El-Sisi to launch low-income housing project in Egypt

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El-Sisi to launch low-income housing project in Egypt

Post by DJKeefy »

Egypt’s military chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will launch a new initiative to build a million housing units for low-income Egyptians, an official spokesman announced on Sunday.

Military spokesman Ahmed Ali said on Sunday that the “For Egypt’s Youth” initiative will be established through cooperation between leading UAE construction company Arabtec and the Egyptian armed forces. The collaboration is planned to continue for five years.

On Sunday, El-Sisi, who is minister of defence, met with managing director of Arabtec Hassan Abdullah Smeik to discuss the details of the project, including where the units will be built, and the time frame of the work.

“This project is the fruit of the wise guidance of [UAE’s crown prince] Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed and his concern for providing support to the current Egyptian leadership for the advancement of Egypt,” said Smeik during the meeting, adding that his company is proud to collaborate with the Egyptian armed forces in establishing “the largest housing project in the Arab region.”

Smeik added that the project will not only provide millions of low-income Egyptians with housing, but will also provide jobs for more than one million people.

The UAE, a staunch opponent of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been a strong supporter of transitional authorities in Egypt. The Gulf state has provided Egypt with almost $7 billion in grants, loans and oil shipments since the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Speaking to the Financial Times in February, Mohammed Kandil, political secretary at the Egyptian embassy in Abu Dhabi, said that the UAE is keen on having its aid used to finance “projects that have specific development or non-profit goals and are directed at poor people.”

El-Sisi, a popular figure with many Egyptians, is widely expected to announce that he will run for president in elections due to take place this spring.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/96253.aspx


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Re: El-Sisi to launch low-income housing project in Egypt

Post by Glyphdoctor »

And in the actual press conference they called it housing for the "middle class"...Hmm
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Re: El-Sisi to launch low-income housing project in Egypt

Post by Chocolate Eclair »

Housing is cheap in Egypt, unless you are European, its just the Europeans do not know this!! For every Villa a European builds the seller of the land builds a Palace or Manor House, speaks for itself really..... Maybe Europeans should do their homework before buying
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Re: El-Sisi to launch low-income housing project in Egypt

Post by Glyphdoctor »

Perhaps that should be housing is cheap for Europeans in Egypt...unless you are European.
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Re: El-Sisi to launch low-income housing project in Egypt

Post by BENNU »

DJKeefy wrote: the project will not only provide millions of low-income Egyptians with housing, but will also provide jobs for more than one million people.
C E wrote: Maybe Europeans should do their homework before buying
Yes, maybe they should.
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Re: El-Sisi to launch low-income housing project in Egypt

Post by Chocolate Eclair »

Was not there low cost housing built at Tiba for locals, and then they decided not to move because it was too far out of Luxor, and the additional transport costs would make it not worth the move.
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Re: El-Sisi to launch low-income housing project in Egypt

Post by Hafiz »

This 'project' was announced a week ago as low cost housing. Its now changed. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=34010

This shift isn't the only oddity about this program because the stats don't add up, the army are involved, the locations have been established by the developer and the army together and the developers experience is thin on the ground. There are subsidies all over the place with most benefiting the UAE builder developer.

The stats. $40b to build I million houses. That works out at $40,000 per house or more than a quarter of a million Egyptian pounds per UAE house. They initially said it was for poorer people so I guess poor people in Egypt aren’t as poor as most think.

Sounds a bit high for poor people but might suit the lower middle class a treat because, given that a project of this size and the economies that go with scale, the prices will be a lot lower than building a similar stand alone one-off house. I'm assuming it will be houses but suspect it will be apartment blocks.

It gets stranger because the UAE building company, which has no experience in projects of this size, is not negotiating with the Government of Egypt but with the Army who will provide 13 sites for the project on land owned by the Army and provided free to the UAE builders. Either the army is very high minded or there is a contra deal and the army's building and construction subsidiary comes to mind as a potential beneficiary of a the project but any such benefits would be obscured by its prodigal generosity.

The previous report was unclear on whether the homes were to be for sale or rent. They are for sale. That’s significant given that the banks don’t loan to many poorer people and generally don't like housing loans. In this case (on the most recent report) funding will come from, in part, advance payments and installments paid by the prospective homeowners. So poorer people will be locked out by prices as well as access to credit.

