Egyptian president instructs suing squatters who commit larceny to seize state-owned lands

CAIRO – 8 April 2022: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi instructed Thursday Minister of Justice Omar Marwan to immediately take all necessary legal measures against those who committed larceny to seize state-owned lands.

In the meeting, which also included Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli, the minister of justice presented the new procedures introduced at the Registry in alignment with the recently passed bill that regulates its work.

The most distinct feature of the bill is setting the maximum duration for the registration of real estate units at 37 days, enabling online registration, and not requiring a contract with a developer as many citizens just build houses on lands they own.

Further, paying the real estate selling tax is no longer a pre-requirement for registration as it must be paid by the seller, but in practice, it was mostly paid by the buyer so they would be able to register the unit under their name. Hence, people used to abstain from registering their houses at the Registry, and just rely on a contract between them and the seller.

The president also directed accelerating the pace of work at the Registry offices, whose services are essential to many, such as issuing marriage and divorce certificates, and power of attorney documents.

The minister similarly displayed the progress rate of the renovation and upgrade of courts nationwide, prompting the president to approve allocating a land plot in 6th of October City for introducing a court complex that would serve residents in the area.

The committee in charge of eliminating encroachments on state-owned lands stated in September that 75 percent of those have been removed over 18 phases since May 2017 when the campaign was launched by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

That means 2.5 million feddans (one feddan equals 4,500 square meters) of agricultural lands, and 188 million square meters of non-agricultural lands have been cleared. 

The committee also clarified that 37,000 squatters had reconciled, while the requests of 44,000 others were still being examined.

The latest encroachment elimination wave took place on March 6-20 so as squatters were cleared from 1.1 million square meters of state-owned non-agricultural lands, and 4,653 feddans (one feddan equals 4,500 square meters) of agricultural land.  

Most of the encroachments were in the form of unlicensed buildings so as 6,511 constructions were demolished from non-agricultural lands, while 732 others were removed from agricultural lands.