(DNE Photo)
The New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) has issued seven bids in four cities as part of its framework to develop lands in the 1m units social housing programme.
The bids include the establishment of a youth centre in Beni Suef and a nursery in New Aswan. It will also include building a traffic unit in New Cairo and utilities for 2,151 pieces of land in the new Borg Al-Arab area near Alexandria.
The programme’s executive body head Salah Hassan said the government is building 200,000 residential units annually as part of the programme. He added that the cost of the units does not exceed EGP 135,000, “even though the real cost is double this figure, but the government bears the difference”, he noted.
The social housing project was first announced in 2011. The post-25 January Revolution government announced the project’s implementation in July 2012. Construction was projected to last five years, from fiscal year (FY) 2012/13 to FY 2016/17, with an average of 200,000 units expected to be constructed each year.
In April 2014, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) issued a report stating that the eligibility regulations to apply for a residential unit in the social housing programme prevents 50% of the lowest-income Egyptian from qualifying. The regulations were amended, however, so that the minimum age of applicants was amended to 21, having previously been 45.
Other restrictions include that the income of families should be no more than EGP 3,000, and EGP 1,200 for individuals.
EIPR also issued a report in December 2014, claiming that the government has delivered only 57 units.
In March 2015, Minister of Housing Mostafa Madbouly announced that negotiations over a $500m loan from the World Bank had been finalised. The loan will be repaid over a five-year period.
In May 2015, the UAE signed a cooperation protocol with Egypt’s Ministry of Housing, agreeing to finance the construction of 50,000 in 17 governorates at a value of EGP 11bn.
