An initiative in Egypt to sell real estate in dollars and recover its full value after 10 years

Engineer Tariq Shoukry, Undersecretary of the Housing Committee in the House of Representatives and Head of the Real Estate Development Chamber of the Federation of Egyptian Industries, confirmed that the proposed initiative to sell real estate units in dollars only concerns Egyptians working abroad and foreigners, and not Egyptians at home to ensure the flow of foreign currency into the Egyptian market.

Shukri added that the initiative requires paying the value of the unit in dollars in advance and not in installments, and that the customer will recover the full value of the unit 10 years after purchase.

Recover the unit value in pounds or dollars

Regarding the refund of the value of the unit in pounds or dollars, he said that there are still discussions about determining whether the customer will refund the value of his unit in dollars or its equivalent in Egyptian pounds at the time, and thus the customer will have benefited from owning the unit and also recovered his money at the same value that he paid.

He stressed that there are still a number of details and parts of the initiative being agreed upon, such as reselling the unit to other people before the end of the ten-year period, and once all procedures are completed, the final regulations will be formulated by the relevant government agencies.

Egyptian economy

"The three parties in the process will benefit from this initiative. The government will guarantee the entry of foreign currency into the Egyptian economy, and in turn will ensure the return of the money to the unit buyer after 10 years. As for the customer, he will guarantee the unit at a discounted price of about 50% over its current price and benefit from “cashback” and a refund. The unit is complete.”

Shukri explained that the development company will also benefit greatly from the initiative, as it will have the ability to sell more units in light of great demand from customers, and other aspects are being studied. He expected that this initiative would be presented to the Egyptian Parliament soon for approval.

Real estate units

Last week, the Cabinet discussed a proposed initiative to sell real estate units in dollars to Egyptians residing abroad and foreigners, in cooperation between the government and private sector developers.

It aims to achieve a major boom in the performance of the Egyptian Stock Exchange, accelerate the growth of projects in the New Administrative Capital and similar new cities, strengthen and stimulate demand for local real estate, and achieve a large dollar flow.

Dollar crisis

The government is trying to attract dollar liquidity to relieve pressure on the local currency and pay foreign obligations, in addition to controlling inflationary pressures resulting from the exchange rate.

In his comment on the initiative, businessman Naguib Sawiris called for the initiative to sell real estate in dollars to be applied to Egyptians inside and not limited to foreigners and Egyptians abroad only, stressing that this will support developers who are suffering from losses due to the dollar crisis.