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Egypt to Provide Subsidized Homes to the Poor

Egypt to Provide Subsidized Homes to the Poor
Egypt to Provide Subsidized Homes to the Poor

Egypt’s government plans to pour tens of thousands of new housing units onto the market in each of the next few years, but it’s not clear how easily the country can absorb them.

The authorities say they want to reduce crowding in Egypt’s congested cities and provide homes for the poor but many analysts say the new residences are priced way beyond the means of most Egyptians and a good share of them will remain unsold, Reuters reported.

The government is undeterred, however, and is moving full steam ahead on a new capital city 50 km east of Cairo, a project that will designed to deliver 240,000 new housing units over the next five years.

It is also in the second year of a five-year plan to provide a million subsidized homes for the poor. According to press reports, 150,000 low-income units have already been delivered and another 260,000 are under construction.

Dozens of other housing projects, many spearheaded by the army, are underway. Activity is especially strong along the Suez Canal, which has been declared a special economic zone, at Gabal Galala in the mountains along the Gulf of Suez and at al-Alamein on the Mediterranean coast.

A network of highways and residential streets has been extended into the desert around Cairo to make way for the new developments, especially to the east towards Suez, in anticipation of a flow of buyers seeking to escape the crowded confines of the Nile Valley.

Some of the demand for new housing is coming from Egyptians working overseas who sent more than $5 billion back to Egypt in the third quarter of 2017 alone.

With inflation now running at an annual 22% and expected to remain in the double digits for several years at least, Egyptians have been searching for investments that will preserve the value of their assets.

 

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