CAIRO - Egypt's Palm Hills Developments said total new reservations soared 86 per cent in the first quarter and contract cancellations continued to fall, signalling a rebound in Egypt's real estate market. Cancellations tumbled 70 per cent to pre-crisis levels of LE186 million ($33 million) and reservations rose to LE773 million, Palm Hills said on Monday. Egypt's real estate sector has fared relatively well compared with other regional markets thanks to resilient local demand for housing and office space and insulation from international credit markets. "Generally, all the real estate players in Egypt are seeing a rebound in sales in 2010," analyst Hisham Halaldeen, at investment bank Naeem, said. "Given the year-on-year comparison is against one of the worst quarters, first-quarter 2010 numbers across the board are expected to look good." Palm Hills had said on Sunday it made a net profit of LE107 million in the first quarter of 2010, up 75 per cent from a year earlier. The company sells homes off-plan, or before they are built, and does not recognise some revenue on products such as apartments and multi-tenant buildings until they are delivered. Many of Egypt's major developers have reported big upswings in home and commercial sales in the first quarter as consumer demand recovers from worries sparked by the financial crisis. Talaat Moustafa Group, Egypt's largest listed developer, said last month it sold LE1.2 billion of real estate units in the quarter, up from 436 million a year earlier. SODIC, a high-end developer, said first-quarter sales jumped to about LE750 million, nearly as much as in all of 2009.
