Egypt: Mortgage finance for housing projects reaches $1.52bln

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Egypt - Sherif El-Sherbiny, Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, chaired Tuesday a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Social Housing and Mortgage Support Fund, during which several files and topics related to the launch and implementation of the presidential initiative “Housing for All Egyptians” were discussed.

During the meeting, Mai Abdel Hamid, CEO of the Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Fund, said that, to date, 17 announcements have been made since 1 June 2014, with 1.6 million citizens applying for units. The mortgage finance granted to beneficiaries has exceeded EGP 74bn, facilitated by 22 banks and 8 companies, with cash support amounting to EGP 9.7bn.

The Minister of Housing explained that since President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi took office, the Egyptian state has placed significant emphasis on providing suitable housing units within fully serviced, modern residential communities for youth and low-income citizens.

The state has launched the world’s largest housing project for low-income citizens, the presidential initiative “Housing for All Egyptians,” across all governorates, both in existing urban areas and new cities. The initiative also includes the construction of units for middle-income citizens.

El-Sherbiny pointed out that one million housing units were completed or under construction as part of the “Housing for All Egyptians” in the low-income segment. This includes 55,500 housing units within the Green Housing Program in New Obour, 10th of Ramadan, Capital Gardens, New Aswan, New October, New Obour, 10th of Ramadan, Badr, and 15 May. In addition, 28,000 housing units have been completed or are under construction in new cities and governorates as part of the presidential initiative Housing for All Egyptians for the middle-income segment.

Abdel Hamid presented the current status of the units being implemented under the presidential initiative Housing for All Egyptians, as well as the financial status and the situation of the applicants for the housing units.

She noted that the average cash granted per customer amounted to EGP 16,600, while the average mortgage financing per customer reached EGP 126,000.

The average down payment made by citizens was EGP 43,000, and the average price of a housing unit was EGP 185,000. The average age of beneficiaries was 41 years, with an average monthly income of EGP 2,552 for individual clients and EGP 2,893 for families. The average response rate to customer calls was 87.5%, with 12.5 million incoming calls since 2015.

She also noted that 76% of beneficiaries were men, while 24% were women. Beneficiaries from the private sector made up 48%, those from freelance professions 22%, the government sector 29%, retirees 1%, and the category of married with dependents 56%. Additionally, 16% were married without dependents, 22% were single, 2% were widowed, and 4% were divorced.