UAE company to cement deal for one million Egyptian homes

The United Arab Emirates' Arabtec company announced their intention to commence building one million affordable houses by the end of the year.

The aim of this megaproject, expected to cost US$40 billion, is to provide one million affordable units in six years, across 13 different locations in Egypt.

In early March, Arabtec agreed to work with the Egyptian Armed Forces to build housing for youth and those in lower-income brackets, in line with Sisi’s election pledge to provide affordable housing for all.

Arabtec had announced that it would deliver the first phase of development by early 2017, and estimated that construction work would be concluded by 2020.

According to Reuters news agency, Arabtec expects to finalize its agreement with the Egyptian government in order to commence construction shortly. A consortium of companies will work on the first phase of the project.

The Emirati company announced that it would provide “in-kind housing units and public services” in coordination with Egypt’s New Urban Communities Authority, which, in turn, is expected to provide the land, infrastructure and facilities required for the completion of the project.

The privately owned Al-Shorouk newspaper, citing Emirati media outlets, reported that the first phase of the project would include 120,000 housing units in three locations, in Cairo’s satellite cities of Obour and Badr, as well as in New Minya City in the central Egyptian Governorate of Minya.

There are still questions however over how affordable the housing units will actually be, and the total price per unit is not known.

In March, the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported that a unit would be available with an initial down payment of LE10,000 to LE15,000 ($US1,400 to 2,100), and instalments of the remaining cost over 10 to 20 years.

Previous experiments in mass housing schemes, such as the Social Housing Project, have fallen short of their goals, and are far behind schedule.

Along with the provision of billions of petrodollars in grants, loans and aid to the Egyptian state, Arabtec’s mass housing project is widely perceived to be part of the UAE’s efforts to support President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the current government.