Cityscape Day Two Kicks Off, Informal Housing Problems In Depth

Under the sponsorship of Egypt’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Communities, the second day of the real estate summit ‘Cityscape 2013’ has kicked off on Thursday at interContinental Cairo CityStars hotel, Cairo entitled ‘Informal & Affordable Housing’.

The first session has included a panel discussion about whether the affordable housing would be a lucrative investment and development opportunity in Egypt or not. The participants of the first panel discussion were Khaled Sheta – Vice Chairman and CEO of IGI Real Estate; Omar Elhitamy – Managing Director at Orascom Housing Communities; and Mansoor Ahmed – Director of Development Solutions.

Sheta, Elhitamy and Ahmed have discussed establishing a robust mortgage and home finance market to support housing growth, and assessing various financing models to ensure profitable affordable housing development and also examining opportunities for public sector led and PPP agreements as well as the techniques used by other countries to solve the informal housing problem and create opportunities.