Foreigners seeking to buy property in Egypt must now pay for it in foreign currency, as the country looks for ways to boost foreign investment.
At its weekly meeting on Wednesday, the country's Cabinet approved amendments to a 1996 property law that allowed foreigners to purchase homes and land in Egypt.
Despite previously being allowed to pay for real estate in the local currency, foreigners will now have to use foreign currency as Cairo intensifies efforts to drum up investment from overseas.
The amendments, which also stipulate that foreigners must deposit their payments through a fully state-owned bank, could drive up real estate prices in Egypt, Medhat Nafea, an economic analyst and deputy to Egypt’s supply minister, told The National.
“There is a surplus of real estate in Egypt, so, assuming that there is demand from the foreign end, which the very act of amending the law suggests there is, then we can expect real estate prices to go up,” he said.
“Additionally, the removal of the restrictions on the number of properties and their size will most likely result in more homes being owned by foreign nationals overall.”
The vast majority of foreigners who will benefit from the changes to the law will most likely be GCC citizens, according to Mohamed Ragab, a financial and economic analyst.
“GCC companies are Egypt’s biggest investors and many have set up companies here, so I expect them to constitute the biggest buyers of real estate after these amendments. I don’t expect many citizens from Western countries will be as interested in purchasing property in Egypt,” he said.
A continuing economic crisis – triggered by a sharp rise in global food and energy prices on the back of the Ukraine war – has depleted Egypt’s foreign reserves and led to a shortage of dollars, leaving the country’s import-heavy economy hamstrung.
With inflation at a six-year high and expected to continue rising, the government has come up with several measures in recent months to promote more foreign investment in its various sectors.
In May, the Supreme Council of Investment, a once-dormant government body formed in 2017 and reactivated earlier this year, announced that it had agreed on 22 decisions to promote private sector participation in the economy, without revealing details.
During the same month, the Cabinet also approved a number of economic and legislative amendments after complaints that there was too much red tape for non-Egyptian companies to set up shop.
The amendments are intended to speed up the formation of companies, acquisition of land and issuance of state permits to foreign investors and private sector companies.
Egypt last year announced a large-scale state asset sale meant to boost foreign investment.
The initial public offering programme, through which it has pledged to sell at least 32 of its companies to foreign investors, has not yet been completed.
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
PULITZER PRIZE 2020 WINNERS
JOURNALISM
Public Service
Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Investigative Reporting
Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times
Explanatory Reporting
Staff of The Washington Post
Local Reporting
Staff of The Baltimore Sun
National Reporting
T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica
and
Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times
International Reporting
Staff of The New York Times
Feature Writing
Ben Taub of The New Yorker
Commentary
Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times
Criticism
Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times
Editorial Writing
Jeffery Gerritt of the Palestine (Tx.) Herald-Press
Editorial Cartooning
Barry Blitt, contributor, The New Yorker
Breaking News Photography
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Feature Photography
Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press
Audio Reporting
Staff of This American Life with Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News for “The Out Crowd”
LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
"A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson
History
"Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
Biography
"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
General Nonfiction
"The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care" by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
"The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
"The Central Park Five" by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
Special Citation
Ida B. Wells
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela
Edited by Sahm Venter
Published by Liveright
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The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly to Johannesburg or Cape Town daily. Flights cost from about Dh3,325, with a flying time of 8hours and 15 minutes. From there, fly South African Airlines or Air Namibia to Namibia’s Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport, for about Dh850. Flying time is 2 hours.
The stay
Wilderness Little Kulala offers stays from £460 (Dh2,135) per person, per night. It is one of seven Wilderness Safari lodges in Namibia; www.wilderness-safaris.com.
Skeleton Coast Safaris’ four-day adventure involves joining a very small group in a private plane, flying to some of the remotest areas in the world, with each night spent at a different camp. It costs from US$8,335.30 (Dh30,611); www.skeletoncoastsafaris.com
FIGHT INFO
Men’s 60kg Round 1:
Ahmad Shuja Jamal (AFG) beat Krisada Takhiankliang (THA) - points
Hyan Aljmyah (SYR) beat Akram Alyminee (YEM) - retired Round 1
Ibrahim Bilal (UAE) beat Bhanu Pratap Pandit (IND) - TKO Round 1
Men’s 71kg Round 1:
Seyed Kaveh Soleyman (IRI) beat Abedel Rahman (JOR) - RSC round 3.
Amine Al Moatassime (UAE) walk over Ritiz Puri (NEP)
The Lowdown
Kesari
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Produced by: Dharma Productions, Azure Entertainment
Directed by: Anubhav Singh
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Parineeti Chopra
Turkish Ladies
Various artists, Sony Music Turkey
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
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Torque: 230Nm
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Starting price: Dh79,000
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'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
The years Ramadan fell in May
