House prices down 14.38% during 2020

Egypt’s housing market remains depressed, with the nationwide real estate index falling by 14.38% during 2020, far worse than the 2.28% y-o-y decline seen during 2019. Real house prices fell by 0.95% q-o-q during the latest quarter.

Property restrictions lifted, but oversupply pulling house prices 

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi recently removed the last restrictions on foreign ownership of land and property in Egypt, in an effort to buoy the housing market. He also allowed the government, the biggest landowner in Egypt, to use its land for public-private partnership schemes. However house prices are being undermined by the vast amounts of new construction, for instance in the new capital.

Rents, rental yields: excellent yields in Cairo at 9.40% 

Cairo apartments are inexpensive at around $831 per sq. m. 

Egypt: typical city centre apartment buying price, monthly rent (120 sq. m)
	Buying price	Rate per month	Yield
Cairo	$124,650	$977	9.04%

Recent news. Egypt has successfully weathered the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with its real GDP rising by 3.5% in 2020 from a year earlier, according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF). In fact, Egypt is the only nation in the MENA that avoided a negative GDP growth last year. The economy expanded by a healthy 4.8%, on average, in the past five years, as various economic reforms have successfully buoyed business investment and private consumption. 

The Egyptian economy is projected to expand by 2.8% this year and by another 5% in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).