The Cabinet approved an initiative by the Real Estate Development Chamber to grant temporary residence to foreigners in return for buying a property, according to chairperson of the chamber Tarek Shoukry.
The newly formed Real Estate Development Chamber, affiliated with the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI), has presented an initiative granting foreigners temporary residence for buying a property worth at least $100,000 after security investigations from the relevant authorities, provided that this amount is transferred from outside of the country to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).
Shoukry said that the application of the initiative will support the Egyptian economy, which is expected to receive billions of dollars annually from the proceeds of the initiative.
On Wednesday, the Cabinet approved an amendment to the rules for granting residency to foreigners for non-touristic purposes, including granting foreigners a residence in Egypt for one year in the case of buying housing units with the mentioned amount of money. The amendment also grants foreigners a five-year residence in the case of buying housing units worth $400,000 or more.
Shoukry added that the initiative was discussed with a number of different government agencies that supported the initiative, especially Minister of Housing Mostafa Madbouly.
Shoukry stressed that the dollar revenues of the initiative will ease pressure on foreign currency reserves, as it contributes to the provision of billions of dollars to banks from outside the country, which strengthens reserves, especially since the amounts are transferred from abroad, which ensures that there is no extra pressure on the local demand of dollars.
“The Chamber has succeeded since its establishment in providing a number of initiatives, and government agencies responded to a number of those after studying them, including the issuance of licenses for real estate projects to consulting offices, which came into effect, in addition to granting real estate companies six months to hand over their projects,” Shoukry noted. “Furthermore, the chamber is studying a number of initiatives with government agencies, all of which aim at contributing to the revitalisation of the real estate sector, supporting the Egyptian economy, and contributing to raising investment and development rates.”
