UAE real estate firm plans to invest $15bn in Egypt over next 2 years

The real estate firm Sky Abu Dhabi Developments is in the final stages of negotiations to invest $15 billion in Egypt over the next two years.

The figure includes more than $4 billion by the end of this year, Reuters reports. One of the projects will be on the North Coast of Egypt and the other in New Cairo.

Sky Developments launched its first project in March in the New Administrative Capital, Egypt’s multi-billion-dollar new capital city that has been under construction since 2015.

The capital is expected to house embassies, government agencies, the parliament, ministries and a presidential compound which Egypt’s military has played a large role in funding.

The price of Sky Development’s housing units in the new capital will start at 1.4 million Egyptian pounds ($90,000), out of reach for the average Egyptian. In Egypt, a third of the population live on 23 Egyptian pounds ($1.5) a day.

Sky Developments wants to cash in on the growth of the real estate sector in Egypt and has bought 96,600 square metres of real estate in the new capital at 5,500 pounds ($350) per square metre, according to Reuters.

The real estate firm has 1,000 housing units and 15,000 square metres of commercial and office space.

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Many believe the money spent on the new capital should have been used to develop poorer parts of the city where houses are in danger of collapsing they are so badly maintained and built without proper structures.

Egypt’s push to develop parts of the country has come under fire from residents who say their homes are being demolished to make way for megacities and luxury accommodation.

Warraq Island in the centre of the Nile River has become the centre of such a debate. Authorities have demolished houses and evicted residents to make way for prime real estate with plans being put forward including a skyscraper and a marina.

In August 2019 Bedouin in Marsa Matrouh on the North Coast staged a sit-in against the confiscation of their land which they said was being sold to the UAE.

Property on the beach is regularly demolished on the grounds that it has been built on state owned land.

In a November 2015 economic conference in Marsa Matrouh the UAE and Saudi Arabia pledged millions of dollars to develop property on the north coast.