Despite the challenging macroeconomic situation in the country, Egypt's real estate sector has been enjoying steady and healthy growth, affirmed Nour ElDeen ElSerougy, CEO and founding partner of HRE Properties, during a session titled “Trends and Predictions in the Real Estate Market," at Cityscape Egypt 2023 in Cairo last week.
“The growth in the market follows a steady pattern. If anything, it attests to its healthy status and resilience, which means that it has been able to maintain its stability and is at lower risk of having a housing bubble,” he explained.
POPULATION GROWTH
Egypt has one of the fastest-growing populations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This prompted the government to work towards accelerating the production of enough new supply to keep up with demand and population growth.
In light of this, ElSerougy said that the “largeness of the addressable market” contributes to the growth of the real estate market in Egypt.
“The rise in population growth is what makes us strive for self-sufficiency; we don't need a demand, and that is a competitive edge that many other markets don’t necessarily have. To put that in context, it is predicted that Egypt's population will be 150 million, so even 10 percent of that figure provides enough demand for developers to start catering to several global markets,” he further explained.
RISE IN FOREIGN INVESTMENT
Population growth aside, ElSerougy also attributed the rise in the real estate sector specifically to the rollout of governmental infrastructure projects as well as the uptick in foreign investment.
Citing property-listing platform Property Finder’s report titled "Residential Real Estate Report Q1 2023," he mentioned that 52 percent of ongoing housing development projects initiated by the government have surpassed the halfway mark, with 12 percent already nearing completion.
Among the noteworthy trends in the existing real estate landscape is the rise in demand from European consumers for properties in areas of the Red Sea and the North Coast, ElSerougy explained, adding that investors from Gulf states are not only now buying existing units but also showing interest in investing in infrastructure projects.
MORE CUSTOMER EDUCATION
Referring to developers as "battlefield heroes”, ElSerougy stressed that Egyptian developers are creating globally competitive products. To increase the sales volume of these products, he suggested that brokers and developers should pay more attention to improving the customer experience across all sales cycles, particularly after the unit is sold.
“I think it is high time to start focusing on educating consumers, with developers playing the role of the lawyers to their consumers, providing them with the much-needed consultation services so that they can make informed decisions when buying a property,” he further explained.
