CAIRO: Egypt s Orascom Hotels and Development said on Sunday it would invest around LE 2.8 billion ($491 million) in budget housing projects associated with the government. The firm said it had set up a new budget housing company to develop 50,000 units on 8.4 million square meters of land it bought last month from the state in areas including Sixth of October City near Cairo, Fayoum and close to the Red Sea. We expect an investment cost for the project across the three governorates to be around 2.8 billion Egyptian pounds, said Mamdouh Abdel-Wahab, director of investor relations for Orascom Hotels. Abdel-Wahab said the new company, called Orascom for Budget Housing, had a paid-in capital of LE 60 million and hopes to begin work on the projects this quarter. The government intends to develop more than 500,000 housing units over the next six to seven years, so these projects are part of the National Budget Housing Project, he added. Shares in Orascom Hotels dipped 0.5 percent to LE 41.67 by 0959 GMT. The new budget firm s authorized capital of 600 million pounds would raised by selling units off-plan through Orascom Hotel and Development s mortgage finance company, Tamweel, established in September, 2006. Tamweel would finance up to 70 percent of the price of houses with mortgages of 20 to 25 years, which Abdel-Wahab said should begin to be available for sale by the end of 2007.
