Dubai-based builder Arabtec has received Egyptian cabinet approval for a housing project to build a million homes, said Egypt’s assistant housing minister Khaled Abbas on Monday a day after media reports stated that the deal had fallen through, Reuters reported. Abbas rejected a local media report which stated that the project to build a million homes in the north African country had stalled. “We are at the stage of preparing the contracts after receiving the necessary approvals, and we await the opinion of Arabtec’s new management,” assistant housing minister Khaled Abbas told Reuters by telephone. Shares in Arabtec dropped 3.3% on Sunday after Egyptian newspaper Al Mal reported, citing an anonymous source, that the deal over the project had fallen through. Egyptian officials have said the entire housing project will cost about E£280 billion ($36.7 billion) and Arabtec said in April the first phase would involve building 100,000 homes.
