House prices in the most upmarket suburbs of Cairo are rocketing as the Egyptian capital starts to recover after years of unrest and economic downturn.
Villa prices in the well-heeled suburb of Sixth of October, to the south-west of the metropolis, rose by 9 per cent during the three months to the end of December, driving up villa prices in the area by 22 per cent during last year as a whole, JLL reported.
At the same time, villa prices in the equally upmarket New Cairo suburb, close to Cairo International Airport, rose 4 per cent during the final quarter of last year, pushing up sales prices for the year by 30 per cent.
Apartment prices in Sixth of October also increased slightly, by 2 per cent during the quarter, contributing to a year-on-year increase of 15 per cent.
And apartment prices in New Cairo rose 14 per cent during the year, helped by a fourth-quarter increase of 2 per cent.
Meanwhile, rents in the two districts, the main ones monitored by JLL in the city, also showed strong year-on-year increases.
In New Cairo, JLL said that apartment rents rose 9 per cent over the year, while villa rents were up by 20 per cent.
However, in Sixth of October, although apartment rents rose 31 per cent during the year, villa rents remained flat.
JLL predicted that the city’s prime housing market would strengthen further this year as the comparatively stable political and economic outlook combined with a lack of new stock will push up prices.
The company said that although more than 15,000 homes were completed during the final quarter of the year, this represented only 40 per cent of the total units that had been scheduled for completion as hundreds of properties started by smaller developers remained stalled.
“With confidence returning to the market, developers are now more able to progress with stalled projects, and the high level of delays witnessed in recent years is therefore likely to decline,” said Ayman Sami, the head of JLL’s Egypt office.
Egypt’s property market is attracting UAE developers to the country. This week it emerged that the Emaar chairman, Mohamed Alabbar, is pressing ahead with plans to revive an Abu Dhabi-backed push into North Africa and the Levant through the private property company Eagle Hills.
And Dubai-listed Arabtec is planning to build a million low-cost homes over five years on 13 plots of land owned by the Egyptian armed forces.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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Three-day coronation
Royal purification
The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.
The crown
Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.
The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.
The audience
On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.
The procession
The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.
Meet the people
On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.
How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?
If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.
Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.
Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.
Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).
Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.
Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.
By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.
As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.
Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.
He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”
This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”
Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.
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Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.