Egypt's leading property firm, Palm Hills Developments has signed Monday an agreement with the state-run Egyptian New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA), for co-developing an integrated residential community in East Cairo. The agreement is on a revenue sharing basis with estimated revenue ranging between 33 billion to 35 billion Egyptian pounds. The project is one of the memorandums of understanding signed during Sharm El-sheikh's March economic summit using Public Private Partnership (PPP) system. The Prime Minister Sherif Ismail attended the signature ceremony along with the Minister of Housing, the Minister of Investments and representatives from Palm Hills. Through this agreement, PHD will be responsible for all financing, construction, development, internal infrastructure, marketing and sales activities, while NUCA will be contributing the land bank alongside all associated external infrastructure to the boundaries of the project. The project is strategically located about 7 km away from Palm Hills Katameya and 15 km away from the American University in Cairo, New Cairo, spreading over 2.1 million square meters- approximately 500 feddans in East Cairo. The project is an integrated community with complete residential complex offering apartment buildings, standalone units complemented with a commercial center, educational and leisure facilities. The project is planned to utilize renewable energy with the aim of creating a green community. The integrated community is expected to house 9,000 - 10,000 residential units representing a built up area of up to 1.8 million sqm. NUCA will be entitled to a revenue share of 42%, divided into an annual cash payment of up to EGP10 billion (including 50 million pounds down payment upon signing this agreement) payable over 13 years to the Egyptian government, and an in-kind payment of a Built Up Area (BUA) of up to 150K sqm (consisting of 132.2K sqm of residential BUA and 17.8K sqm of commercial BUA). The project is expected to be launched soon, with pre-sales and construction activities commencing during 3Q2016. The project's construction cost is estimated at 12 billion pounds. Moreover, the project is expected to house 40,000 Egyptian citizens, create 150,000 job opportunity, supported by international and local expertise, Yasseen Mansour, PHD's Chairman commented.
