World Bank to offer Egypt $500m to support social housing

A young girl looks out of her window in an building inside the famous “City of the Dead ” neighbourhood on December 15, 2016 in Cairo, Egypt. The “City of the Dead” houses more than half a million people living inside the graveyard. [Chris McGrath/Getty Images]

The World Bank has announced new financing for Egypt worth $500 million to support housing projects for low-income families.

The bank said that the fund aims to support efforts to facilitate access to affordable housing units for low-income families, and to enhance the capacity of the social housing fund and support real estate financing in designing policies and coordinating programmes in the social housing sector.

The World Bank quoted Dr Assem el-Gazzar, Egypt’s Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities: “This programme will support ongoing efforts to enhance current housing programmes to benefit Egyptians with limited income.”

“It will increase the sector’s efficiency and ensure that programmes are designed to fit the needs of Egyptians, in addition to promoting private sector participation in the area of social housing,’’ he added.

Mai Abdel Hamid, CEO of the Social Housing and Real Estate Finance Fund, said that this additional financing, which amounts to $500 million, will raise the volume of what the Social Housing Fund and Real Estate Finance has already received, to $1.3 billion to support low-income families.

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