The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) is participating in the "Mortgage Development Partners" conference, taking place on 12 May, as part of the "Partnership for Development" initiative. The conference targets community dialogue involving all professional sectors interested in mortgage activities and benefiting from it. It will discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the mortgage system in Egypt and proposed promoting mechanisms, according to EFSA Head Sherif Sami in a statement. Preparations are currently underway for elections for the first federation of real estate financing, which is expected next June, Sami added. He clarified that the federation will include all parts of the system related to the sector. The conference will be the industry's opportunity for meetings and discussions between mortgage firms, banks, unions and associations representing real estate agents, as well as real estate valuation experts and brokers. The Mortgage Development Fund and the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) will also potentially attend. The coming few days will witness the announcement of executive decisions for the Mortgage Law amendments and the issuance of the first norms for real estate valuation in Egypt, Sami said. The volume of mortgages given to real estate financing firms has increased to EGP 270.4m during the first three months of 2015, compared to EGP 126.5m during the same period in 2014, Sami noted. However, the total mortgage volume given to firms since the beginning of real estate financing to March 2015 has reached EGP 5bn, compared to EGP 4.4bn by the end of March 2014, thereby recording a 16.4% increase, Sami signalled. He demanded the government solve the crisis of real estate registrations, facilitating the procedures through applying the land registry system. It will further analyse the EGP 10bn initiative by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), which the bank previously launched to provide low interest mortgage to low and average-income individuals. The CBE initiative was aimed at stimulating the mortgage sector. The Partnership for Development initiative was launched by Excellent Communications, which specialises in organising conferences and fairs in cooperation with public and private bodies. The initiative targets fortifying the partnership between government and the private sector through direct and efficient dialogues, and a series of conferences and workshops to form a strategic vision for the forms of this partnership to serve the overall development objectives, EFSA said.
