Egypt’s Medinet Nasr Plans Investment to Bolster Taj City Sales

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egyptian real estate developer Medinet Nasr Housing plans to invest about 700 million Egyptian pounds ($40 million) on construction this year as it begins selling the non-residential parts of its Taj City project east of Cairo.

The Cairo-based company expects to start sales in the office district in the fourth quarter and will begin talks with hotels in the second half after finishing plans for the hospitality element of the project, Chief Executive Officer Ahmed El Hitamy said in an interview. It expects to finalize a 2 billion-pound loan deal with banks for project finance within a month.

“Our plan involves a lot of models on how to use the non-residential component, whether through renting, building and operating, selling land or participation in projects in order to serve a wide variety of segments and boost the destination,” El Hitamy said at his office in Cairo.

Medinet Nasr received regulatory approval for a new Taj City master plan in January that allows it to use 700,000 square meters (7.5 million square feet) of the project’s land for commercial, administrative, hospitality and recreational purposes, boosting the company’s revenue. It is expecting as much as 6 billion pounds of contracted sales this year, an increase of about 20 percent from 2017.

The company is also “seriously looking” at acquiring a land plot on the Mediterranean coast this year to build its first second-home project, El Hitamy said. It also plans to offer studio units in the Sarai project east of Cairo.