Egypt has constructed 24 cities housing 32 million people over the past 35 years and is planning to build 14 new towns to bridge a persistent housing supply shortage, the Arab country’s Housing Minister has said.

Asim Al-Jazzar told a housing conference in Cairo on Sunday that Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, has pumped nearly 1.3 trillion Egyptian pounds ($42 billion) into those projects plus an additional 700 billion pounds ($22.5 billion) for urban development.

In his comments, published by Addustour and other Egyptian dailies on Monday, Jazzar said Egypt is still suffering from a housing problem due to a rapid population growth.

“Those 24 cities are proportionately distributed in all areas…we are also planning to embark on new projects to construct 14 new cities,” he said.

Jazzar disclosed that his Ministry has devised a plan to narrow the housing supply shortages with the construction of more units through the country, adding during the 1990s, Egypt has built an average 45,000 houses per year.

“Over the past 9 years, construction gained momentum to involve 1.6 million units, an average of around 167,000 houses a year…the plan calls for the building of 3.7 million houses until 2030,” Jazzar said.

“Unfortunately, we still have a housing shortage but we are working to resolve it through cooperation with the private sector,” he added.

(1 US Dollar = 30.90 Egyptian Pounds)

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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