Chairperson of the Real Estate Development Chamber Tarek Shoukry revealed that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is negotiating with real estate developers to encourage involving private developers in providing economic governmental housing. On Tuesday, the IMF began negotiation meetings with key real estate developers to discuss the possibility of participating in an economic housing programme with funding of $500m, according to Shoukry. In this regard, Shoukry pointed out that the government has achieved great success in developing middle-income housing, expecting no demand for this category of housing within two or three years. "The government's investment in development projects since mid-2014 reached about EGP 400bn in housing, construction, and urban development projects. The government has put an ambitious development plan within the framework of the 2050 development strategy in the housing and urban development sector aimed at doubling the utilised urban area," he noted. The government has previous experience with the private sector in developing upper middle class and luxury housing through a partnership system. Within that system, the government provides land and the developers pump investments in return for paying the total price of land. In February, Minister of Housing Mostafa Madbouly met the members of the Real Estate Development Chamber at the Federation of the Egyptian Industries to discuss the third offering of lands through partnerships, where he revealed that the new offerings in New Alamein and New Mansoura will be announced soon. Land will also be offered for sale to investors in a number of new cities, according to the minister.
