Engineer Randa El-Menshawy, Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, chaired a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Fund to discuss a number of files and topics related to programs for launching and implementing housing units.
These included the announcement of housing units for rent under the presidential initiative “Housing for All Egyptians 9.” The meeting was attended by Dr. Walid Abbas, Deputy Minister of Housing for Urban Communities; Engineer Ahmed Omran, Deputy Minister of Housing for Utilities; ministry officials; Mai Abdel Hamid, CEO of the Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Fund; and members of the Board of Directors, via videoconference.
At the beginning of the meeting, Engineer Randa El-Menshawy stressed that, since President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi took office, the Egyptian state has placed great importance on providing suitable housing for citizens within integrated residential communities offering comprehensive services, particularly for young people and low-income citizens.
She noted that the state launched the presidential “Housing for All Egyptians” initiative as one of the largest housing projects aimed at providing suitable housing units for citizens across Egypt’s governorates and new cities. The minister explained that the initiative has not been limited to providing housing units for low-income citizens.
It has also included the implementation of units under the middle-income housing component, in addition to launching a partnership program with the private sector to implement and provide housing units within the initiative.
This contributes to increasing the supply of housing units and meeting citizens’ needs. She stressed that the ministry will continue its efforts to implement this vision and expand programs and projects aimed at providing suitable housing for different segments of society.
During the meeting, Mai Abdel Hamid reviewed the status of the Fund’s new announcement to offer housing units for rent under the presidential “Housing for All Egyptians 9” initiative. The announcement includes 15,000 housing units, comprising 8,464 units in the governorates, 3,256 units in new cities, and 3,280 units implemented under the presidential “Decent Life” initiative.
The meeting discussed the rules and conditions for benefiting from the units, along with the final preparations for citizens to begin applying under the announcement. A number of the Fund’s performance indicators were also reviewed, most notably the volume of mortgage finance provided to low- and middle-income citizens.
The meeting also reviewed the Fund’s preliminary closing accounts for the previous fiscal year. The meeting also discussed the status of the partnership program with private-sector real estate developers under the presidential “Housing for All Egyptians” initiative.
The program aims to implement approximately 19,000 housing units under the low-income housing component in eight new cities: Hadayek October, 10th of Ramadan; New October; New Sohag; Sadat; New Obour; New Assiut; and Capital Gardens, with a total area of 383.12 feddans.
In this regard, the Minister of Housing stressed the need for continuous follow-up on the implementation of the private-sector partnership program due to its importance in increasing housing unit construction rates and providing suitable housing for citizens, particularly low-income citizens, under the presidential “Housing for All Egyptians” initiative.
She directed that the program be expanded during the coming period and that more land be offered to developers, especially given the strong demand for the current offering from companies and real estate developers.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Engineer Randa El-Menshawy stressed that the Ministry of Housing is continuing to implement the political leadership’s directives to provide suitable housing for citizens and to continue implementing housing units under the various components of the presidential “Housing for All Egyptians” initiative.
This aims to ensure the availability of suitable housing units for different segments of citizens in line with their needs and financial capabilities. The minister also stressed the importance of continuing efforts to develop and diversify housing provision mechanisms and achieve the state’s objectives of providing integrated urban communities with comprehensive services.
She confirmed that the ministry will continue regularly monitoring implementation rates and the status of programs and projects while working to overcome any challenges they may face to ensure that targets are achieved and citizens’ needs are met.