Egypt will start offering booking for residential units in the new administrative capital city after the Muslim Eid al-Fitr feast, Minister of Housing Moustafa Madbouli announced Thursday. The first residential district in the new capital city will include around 25,000 units in form of villas and flats, to be offered in various phases, Madbouli added. The city will be built east of Cairo, between the country's capital and the planned Suez Canal hub north west of the Gulf of Suez. It is set to include 1.1 million residential units to house five million inhabitants, as well as an administrative district on 2.3 million sqm of land, with a presidential palace, ministries, government bodies, and embassies, as well as a financial district, according to the plan. The ministerial district will include ministries, government agencies, and the president's office. The Ministry of Housing will commence soon building housing units for the government staff in the new capital city at various sizes and with payment facilitations, Madbouli added. A media campaign has just started to promote the units in the new capital city, the Egyptian minister said, referring to plans to furnish most of the booked units before the end of the current year. Egypt's ambitious plan to construct a new metropolis 45 km (28 miles) east of Cairo was announced in March 2015 at a Sharm al-Sheikh summit held to lure back foreign investors who fled after the 2011 revolt. The project, one of several announced by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to develop the economy and create jobs for a growing population of 91 million.
