Egypt cabinet approves new amendment to social housing law

The Egyptian Cabinet recently approved a proposed amendment of Article (15 / b) within the new social housing program and Social funding support.

The article amendment  aims to  form a financial reserve in order to achieve the financial sustainability of the social housing fund and provide the necessary financial liquidity through adding a percentage of the sales of the units and lands either allocated or not allocated the social housing programme owned by the New Urban Communities Authorities.

In 2016, The Egyptian Cabinet recently approved three new terms within the new social housing program, following the approval of the Social Housing Fund Management Council.

The first added term is to offer 6,000 two- and three-bedroom units within the social housing project, as the first phase, up for lease for citizens with monthly income of less than  1,500 Egyptian Pounds. The maximum limit of the rental period of any residential unit is a non-renewable seven-year period, by mutual agreement of involved parties. The same residential unit can be leased for another period only at the rental market value.

As for the second term, the Housing Minister stipulated that the units are available for individuals with  2,500-4,000 Egyptian Pounds net income per month, and families with 3,500-5,000 pounds net income per month. Applicants can benefit from the Central Bank of Egypt’s initiative to get a mortgage loan with an 8% declining interest rate over 20 years, and there is no cash support from the mortgage fund for that category.

The third term of the program stipulates that 20,000 housing units will be delivered for trade unions as a first phase, within one year of receiving the applications. The number of units will depend on the advance payments made, and only offered in the case of availability of remaining units from previous announcements.