Egypt's avid efforts to provide citizens with decent housing despite economic crisis

Despite the global financial crisis driven by the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, besides the climate change impacts and the increasing population, Egypt is still working on providing citizens, especially youth, with housing units, as part of the state’s efforts to provide a decent life for all.

While suffering hard currency shortage, Egypt has allocated more than LE 10.2 billion for the social housing program in the state’s draft general budget for the fiscal year 2023/2024 to build up on the one-million housing project that was launched in 2014 to provide affordable apartments for Egyptians with low and middle income, as well as the high class.

During the opening of a number of national projects in July 2021, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said that any citizen who will apply for an apartment will get it, explaining that the Egyptian state stands by its citizens in difficult circumstances.

The project has been implemented in New Cairo, Badr city, New Obour city, New May 15th city, New 6th of October city, Sadat city, New Burj Al Arab, New Fayoum, New Qena city, and New Aswan city.

It was estimated that about 521,600 units out of one million units as of April 2023, of which 68,000 units were built in 2021/2022, were built for the low-income bracket, according to the state-owned Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) on April 17, 2023.

 

As for the housing units for the middle-income bracket (aka Dar Misr), the number of units recorded 56,500 in the new cities, of which 4,440 units were implemented in only 2021/2022. The largest number of implemented units was in the city of New Cairo, as it reached 4,392 units or 98.9% of the total, CAPMAS added.

The number of units in the Paradise of Egypt project (luxury housing) reached 27,500 units in the new cities, of which 12,072 units were implemented. The largest number of units was implemented in the new city of Mansoura, where it reached 9,960 units, and the least number of units is in Al-Shorouk city, which amounted to 696 units in 2021/2022.

“The project provided many facilitations for young people, including myself, as I pay  low monthly installments for the apartment, which I consider as monthly expenses. And in the end, the apartment becomes mine, unlike renting, where I have to pay for an apartment that will not become mine,” Doaa Abdel Hamid, who applied for the project last year, told Egypt Today.

The 35-year-old wife added that young people no longer have enough financial liquidity for the advance deposit of the unsubsidized apartments. The subsidized apartments have therefore helped many young people to start a new family life. However, she revealed that the electricity and plumbing of the subsidized apartments are not always good and some beneficiaries are forced to fix them.

As for Safaa, a teacher and one of the applicants, told Egypt Today that the social housing apartments provide a kind of security for young people, where one feels they have shelter if they want to move out of the family house, regardless of the reason, whether it is marriage or independence.

“It is safe, especially for girls who are not married or who are divorced, because some women are forced to live with their husbands despite insults and domestic violence, just because they have no where to go if they ask for a divorce,” She continued.

Newly-married M. A. said the project is generally good because young people do not have the money to pay the advance deposit of the investment apartments provided by real estate development companies. He added that the concern is that in the event of the collapse of the building, the beneficiary has no share in the land, noting that the recent offers of the social housing units demand higher advance payments than previous years.

To mitigate the increasing population, which hit 105 million people, Egypt has worked on establishing 26 new smart cities to accommodate 30 million people in 18 governorates out of 27 Governorate, according to a study by the Egyptian Center for Thought and Strategic Studies, published on June 20, 2023.

The new cities includes the New Administrative Capital – Tagamu of Southern New Cairo – New 6th of October City – Hadayek October City – New Sphinx City – Extension City of Sheikh Zayed – Tagamu of New Warraq– New Obour City – New Alamein City – New Alexandria City – New Mansoura City - New Nubaria Extension - New Ismailia City - East Port Said City - West Port Said City - New Suez City - New Bir Abd City ( in North Sinai) - New Fashn City - New Mallawi City - New Bani Mazar City - West Assiut City - West Qena City New City - New Aswan City - New Luxor City - New Toshka City.