Egypt - Assem El-Gazzar, the Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, met with Yukio Kanazawa, the owner of Titan Capital and a renowned real estate developer in Japan, and Niwa Kashiroa, the CEO of Titan Capital and the former head of Goldman Sachs Japan, along with their delegation. The meeting aimed to discuss ways of cooperation in the field of real estate development, localisation of modern technologies in Egypt, and presentation of investment opportunities available to the Japanese side in Egypt.

El-Gazzar stated that Egypt is currently witnessing one of the largest development and urban expansion booms throughout its history. He said, “We now have a large number of real estate developers working on developing vast areas of land. Some real estate development projects executed by the private sector exceed an area of 10 million sqm. Moreover, Egyptian contracting companies have extensive experience, equipment, and trained human resources, which enable them to build projects faster than before.”

The Minister of Housing explained the experience of new cities in Egypt, which began in 1979. The New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) is responsible for establishing and developing new cities, which so far number more than 48 new cities, distributed among different generations.

“Since 2014, we have begun to establish and develop 24 new fourth-generation cities, the most prominent of which is the New Administrative Capital. The real estate development opportunities vary from one city to another, according to the character and function of each city. There are some new cities on the Mediterranean coast, known as ‘coastal cities’, which have a dominant entertainment and tourism character, in addition to other activities, including industrial and commercial ones attached to new cities,” El-Gazzar added.

The minister pointed out that due to the increase in the volume of real estate and urban development in Egypt, there is a steady increase in demand for some components that the state has to import from abroad, such as elevators and air conditioning devices. Therefore, the state, represented by the Ministry of Housing, aims to localise the industry of these two components. He said that he supports partnerships in these industries, ensuring that the partner has a market that can accommodate his products, in addition to easy access to the African market, given Egypt’s distinguished location. He also mentioned that Egypt has an annual population increase of 2.5 million people, which requires providing about 850,000 to 1 million housing units annually. This means a growing demand for the real estate market and its related components.

He elaborated that NUCA makes land available to real estate developers in various ways, whether by sale or usufruct system or by real estate development projects in partnership with major developers. The spaces available for real estate development vary from a single building to major residential cities. Egypt also has local manufacturing of various components related to the real estate industry, except for elevators and air conditioning devices. Furthermore, the real estate market in Egypt is characterised by diversity, as it includes a large number of local, regional, and international developers.

The minister concluded: “We are open to all forms of cooperation in development and real estate development. All the new cities that the ministry is developing through NUCA contain all forms of urbanisation industry: trade, services, infrastructure, and other areas of urban development. Moreover, new cities are currently inhabited by about 10% of Egypt’s population, and there is an increasing demand within these new urban communities.”

Yukio Kanazawa, a renowned real estate mogul in Japan and the owner of Titan Capital, has expressed his admiration for the Arab Republic of Egypt’s efforts to build a large number of new smart cities that aim for sustainable development and unprecedented urban growth. He also stated his eagerness to support more of this development through cooperation between the two sides.

He said that his company’s delegation consists of experts from various fields who are looking for investment opportunities in Egypt, especially in the New Administrative Capital. He explained that his company’s areas of work include real estate funds, real estate buying and selling, real estate consulting, management consulting, and bond trading. The company also specializes in renovating commercial facilities and developing hotels. Moreover, one of its subsidiaries collaborates with the Ministry of Military Production to produce devices that generate water from atmospheric air, which have achieved great results in Egypt.

Kanazawa mentioned that he has three main objectives for his current visit to Egypt: to continue working with the Ministry of Military Production on the project of generating water from atmospheric air to provide safe drinking water, to explore investment opportunities in the field of real estate development in Egypt, and to strengthen the bilateral relations between Japan and Egypt.

He concluded by saying that his company and its allies employ specialized experts in various fields to achieve the best outcomes and invited the Egyptian side to work together in the field of real estate development in Egypt for the mutual benefit of both parties.

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