The government needs to publicize its policy of sales of public land, writes Salah Hegab* About 4 years ago, when some buyers of land around Cairo and the Northern Shore were facing financial difficulties and were unable to complete their building projects, the government formed a working group to prepare the terms of reference for a comprehensive study on the economics of the Egyptian real estate sector, covering the real estate market and the workings of the construction and building materials industries. While the terms of reference for the study were completed by 31 July 2004, the study itself was never undertaken. To this day, Egypt still lacks the solid economic and social base study necessary to develop an effective national policy for housing and new communities. It is worth noting that over the last ten years, the government sold land that was not included in the Master Plan for Greater Cairo. While the plan aimed at establishing ten new communities outside the ring road, each within an area not to exceed 2000 feddans, in just one of these, Sheikh Zayed City, over 4000 feddans have been sold. According to the Plan, three other such cities were to be located between the Suez and Sokhna roads east of Cairo with a total area of 5860 feddans. These came to be known as Communities 1,3 and 5 of New Cairo. In 18/10/1995, the Council of Ministers took a decision to stop land sales in the area known as New Cairo and to even return the down payments received whenever possible. The decision also included the formation of a committee composed of some Ministers and provincial governors to study the issue of new urban communities around Cairo in light of : a) the city's inability to absorb more inhabitants and to provide them with the services they need; b) the need to provide land to deal with the severe shortage of low income housing ; c) the illegal encroachment on state landing Cairo and Giza; and d) the need to maximize benefit of the investments already made in the new communities. The Housing Ministry, however, ignored the Council of Ministers' decision and continued to sell land in and around these communities. Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, on 22/4/ 2000 the government announced the resumption of land sales in communities 1,3 and 5 and also announced that it encompassed a total area of 66,900 feddans ( instead of the 5860 feddans in the Greater Cairo plan)! Naturally, it followed that the planned population density of the area, which according to the Plan was to be 120-150 persons/feddan, was reduced to 30 persons per feddan instead. This meant that the type of housing built, would be beyond the financial means of the low income groups suffering from a severe housing shortage. Unfortunately, things didn't stop there. To rid itself of its debts to the Osman Mohamed Osman Company, the government assigned to it 11,000 feddans outside the plan for New Cairo. It also assigned another 8,000 feddans on the Suez Road to another investor. Thus, New Cairo which was planned as an area totaling 5,860 feddans was turned into 66,900+ 11,000+ 8,000 = 85,900 feddans! Of course, the result was the creation of a few expensive communities with low population density and lacking any economic base. Furthermore, as their wealthy inhabitants commuted daily to Cairo this further increased the congestion on its streets. This brief account of the history of land sales around Cairo, shows that over a period of 1000 years, the area of Cairo grew to 80,000 feddans. Then just over the past 10 years, we managed to sell 200,000 feddans! And this was done without the benefit of any urban studies and in contravention to the Master Plan approved by the President of the Republic in May 1983. I think it is high time we stopped this irresponsible behavior. We need to undertake a serious study on which would form the basis for a transparent government policy for the sale of land around Greater Cairo. * The writer is an Architectural Consultant.
