraisal is one of the issues that should be addressed to improve the local real estate market and encourage foreign and domestic investment, which investors rely on to determine the fair value and balanced price of lands or units, which keeps the real estate market away from approaching a bubble. Real pricing is an essential way to attract foreign investors who seek to determine their investments based on clear and announced prices.
Meanwhile, the absence of a database containing all needed indicators and figures that real estate developers need is one of the challenges facing the real estate sector. Data is needed to know promising investment areas and areas that customers are interested in, in addition to knowing the nature of the product that the developer must implement to meet market demand.
In this regard, the company has launched an initiative to establish a database needed by the market in cooperation with the rest of the real estate developers and with the other stakeholders in the sector in order to support market continuation and increase revenues, especially since real estate is one of the locomotives of development, which the state depends on to promote its economic situation.
How do you see the state’s role in the sector?
The state has to exit the arena of competition with real estate developers and return as a supervisor of the performance of the local market, while maintaining its role in implementing social housing. Further, the state has to make use of real estate appraisal experts in evaluating land prices to determine affordable prices for lands to be offered.
What are your expectations for price hikes in the sector?
I expect relative stability in the prices of real estate units during the current year. Nevertheless, I think that the sector will experience a great boom following the recent decision to cut the interest rate and I expect there will be further decline in the interest rate in the coming period, which will push customers to invest in property as a safe haven for investment.
In addition, the continued real demand on real estate needs further construction of projects for different segments of clients.
What are the promising areas for investment?
Investing in new urban communities such as New Alamein and Sheikh Zayed represents a strong trend for the real estate market during the coming period, which is one of the roles required of the private sector in order to support the country’s development plans. Therefore, the state has to provide initial investment incentives in these cities to encourage more investors to launch projects at these cities.
Furthermore, investing in Upper Egypt and New Alamein is one of the company’s priorities during the coming period to diversify its investment portfolio.
