Egypt's real estate developers expected that the local market would recover in 2022, and said that the next year will witness a strong return in demand for property, coinciding with economic recovery from the repercussions of COVID-19. During Real Estate conference "Real Estate Market Transformation: Trends and Opportunities held on Monday organized by American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt (AmCham), Magued Sherif C0-Chair of AmCham and managing director of SODIC said, "Although challenges that Egypt's real estate sector faces, it is expected to record a boom in the coming period especially with the start of real estate companies to meet needs of the market in addition to diversifying their products." Similarly, Hazem Helal, Commercial Director of DMG, said that despite challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Egypt's real estate sector has grown by 8% since the beginning of the year, and hotel occupancies have grown by 46%. Helal added that flight traffic of expatriates to Egypt grew by 150%, and the average offered real estate unit increased by 10%. He further stressed the need to reconsider some of the legislation set by the government for the local real estate sector, to motivate more developers to enter the market, noting that the property sector is one of the most promising sectors during the next decade. Ashraf Ezz El-Din, Managing Director of Al-Futtaim Group Real Estate, said that the real estate market is witnessing many challenges, foremost of which is legislative stability, explaining that the market needs the stability of laws and legislation regulating the real estate companies' businesses in order to stabilize the market. He further noted, "We are working to pump new investments during the coming period and we do not want to be surprised by any future decisions that affect those plans." Hisham Mousa, CEO of Redcon for Offices and Commercial Centers, said that the Covid-19 pandemic did not change much on home designs, especially the conditions imposed by the pandemic for remote work. Mousa added that companies are taking into account that housing units are more flexible and places for ventilation and suitable for long working hours. He called for the necessity of clear real estate legislation and not to make amendments on them to ensure that it attracts the largest number of real estate investors to the market. With regard to the extent of the impact of consumers' increased reliance on e-commerce on, Ezz El-Din said that online shopping in Egypt, despite its recovery during the COVID-19 period, has so far not affected the movement of building malls, pointed out that number of visitors to malls affiliated to Al-Futtaim in Egypt reached 109,000 visitors last Black Friday. Nagui Fahmy, Chairperson of Egyptian Union for Mortgage Finance and Head of Finance Committee and CEO and Managing Director of CI Capital Holding stated that the current mortgage financing model needs to be developed, in order to revitalize the market. He elaborated: "There are a number of financing alternatives that contribute to supporting the mortgage financing system, and provide long-term financing opportunities that promote market revitalization and support the sector's growth. Nehad Adel, President of B2B for Investment and Real Estate Marketing, said that 80% of the real estate market sales during the past two years are achieved through real estate marketers. Adel elaborated that real estate brokers are the main agents who promote some areas in which the government is developing, namely New Administrative Capital, New Alamein and others. He disclosed that the real estate marketing sector needs to be regulated during the coming period, especially since Egyptian Realtors Association, the official regulator of the sector, is affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Trade. For his part, Karim Zein, CEO of Coldwell Banker, said that the real estate development sector contributes about 20% of the GDP, of which real estate marketing companies' share is about 50%.
