Egypt signs PPP deals for 20,000 affordable homes across eight new cities
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Egypt has finalised public-private partnership agreements to build about 20,000 affordable housing units in eight new cities under the Housing for All Egyptians programme, with developers getting land at preferential prices.
Egypt has finalised a package of public-private partnership agreements aimed at speeding up affordable home construction, with about 20,000 units planned across eight new cities under the presidential Housing for All Egyptians initiative. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly attended the signing between the government and private property developers last week, Egyptian Gazette reported.
The agreements bring together the New Urban Communities Authority, the Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Fund and several private developers. Under the model, 80 per cent of each project will be allocated to eligible citizens at affordable prices and under conditions set by the fund, while the remaining 20 per cent will be sold as residential or commercial units at market prices so developers can generate returns.
Developers will also receive land at preferential prices to reduce construction costs. Housing Minister Randa el-Menshawy said the step is meant to widen private-sector involvement in development projects while ensuring a sustainable supply of affordable homes.
Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Fund chief executive Mai Abdel Hamid said 104 developers submitted 137 applications for 17 land plots offered in the programme's first phase. Eligible buyers will access mortgage financing at a declining interest rate of 8 per cent with repayment periods of up to 20 years, and beneficiaries will also receive an ownership share in the land their buildings sit on.
The partnerships form part of a wider housing finance programme supported by the World Bank, which has committed $1 billion to Egypt's Inclusive Housing Finance Programme-for-Results since 2015 and says the programme has supported more than 420,000 subsidies to low-income households, with more than half of beneficiaries under 45 and one in five women.
The government says it has implemented or is completing around two million housing units in recent years, most of them social housing, while units completed or under construction under Housing for All Egyptians have reached about 1.21 million, according to official reports cited by the newspaper.