Daker Abdellah — Member of the Real Estate Investment Division of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce and Member of the Construction Committee of the Egyptian Businessmen Association — said that there are great opportunities to export Egyptian real estate in light of the USD’s appreciation against the EGP.
This is especially so since Egyptian real estate is one of the cheapest in the region.
Abdellah also suggested a vision for exporting Egypt’s property and achieving the highest sales rate for foreigners and Arabs by holding Egyptian real estate exhibitions in the Gulf and Europe, as well as establishing a website or an official platform for real estate in Egypt that includes all data related to real estate wealth in Egypt.
Furthermore, he highlighted the importance of this platform being made official to improve its credibility in the eyes of Arabs and foreigners, as well as Egyptian expats.
Therefore, this platform should be established by the Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities in coordination with real estate developers in Egypt.
Abdellah elaborated that this platform should contain data of all the new urban cities and the projects being developed there, delivery dates, construction rates, the prices of properties, and payment methods.
It should also contain all the legal information needed for an Arab or foreigner to acquire property in Egypt.
He stressed the necessity of establishing this platform as soon as possible and involving all real estate developers, inputting their project data in it, and preparing a marketing and advertising campaign for this platform abroad so that it would be a guide for buyers worldwide.
He also emphasised the need to develop a global marketing and advertising campaign on Egypt’s projects — especially roads, infrastructure, urban cities, and the digital transformation. This would increase the chances of exporting real estate and attracting new investors to the Egyptian market, which will be reflected in providing job opportunities, obtaining hard currency, and opening new markets.
He explained that the best example of this is the marketing being done for the New Administrative Capital, which has managed to create a demand for all its properties.
Furthermore, Abdellah stressed the importance of expanding the organisation of Egyptian real estate exhibitions abroad in various cities and capitals of countries around the world, as it would create a kind of direct communication between the developers and clients.
He also called on the banking sector to solve the crisis of delaying contractors’ dues to the assigning agencies.
Moreover, he expects that now that Hassan Abdalla has been appointed as Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), there will be interest in increasing competitiveness in the banking sector; offering banking products and services that meet the needs of citizens; ensuring the integrity of the banking system; formulating and implementing monetary, credit, banking, and service policies; and attempts to control inflation rates.
Egyptian contractors are owed billions of pounds in dues from their assigning agencies — which may reach 50% of the project in some cases — and this disrupts the work of contracting companies due to the lack of sufficient liquidity and the delay in receiving their dues from these assigning agencies, he disclosed.
He suggested that the CBE directs some state-owned banks to purchase the debts of construction companies with the assigning authorities by handing over to banks dues payable from the side of these authorities and stamped with the state’s seal, provided that banks pay the companies’ dues with interest.
He explained that this approach will accelerate the pace of project construction, adherence to deadlines for project delivery, and prevent any stumbling block. With regard to real estate projects, he believes that the current mortgage financing initiatives are decent but need some important modifications, such as accelerating the inclusion of mortgage financing initiatives for units that are being constructed and financed — not just units that have been completed.
