Egypt's real estate sector has quickly adapted itself to the challenges and opportunities arising from the coronavirus pandemic, according to industry stakeholders and government officials speaking at a summit last week.

Waleed Abbas, Assistant Minister for Community Affairs of the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA), pointed out that project implementation rates during 2020 stayed in positive territory despite the pandemic.

He said 110 ministerial decisions were issued year-to-date for real estate projects across different governorates representing a total land area of 47,000 acres.

He added that the housing ministry moved its building permit issuance and ministerial approval services online to ensure that COVID-19 wouldn't impact real estate activity.

Abbas also noted that the Egyptian government has started developing four new smart cities and is preparing the initial groundwork for 24 smart cities across the country.

Tarek Shokry, Chairman of Arabia Holding and Chairman of the Real Estate Development Chamber, Federation of Egyptian Industries, told Zawya Projects that in 2021, the company would focus on delivery starting with 2,000 units of the Sun Capital project.

Amr Soliman, Chairman of Mountain View, said the company is ready with its construction and marketing plans for 2021 with alternatives in place to deal with any pandemic-related issues. He said Egypt's real estate sector is now better positioned to deal with such crises, having learned from the initial setbacks.

Both Soliman and Shokry pointed out that most developers are on track with their construction and delivery schedules. Shokry added that the completion rate for Sun Capital is six months ahead of schedule.

A positive outcome of COVID-19, Tatweer Misr's CEO Ahmed Shalaby noted, was that the pandemic helped accelerate technology adoption in the real estate industry to ensure continuity of business operations.

Before the pandemic, even Egyptian buyers weren't open to carrying out property transactions online, which has changed since, he added.

(Reporting by Eman Hamed; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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