Egyptian Cabinet legalizes new batch of unlicensed churches, affiliated buildings

CAIRO – 20 April 2022: The Cabinet approved Wednesday legalizing 238 unlicensed churches and affiliated buildings turning the total into 2,401.

The status and requests of that batch have been examined, since January 6, by the committee in charge of legalizing unlicensed churches, and that is headed by Minister of Justice Omar Marwan.

The government made submitting reconciliation requests to legalize unlicensed constructions, mainly flat-buildings, mandatory in 2020 or demolition would be the fate of such units.

Unlicensed units were given ID numbers, and owners were given the option of paying the value of reconciliation in installments over three years.

Associate to Minister of Local Development and Spokesperson Khaled Qassem stated in March 2021, which marked the deadline for submitting the requests, that a joint committee has been formed with the Ministry of Housing to decide the penalties that would be imposed on owners of unlicensed buildings who had not requested reconciliation.

The official stated that 2,780,471 requests had been received, mainly from Beheira, Sharqia, Qalyoubeya, Menoufeya, Cairo, and Giza.

The official pointed out that the reduction in the price of the square meter used in calculating the value of reconciliation fees has contributed to the rise of requests submitted.

The value of the reduction is 20-70 percent in some neighborhoods in Cairo, 10-50 percent in Qalyoubeya, 25 percent in Alexandria, 30-40 percent in Gharbia, 20 percent in Beheira, 20 percent in Menoufeya, 25 percent in North Sinai, 40-50 percent in Menya, and 30-50 percent in Fayoum.

Qassem underscored that certain NGOs paid the reconciliation fees on behalf of some low-income citizens lauding what they offer to the society.