The government of Egypt says that it will deal with this problem by providing cheap money to 40 banks. I doubt this it because money is never cheap in a country with high inflation. I didn’t know that there were 40 banks in Egypt or that a central bank with reserves of only $US12b could afford it. Maybe its just another counting problem. In any event wouldn’t cheap Egyptian loans be a subsidy to the UAE state owned building company.

On a positive note Reuters reports “By giving a central role in the project to a UAE company, the Arabtec deal appears to ease at least partly a concern of the Gulf donors: that their money could be wasted through corruption or Egypt's inefficient bureaucracy.” That is a bit rich coming from one corrupt country to another but it might mean that the land development Mubarak cronies, who have also been calling for such a project, will be locked out of this one.

According to the report Arab/UAE investment in other areas maybe on the cards – oil, agriculture etc.

How Egypt will provide skilled and semi skilled labor, and how this demand will fuel increases in wage rates, and how the infrastructure will be built will be problems left to another date. What won't be left to a later date will be the speculations on top of the project because once the 13 locations are announced you can bet there will be speculative purchases of adjoining land, but maybe the army knows that.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/ ... LG20140311
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Re: El-Sisi to launch low-income housing project in Egypt

Post by A-Four »

Well to say you can buy an excellent new two bedroomed, European style apartment, within a gated community in Alex, (as per advertised in a Egyptian national newspaper today) for 250,000LE,..........l think says it all, so much for the poor of Egypt. :wi .

P.S. - God damn it, I understand they even have putty as part of the glazing, which would certainly be a novelty in Luxor. :wi .
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Re: El-Sisi to launch low-income housing project in Egypt

Post by Dusak »

If the Government is to hand over the land free of charge then it can be cost affective. I recently cost my new build prior to starting at Egyptian prices. To build each floor with two bedrooms, bathroom kitchen and lounge came out at about 50,000Le above foundation level. So I would think that the Army, that produce good quality work, could do it cheaper. But the project would benefit more by employing local labor. And I can't see qualified trades being in short supply as they literally wake up one day as a builder or whatever.
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Re: El-Sisi to launch low-income housing project in Egypt

Post by Hafiz »

The army seems to be good at house building but no so good at doing their real day time job in Sinai. They have been trying to secure Sinai for years but the situation just gets worse. Maybe they've ceased to be interested in unremunerative, unsuccessful and dangerous security work compared with securing their financial futures.

Dusak, the army might be being charitable or cost effective, but I doubt it. If they can provide land for this housing they can just as easily provide it for the poor: but maybe the margins/profits wouldn't be so fat.
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Re: El-Sisi to launch low-income housing project in Egypt

Post by Hafiz »

Nothing is new in politics and this announcement just recycles a past in one and assumes that people are stupid and the media lazy or frightened. just dust off an old press release and bob's-your-uncle.

The 1 million houses was announced before, in November 2011. Even the period for the house building is the same – 5 years. The ‘donation’ of land by the Army is also the same. Assiout was to get part of this urban social housing via a military ‘donation’ of $333 and 3.876 acres of military land. So 3 years later and 66% into the program things must be looking pretty good for poorer people looking for housing in Assiout. Wonder if anyone is making inquiries on where their house is? Would it be too cynical to suggest that nothing has happened?

Timing is everything and the earlier land/housing announcement was at the same time as protests against the Army just as this new version is connected to the presidential election. Some will remember that the $1 million donation from the Army to the central bank was made at the same time. Who said you can’t buy votes or fool people?

Social housing is a right not something to be dolled out at periods convenient to the army. Does no-one ask about where it came from because it could only come from the state and the taxes which support the state. It cannot be private army money or land. It’s a sick state of affairs where citizens are be grateful for gifts from the army and blind to the fact that they own the gift they are being given.

Here is a laugh. Egypt does have an anti corruption authority. Its called the Administrative Control Authority. Odd name. Its chief executive is always military. http://www.iaaca.org/AntiCorruptionLaws ... s/E/Egypt/

For a full view, as at August 2012, on army business - http://carnegieendowment.org/2012/08/01 ... egypt/d4l2#
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