The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has allocated EGP 50bn to finance persons and middle-income people to purchase housing units with mortgage finance in support of the real estate sector and in response to demands of developers. During a meeting held on Wednesday gathering which included the CBE's Governor, Tarek Amer, heads of banks and real estate developers, Tarek Shokry, head of the Real Estate Development Chamber at the Federation of the Egyptian Industries said that the CBE's initiative meets the demands of middle-income people to own a unit with a reasonable payment plan. Shokry pointed out that the CBE did not specify the value of the units to be covered by the initiative and their interest rate is expected to be announced soon. A mini committee was formed including representatives of the CBE, banks operating in the Egyptian market, and real estate developers to discuss mechanism of the rules of facilitating mortgage finance. Shokry stressed that the initiative will boost sales of the middle-income tranche, which represents a large share of the market especially after the increase in units' prices. He added, “The chamber seeks to meet the needs of customers and provide mechanisms for developers to meet these needs through ongoing studies and direct communication with the responsible authorities of the state, which receives great attention from the government.”
