Egyptian government detects almost 1.2K unlicensed buildings in 1 week

CAIRO – 26 April 2023: The Ministry of Local Development announced Wednesday that it had detected, on April 20-25, 266 unlicensed constructions built on a total area of 25,000 square meters, and that 232 of those, lying on 20,000, had been already demolished.

There were also 921 cases of constructions on agricultural lands spanning over 35 feddans (one feddan equals 4,500 square meters). The number of violations eliminated in that category is 834.

The minister of local development stated in a Cabinet meeting in May that the number of reconciliation requests submitted by owners of unlicensed buildings amounted to 2.8 million.

The deadline to submit such requests was March 3, 2022. Nevertheless, not all owners of unlicensed buildings filed for legalization.

In that regard, the associate to the Minister of Local Development stated in March 2021 that a joint committee had been formed with the Ministry of Housing to decide the penalties that would be imposed on violators.

In a similar context, the committee in charge of eliminating encroachments on state-owned lands stated in September 2021 that 75 percent of those had 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 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.