Are you considering selling overseas property fast in Egypt, keeping in mind the current political and economic scenario in the country? To be fair, Egypt has largely recovered from the disruptions brought about by the Arab Spring of 2011, but has that been enough?
Egypt has been hit by a series of disruptions. Terrorism is a major worry in a country where there is a fear of Islamic radicalism taking hold of a significant section of the public. ISIS operates only a few hundred miles from Egyptian borders. This has certainly affected tourism to the country.
Over a million British tourists visit Egypt every year, without exception. But 2016 was different. That year, the number of Britons visiting the country was just 330,000. The sudden decrease in the number of foreign tourists visiting Egypt can be attributed to terror strikes carried out by the Islamic State such as the downing of the Russian passenger plane in 2015, which killed over 244 pass tourists.
That led Britain and a number of other countries to ban flights to Egypt. Popular tourist haunts such as Sharm el-Sheikh have been running empty of tourists this year. Many restaurants, hotels and hospitality businesses have been closed because of the lack of tourists.
This has certainly affected sentiments in Egypt. However, the fact is Egypt is still the most attractive destination for overseas property investment in North Africa. There is a real demand to buy holiday homes in Egypt from wealthy Chinese, Russian and Arab investors.
In fact, the demand from cash rich business executives from emerging nations such as China and Russia has been keeping the property market in Egypt afloat. Egypt is a naturally beautiful country and there is still a lot of fascination for holiday homes in the country, especially at resorts around the Red Sea.
Wealthy Arabs are biggest buyers of properties in Egypt. Rich investors from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain and Kuwait have been buying luxury properties in Egypt since the 1970โs. They continue to buy holiday homes here.
There has also been a slow return of British, French, German and Italian individuals in the Egyptian property market. This is good to see. Egypt seems to be getting back on track despite the serious nature of the problems faced by the country.
So where are people buying properties in Egypt? Where does he demand lie? Mostafa Fotouh, CEO of Misr Al Mahrousa, says in an interview with the Oxford Business Group, โMost of the demand is concentrated in lower & mid-end developments, which typically range between LE300,000 ($40,890) and LE600,000 ($81,780) per unit. However, due to the price of land, which puts strain on profitability, the majority of low-end projects can only be undertaken by the public sector and the private sector can only participate in the mid-range projects.โ
Clearly, selling property quickly in Egypt is certainly possible, provided you connect with the right buyers. Hiring an overseas property specialist can help you with that.